It’s now nearly a decade since Anders Bringdal gave up the PWA tour to pursue interests in big wave surfing and high performance racing boats. During this time the Mistral brand has taken its fair share of knocks. From image change to ownership change, the brand has struggled to regain its position at the top of the Windsurfing industry.
In a move that surprised everyone (including to some extent Anders himself!), Mistral now looks to have a bright new future under the watchful eye of the legendary Swede, Anders Bringdal.
This is his first big interview since taking on the brand..
So firstly, what have you been doing since you finished racing?
Well, quite a lot! I quit the World Cup in 2000 for two reasons: I’m a slalom/speed head and love big wave riding. Slalom was disappearing for freestyle and the wave tour was Pozo for jumping and then Sylt which I had done for 15 years already. It became more important to me to be surfing big waves on Maui so I knew my World Cup days were over.
I was actually also nurturing a really screwed up back, so I took two years off windsurfing - didn’t touch a board. I began racing on Maxi 4 boats in the Med, on a 100 footer. I did the Rolex Cup through St.Tropez, Porto Fino etc and that was very cool. I then got back into windsurfing and launched ab+ boards from a Chinese plant.
I got more into the business side of things. I did a joint venture company in Hong Kong. Then I was project managing a boat yard (for McConaghy International) where we built the Chinese America Cup boat and the Irish entry into the Volvo Ocean Race (Green Dragon).
It was stressful - I was 110 kilos, working long shifts and at my computer all the time. When you have $500,000 worth of pre-preg carbon cooking, you have got to make sure you don’t make a mistake! The glamour of boating doesn’t always show this side to it. In a way, I am lucky that it ended as I could have ended up stayed on for another 10-15 years living in China, but I got out of it and returned to Maui. I found myself sailing in crappy, gusty conditions on my 5.7m at Ho’okipa and loving it! It was good to come back to windsurfing.
I still race big boats and now crew a 60ft long, 80ft wide boat called the Hydropter. Just before Christmas we flipped it doing 56.34 knots! The boat is about 10 mins from where I live in Marseille and we now have a WFRC holding period starting 11 July to 20th August so we shall see.
What exactly is your new role in Mistral?
As of the 1st July, I hold the license for windsurfing. The clothing company has been bought by Van Merksteijn Fashion BV and they are really going to push the brand. Watch out for Mistral shoes, watches...etc. This will be quite good for me as it will help to promote the windsurfing brand. My goal is to work closely with the other ‘named brands’ within the group, like Club Mistral.
What made you decide to take the reigns of Mistral?
First of all, I was more surprised than anyone else to get this call - Mistral is not a small brand. But it had to stop this free fall in image over the last 2 to 3 years. In my opinion, it’s been struggling since the departure of Robby (Naish).
The brand has plenty of history but nobody was grabbing it and pushing it forward. Nik Baker has done a fantastic job but he wasn’t given the full reign to really push the brand. Whereas the setup now is that I’m the guy - the buck stops here, blame me, here’s my email!
What do you hope will set Mistral apart from the other brands?
I’m not trying to re-create the wheel and it’s really too early to say but I think the biggest difference will be my mission to empower the importers when other brands are going the other way and dropping them. I hope my importers will use this opportunity to beef up their relationships with shops and local riders. I hope the range makes it easier to sell as well - a freestyle board for freestyle, a freeride board for blasting - not many crossovers in the line, just keep it simple.
Nik and Mark Nelson have gone and you have arrived. Are we going to see a big change at Mistral?
We are just trying to re-start a really kick ass brand again. I think Mistral has the potential to do great in the future and it’s my job to create ‘product’ and let's face it that’s what I’ve been doing since I started the World Cup in ’86.
We did try to keep Mark Nelson on board but it was a little complicated especially with him in Maui and us in Europe. So we’re starting from scratch, doing the whole line with Gianni Valdambrini who used to do the RRD shapes and also works with Cesare Cantagalli of C2 Sailboards. It takes me just 5 hours in the car to get there (Anders lives in Marseille, France) which is much better than flying to Maui.
Can you describe the new range of boards?
Well the whole line will be very targeted, so if you come into a shop and say, I want to ride waves or I want to go blasting there will be just the one board out of the range for you instead of having too many choices.
We have an awesome Twin Fin coming out to target wave riding - anybody who is a good windsurfer will use this board. Then we have a single fin for those who like some push off the board. These will be faster than the current Mistral single fin in production now. I’m not trying to revolutionize, I’m just trying to split the boards into what I believe people mostly do with them.
Onto the freeride line, there will be ONE line that adapts as you move up the sizes. It will start with an 85 litre freestyle/wave board, then a 95 litre. The 104 and 117 will be Syncro style boards and then up to 132 and 147 litres will be pure freeride, mostly no cam sailing, plane early, gybe great etc...
The slalom and speed range will be rolling over from my ab+ boards range but with updated construction.
There will be two freestyle boards into production (99/108 litre ish) developed on Lake Garda. I won’t be busting out any freestyle tricks but I have a good team of riders and I believe this is a really good product to have. Kids learning to windsurf, get that cracked, want to move on, jump around - this is perfect for them.
Finally there will be three stand up boards, a 12ft go-fast paddle board, a12ft windsurf/paddle/surf/whatever board and a 11.3ft thruster more orientated to surfing.
That’s a line of 21 boards!
When will the new range be released?
The production samples of the wave boards should arrive late Sept/early Oct 09 with the full range on the market Oct/Nov 2009.
You have chosen to use the Kinetic factory (in Vietnam) over Cobra, what benefit will this have to the boards?
Kinetic have a different technique of building boards making them a little stiffer using different epoxys.
In terms of weight, it just comes down to how strong you want a board to be. Windsurf boards are expensive products and to have value for money they need to last. As a customer, do you want a board that’s buckled after a year’s sailing or one that’s 10 grams heavier and lasts?
Also anything we do at the Kinetic factory won’t end up on other brands boards three months later!
Is there going to be a choice of construction in any of the lines?
Maybe in the slalom boards we will have a ‘screamer type’ line with the foot straps more inwards, a cheaper construction etc but for the other ranges just one construction. I can’t see a lot of point in doing different constructions, you have to make one good board - that’s it.
Do you know yet what the pricing will be like compared to the other brands?
The pricing is already set by the market. Generally, we will be around the same price as a Starboard, cheaper than JP, more expensive than a Fanatic.
We have heard that you might be following a scheme where models are replaced when a replacement is required rather than every year. Is this true?
I’ll keep every board in production for at least two years. Switching boards every year is crazy. You just don’t have the time to get proper feedback. What with factory lead times the month to ship...by the time it hits the market and you allow at least two months to get feedback from customers it’s just not enough time. The two year cycle allows you to get a full year for clients to say, I like this, don’t like this...you can then go and make a better board. The problem is if importers say ‘well we’ve seen a huge drop off in sales as other brands are launching new products and we’re not’, then of course I have to respond to that, but if I can keep boards in production for two years and change a different line every other year or change a few sizes within the line then great.
What was the influence behind the new graphics and will the other boards in the range have the same clean style?
Well, Ernstfried Prade is doing all the graphics and he was actually one of the three original owners of Mistral and the guy who created the original Mistral ‘M’ logo.
The graphics will change across the lines but you will recognize that it is a mistral board - part of that range. This is better for shops. Once you change the graphics year on year they get the same problem as changing board shapes every year.
What they will actually look like is a tricky question at this stage but I can say that the slalom range (which is mainly purchased by over 30s like myself!) will look different than the, for example, Twin Fin board which targets a younger crew. But I will still keep them as simple as possible.
You come from a longboarding background originally, what are your thoughts on the resurgence of Raceboards and longboarding? Will Mistral pursue this?
After Christmas yes. I would say longboards have been overlooked in the past 10 years. But we shouldn’t be targeting ‘current windsurfers’. Most windsurfers have been doing the sport for 5-20 years. If it’s less than 15 knots, they’re working! If we want to grow the sport of windsurfing, then the longboard needs to be something fun that you do in 3-5 knots of wind whilst suntanning at the beach.
Long distance sailing on longboards is still popular between the many islands in Scandinavian. Japan and other parts of Asia have had great success with the IMCO. The rig may not be great but the board is awesome. And there was a lot of intrigue about the Mistral Equipe that Nik was working on - these longboarders are keen!
Now we have these hybrid boards on the market coming from the background of slalom boards and then sticking a daggerboard into it. It’s not high level performance they need, they just have to work in the greatest range of wind.
Will you have any pro riders on the PWA tour?
Down the road for sure but I need to start building from the bottom up sponsoring ‘local heros’ from shops, then national riders. You sponsor a World Cup rider so he can prove your product on the ‘World scene’, help with R&D but you also need riders to meet importers in between events, really work the brand and not many of them do that. It costs a lot for the riders to do the Tour. What this is worth versus supporting more on a local level in each different country - I don’t know the answer right now.
Will you compete again?
I’ve been sailing in local events in France with Antoine (Albeau) and you never know I may have to dust off and go and play with the boys. I can still swing a bat (so to speak) and I would still love to do say Pozo slalom but to become a full time rider? I don’t really have the time or want to go down that road but I’m having a lot of fun, that’s for sure.
Mistral will be imported into the UK by Farrel O’Shea at O’Shea International.
Mistral will be imported into the UK by Farrel O’Shea at O’Shea International.
Contact: info@osheasurf.com
Tel: 01758 713465
