One should keep in mind that these results are from a survey they conducted so it may be a better representation to say that these are the results for people who are familiar with their website. I see them rarely mentioned anymore on places like either the French or Aussie forums. They have been a pretty big source of information for the US because of our spread out nature and lack of local shops who act like local centers of knowledge. An easy tell on this is that neither Japan, Italy nor Poland even register on the stats and I'd wager that all three combined probably come close to the US total of foilers.

Still there are interesting things to see and I think the market has changed even since last summer when the survey was taken. For example, the IQFoil has probably switched a number of racers from NP/F4 and other race oriented designs to Starboard; and Moses/SAB have become more prominent. Also, so many of these brands aren't from the traditional names we associate with windsurfing gear. Smaller, innovative brands have pushed the big brands to get better much faster. A good example is Fanatic whose first foil offerings were, in retrospect, pretty mediocre but have become much better in the last year. Slingshot and Moses have pushed NP's Glide series which was probably just an afterthought to become the core of their recreational offering.

The downside of such a diverse industry is a lack of standards below water level. Very few components interchange once you get below the foil box or tracks. There is a small cottage industry elsewhere for clone Starboard race components and a Gorge maker of carbon masts but, generally, it's like the early days of most things with a multitude of proprietary standards.