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I kiteboard, so I can relate to (1), but the problem I see is that there isn't much of a marketplace effect.

eg - If I am in OBX, NC, I don't need a site that has weather data in CA or FL. There may be slight benefits to this, but I can't think of anything big enough that would make it easy to take over a site that is already popular with the locals of a region.

Am I missing some benefits that come from being larger?

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Well, basically, weather models are not region-specific, only the actual computations/forecasts are. So it wouldn't make sense to develop an incredibly complex weather model and then only use it in your local region – it would work anywhere, properly configured.

Example of a weather model I'm talking about – RASP http://www.drjack.info/DRJACK/RASP/index.html – many hang gliding clubs run this model on local weather data, e.g. http://www.canadarasp.com/RASPtable.html. That's the best forecasts we can have. Well, that and http://xcskies.com.

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