Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed announced SWS Board Technology as the winner of the Dubai-it Award in the economy category on 17 October. The official announcement says the Dubai-based manufacturer produces about half of the world’s kiteboards and wakeboards and roughly one-third of snowboards, with annual capacity above 450,000 boards and all output exported.

The same announcement reports more than six million boards sold and says the company’s recyclable-board programmes can reuse around 95% of a board’s materials. These are figures attributed to the award announcement; it does not provide an independently audited production series or define the measurement period for cumulative sales.