that boards and kites must be: - production (ie. they make a certain number of them and they are for sale to the general public) - fit within certain size dimensions (for boards it is no more than 190cm x 70cm).
this is as opposed to "one-design", whereby we would all have to ride the exact same gear. This would be bad since whichever company won the one-design bid would start producing junk gear just to keep costs down and profits up. Therefore we end up racing on out-of-date equipment, with crappy construction, and huge variation in tolerances (so you need to spend more money and buy a few of each piece just to find one that's fast). The idea is good, but in reality, but the above has been the case with almost all other one-design equipment in boardsailing/sailing.
This is a good thing. Although there is the potential for some particular brands/models to be not available to joe blow racer it also means that we will be able to race on quality gear that continues to evolve.