Windsurfing growth

[Floyd]

Good post P18 (and Bill)
It has been (is) a very interesting thread.
Just to clear 2 things up
I never said anybody wasn`t a "Windsurfer" (or sailboarder)Think we are all both.
Just think "sailboarding or lightwindsailing or Div2 or Div1 or Displacment sailing" (whatever you want to call it.) should have maintained its own idenity. (ie to try and foster some security in purchasing race oriented (All wind) kit.Everybody (mags;manufacturers forgot about highly efficient low wind diplacment kit.Serenity is #B first forray into efficent non-planing hulls.(After 20years???)
Secondly
You are correct re- upthrust exceeding weight.(Its when control problems occur;and why thin tails /cut outs aid high speed control) Should have said equal.(ie board fully planing when upthrust equals weight)
Above certain speeds buoyancy (on flat water) has very little effect.(apart from negative ones) Modern Wakeboards are bouyancy neutral.(ie no bouyancy;no float;they weigh same as water but the still plane fine). A neutal buoyancy (sail ???)board would work above 3mph ????(in sufficient wind)


Have a look at older thread about planing theory. (momentum exchange)

Putting it simply most "models" of planing are under attack/review.Many (Scientists/Engineers) arguing simple momentum exchange but its OT.

If this is a discussion about wsurfing growth why aren't we talking about places like india, srilanka, china, dubai, these are surely the potential of growth for the future of ws. I think only small to moderate growth could be expected in the western world.

CAESAR FINIES is arriving tomorrow to Peru for the first light wind international freestyle camp here. We expect to have a lots of fun and lots of people its just getting freak to expect some of those maneouvers.

Some people also is exceptical...but I saw some of them then alone trying the light wind maneouvers.... its about time.

I also doubted about SUP 1 year ago...now I am 200% sure of its potential and second windsurfing value boards...yes, they are good to teach your family, kids, girlfriend or just go freestyling again.


I stick that we must look to light wind surfirfing (fun, freestyle, racing, paddling) , and in all the world including China and far countries. Hi wind surfing comes a bit later....why not to evolution to something fun?

Ricardo

[mmoritz]

Back to the top.

If we want to grow the sport (of sailing, of windsurfing, whatever) ....

Are they having fun or what? I remember my days with friends and lasers, then at my 15th birthday my dad gave me a ... surprise... Windglider board and rig. I cursed all day, I had never seen one, I didn't know even how to attach the boom (no clamp-on these days) or steer that thing, called some boys at the lake they showed me how and I spend 3 days falling from it but it was love for a lifetime, then first runs, and then fun with the new friends and converted old ones, just like the end of this video (around 2:30 min), that was what we used to do for fun ... and sometimes the regattas. It was fun, it is fun, it will always be fun. All we have to do is bring the kids together and have lots of fun. Of course, low cost, light wind fast boards with dagger, etc... humm, these little boats tells us something ? (one last thing at 3:05 one boy does a "windsurfing" tack)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l6wIzg3SKI

[pierrec45]

You're right, they're having fun, they're one-design. No gimmick, no Tupperware party. This is the nearest thing I've seen to the original days, which most sailors have never known. They do "freestyle", move about, try things, fall, etc.

That's the only way. People who bore with the sport are those not doing that, going right and left for 1km reaches, and buying fancy equipment too to do that.

[mitchiedog]

its my opinion that windsurfing is great, but WAY too expensive to get mass appeal among all the sports etc that people now have open to them. I always say to my friends who don't sail that "windsurfing is more like yachting than surfing, in every respect". I think the manufacturers spend way too much effort on design rather than production. If they poured more effort into researching cheaper materials, (yes goodbye carbon/kevlar) and lowering the cost of producing them, instead of putting all their time and energy into tweaking rocker lines, vees and concaves, then maybe young people could afford to get involved. The current R&D does nothing except for the experienced and advanced enough to notice these differences.

None of the carribean freestyle hotshot kids went out and bought $3000 worth of windsurfing gear. In interviews they all say they were given unwanted gear by wealthy tourists until they got sponsored.

Bring on the US$500 beginner board & rig and sell it in outdoor sports stores or walmarts around the world. Then maybe those curious enough, could afford just to try it.

You can buy a good mountain bike, or a surfboard, or a snowboard and resort pass, for $500, but nowadays that might buy one of my sails.

[pierrec45]

> its my opinion that windsurfing is WAY too expensive

This is a choice, not a fact. I see guys out there who need to renew the gear and ever buy more equipment. And I see others that don't. Frankly the former bitches about prices and often seems to have less fun on the beach. Esp. that now with kitesurfing there is more cheap recent gear than ever.

I use older gear, I seldom buy new, and I hang on to it quite a few years. Sure there are Tupperware sailors out there, but personally I need a constant feel for my freestyle and sailing the waves. That's me.

But you're right that many feel the pressure to do like the Jones' - their problem.

[Hardie]

One thing we did in australia was to use the internet, the advent of gps technology, and the idea of windsurfing in teams, listening to what people wanted, and we generated quite a bit of interest with our www.gpsteamchallenge.com.au We have 203 registered users,26 teams australia wide, and the biggest new growth has been not "new entrants" to the sport, but particularly guys (Returnee's) that hadn't sailed for up to 10 years that returned to be part of the teams challenge. (about 15 guys returned after years of absence) So I think teams is an issue that uses the social element that humans enjoy, I'm sure teams is not purely an Australian phenomenom.

Check the website and contact us if you want to join an international teams challenge which is the next step?

Hey Hardie I thought you'd canned the international idea.

I feel at times there is some type of inverted snobbery with certain people who feel it is in some way wrong to buy new kit.

It’s a bit like only the foolish or rather naive people buy new gear while those who hold onto their gear for years or buy second hand are cool and sophisticated.

Each to their own.

Boards are lighter, stronger, stiffer and faster than ever before.

Not to mention more fun.

If the customer wanted them cheaper with the associated loss in performance then the manufactures would provide them.