Waiting4wind said..

terminal said..

That looks dangerous! A brick wall to smack your head into and a mast base to impale yourself on when you fall. Ouch!

But he has the yellow dangles to grab onto. Don't you have yellow dangles when you're sailing?

Fair enough he does portray it as an extreme sport with bottles of water and buckets swinging everywhere, but the music is soothing.

A big potential market for windsurfing growth are former windsurfers. Often threads come up here from people getting back into it. Promote fun and ease of use just like the article did. These people were once in their 20s. Now they are in their 40s and 50s. Sometimes they have the cash and time too.

Also speed is a great way to promote windsurfing. Recently I posted a utube video of fast windsurfing. It had a great reaction from non windsurfing friends. Speed is something most people can relate to. Plus the first time you are planing at 20 knots you feel like you are doing 100 kms an hour.

For women who think they're too busy...

Col' is on to something.

Slalom sailing probably appears accessable or attainable to an outsider.

Also, a slalom sail is a thing of awe in function and appearance. Surely attractive to sailors who tried windsurfing back in day.

I was a refugee from the 'sport' of Sailing.

Yacht clubs would be full of slow learners who (parents) found the sport during '87 Americas Cup and are only now figuring its a lame waste of time. You know, 'be there at 11am to scrub my bottom' (kiter appeal), 'be sure to wear white' (cricket and tennis figured the inhumanity of that), 'hats off in the bar', picture of her maj' overlooking the bar (offensive to Fennians), fixed racecourses that vaguely relate to wind direction creating a two hour game of 'follow my leader', lame technology that is either ancient or stupidly expensive, a culture of tossers and substance abuse, look at me, look at me... I'm only just warming up.

Forget targeting kiters. Kiting has its own momentum at the mo and will run its course, for the benefit of windsurfing.

Greatest opportunity exists in targeting the weakest alternative.

The last innovation in sailing (since squid rings to accompany after race beers), were 49ers. Suffering now from the Olympic curse and going no where.

Compare a slalom sail to a skiff/49er/tornado rig. A triumph of form and function.

Windsurfing V yachting. What seals the deal for me is flexibility, work life balance, whatever you want call it. Sailing is like a sentence, be there .....for eight hours, regardless of conditions or workload. Big commitment, big dollars, big disappointment.

It was really good to see some guys take on the three of a kind regatta (cock of the swan?) last summer.

Three of a Kind, Cock of The Swan, HMAS Perth Memorial Regatta are all clockwork opportunities to showcase what's on offer.

I think a lot of what would attract people to windsurfing is in this.

Oui Oui!!! Check out those asymmetric boards!

Maybe it's no wonder fewer people are windsurfing, because sometimes we come across as well and truly up ourselves.

Sorry to be so rude, but look at this thread. So far it's been said that people don't windsurf because they are scared of the commitment it requires, then boat sailors have been accused of being stupid because their sport needs too much commitment....hey, let's insult people from BOTH sides!

We've slagged off kids, SUPpers, kiters, in-line skaters, boogie boarders and boat sailors. And then we wonder why they are not interested in joining a bunch of people who sling shyte them....

Perhaps if we could actually respect other people who do other sports (and, horror of horrors, actually respect those who do other types of windsurfing) then we could actually learn how to appeal to them?

To take a couple of examples - even if kids are more into instant gratification these days (I've got four and I don't think any of them take quick-and-easy alternatives) then maybe it's because they are given more homework, spend more time at school, more time in structured sport and music lessons etc and therefore simply haven't got time to spend developing skills?

It may make us feel good to slag off kids, but is it fair to them and is it going to help grow windsurfing? By the way, earlier generations watched a lot of TV which is probably more "instant gratification" than gaming.

And surely the fact that there are new sports has to have had an effect. Why can't people try more sports? If they do try more sports obviously they have less time for each one - but is that a bad thing?

Maybe windsurfing marketing could be enormously improved by just doing one thing - respecting those who we are trying to sell the sport to, whether they want to sail Jaws, do flakas, GPS sailing or drifting around a lake.


PS - Issa you seem to be assuming that all sailing clubs are like a few Swan River ones. Lots of them are very down to earth. And in many places you burn less time going boat sailing than shortboarding.

Dunno why a slalom sail is better than a 49er or Tornado sail. The slalom sail has a MUCH smaller range of efficient angles and wind strengths; it won't last long on a boat where it has to contact rigging; and it sits on a mast that you can't adjust for your weight, sailing conditions, style etc like you can with a Tornado or 49er. And, unlike a Tornado sail, it's not custom built to exactly how you want it to be.

It's a minor point in a way, but it's just another example of windsurfing slagging off another sport instead of respecting it, and surely that turns people off.

Mark _australia said..
^^^ I agree with both of you guys above - I think we need to do both.

We need to promote the radical, yes maybe it killed things before but people going for a new watersport are going for kiting due to th 'old' image windsurfing still has. Just look at te p!sstakes here. It is amazing how many people still think it is dacron sails and 10kn and those pics still prevail in the media like we saw in the other thread. Appealing to the be proud of yourself do something harder and more physical?

Then for the returning people, they need to know it is easier and te gear is so much better than before. I looked at gear some kiters mates had that was in use by them only 5yrs ago and the gear is about 10 - 15 yrs old. I forgot just how bad it was... it does not have to be waaayy back in the 90's to be hard to use. A lot of those guys left cos they had half a season not planing and they saw kiters buzzing around easily- but that was when using needlenose wave boards 10L less than their weight etc. (To be hardcore u had to use the smallest board). If you got them on a newschool board 10-15L above their weight they'd realise they can plane up just as easy as kiter in 15-18kn.

It took me 20yrs to figure out board for the lulls and sail size for the gusts, enjoying it more than ever. Lots of guys left just cos kiting looked like more time on water and it ain't

Seems two main markets... 1. returning people (and existing sailing types), who could easily take up freeride and also move to get into slalom and speed, bump and jump, or just stay freeride - its all fun; and other market is 2. young ones..... who could be enticed with wave sailing and freestyle.

What drew me to the sport was watching wave sailers doing big airs at my local break..... 20 years on when I took it up, that was what I had in mind to learn. It was the more radical stuff....

Interesting that you never see any windsurfing or kite surfing stuff in sports mags.... I just think that the manufacturers have plenty of scope to increase their market..... I think its important, not just because I'm frustrated from the lack of windsurfing lately, but for the future of the sport.... doesn't need to be super popular... but they could make it reasonably popular.....

I think we have moved past marketing anything with just images The internet has to be windsurfings best friend. No longer is the sport defined by a few stock images that you might find on birthday cards or text books. This is a medium with a million images and millions of words updating everyday. Interact, log on, global, local, whatever, it's all there being directed by the participants. Sure there is a fair bit of anarchy and the medium seems to breed a little more panic and madness that traditional forms of communication but its just so vibrant. So put on your rose coloured glasses and log in.

Sorry low concentration span cant read previous stuff, apologies in advance if already sed, so here my 2c.

Until Wsurfing gets Middle age is cool, cashed up, and forgets the youth/young obsession (youth and young grow to be cashed up middleagers!!, The Middleage is a massive market, but in some imbeciles head, just not cool sumhow! Middleage is best time of life, ya either get this, or ya dont, enuff from me, dont wanna get sucked into windsurf admin or promo again

I'm loving the discussion but I'm really keen to see images that capture what you think is the essence of windsurfing.

What images would you choose to market windsurfing to grow the sport?

Yeah I've searched a bit and couldn't find it again either. There's one along the same line on the Goya website but its no where near as good as the one I thinking of. Maybe you'll have to organize a re-enactment at one of the grommet days next summer, I'm sure there'd be plenty of volunteers.

kiteboy dave said..

?w=500&h=375

























/Sorry, I never come troll in your area but that was just too funny. Had to be done

The second shot is a classic!

lotofwind said..

This topic comes up every few months on here and everyone says what needs to be done to make windsurfing popular again.
But no one does anything about it except for telling everyone else what needs to be done??

If you want to polish a turd, someone has to get their hands dirty.

Time to man-up turd polishers and put words into action before windsurfing is only seen on old VHS videos that no one has a machine to watch. The local breaks around here its already all but extinct.

Not extinct

Just dormant

Muzza12 said..

For women who think they're too busy...

waveslave said..



If only you could duck dive a poleboard under a wave. ^^^

What a great marketing image that would make.

[It's odd that she's not wearing a leggie.]

And this is why women don't take up windsurfing, because it always comes down to the crap images of women....I rest my case!!!
Get into the real world guys!!