elmo said...
I personally think surfers aerials are more impressive than a windsurfer's
A windsurfing aerial is the equivalent of a motorcycle trick jump ie powered up charging out hit the ramp, flicky-spinny-loopy-thing and land or crash, which in itself is impressive in it's own right.
But a surfer is only using the energy of the wave generated whilst on the wave face to get their launch to do their flicky-spinny-loopy-thing a,d then land back on the same wave.
The reason why surfing is covered in the mass media is market interest.
Forgetting the second hand market, anyone can go out and buy a surf board and leg rope for $600-$800 and go out and surf, windsurfers pay more than that just for a singular sail, so straight away there are huge money constraints.
Kids can ride to the beach with their surfboard under their arm or on the back of their bike, try that with a windsurfing set up, hence why it's easier for kids to take up kiting, so you've eliminated that market.
Not everybody appreciates a windy ****ty winters day down the beach.
How much windsurfing apparel and accessories is there out there? 2/5ths of FLICK all, where as surfing 4/5's of surf shops are actually clothing and accessories shops with a lonely surfboard stuck in the window. This clothing and accessories market is FLICKEN huge, this brings in advertising dollars.
How many printed Windsurfing magazines are there now on the shelf? Why aren't there any? Because they are not economically viable, things can be blamed on the interwebby, but the reality is that windsurfing is a small market.
Now why do they put so much, Surfing, Aerial ping pong, rugby, car racing, Kiting and synchronized swimming at the Olympics on and not windsurfing, the simple answer is $'s, the TV stations can sell lots of advertising for all of these.
Don't ever make the mistake TV stations put shows on for our benifit, they only put them on so they can sell advertising, the more popular the show then higher price they can sell the 30sec spot for.
The cold hard reality is that only windsurfers are interested in windsurfing on the tv (provided the winds not blowing) nobody else gives a sh1t
You have hit the nail on the head with your points Elmo,also back in the early days surfing was seen as anti establishment and that was cool to the masses of youth therefore more people wanted to try it,I know when I was a kid, surfing was affordable as all you needed was a board,wettie,legrope and wax,grab your bike and ride to the beach,only the rich kids could afford to windsurf so more of us took up surfing.
I surfed for twenty years and then gave it up as the breaks were getting too crowded and took up windsurfing and wished I had taken it up earlier.
I guess the surfing world just markets itself very well and none of the big windsurfing companies are prepared to spend big on marketing e.g. tv etc. to lure the young ones into our great sport which is a shame.
, (This is not about bagging surfing or Kelly, but about the invisability of windsurfing) 
Oh well doesnt stop us appreciating and enjoying
oh well off to the Butchers forya, and ask for pig's brain might suit your manners
