KenHo said...
Well, I went to Canada for 2 weeks and came back cannilingual.
Musta been cos I was on one of those wankers ski-ing holidays.
Call myself a skier ?? Hmmffff !! Get off my lawn !!
I prefer the term "board-sailing" for the slow stuff. I don't think you can say "windsurfing" unless there is a chance of a wave, or a least a chop-hop.
Let's face it. BArn is right. It's a pig of a sport to learn, and is total pants compared to the endless other options on offer.
Chris is right too, when he says simple is more appealing to he LCD. It's bleeding obvious when he points it out. He's still wrong about it more gear oriented than other sports though.
Is not the correct number of bicyles to own "n+1" where "n" is the number currently owned ??
Can't agree about the sport not being "windsurfing" unless there's waves; it's not what the term was meant by those who created the word and sport, and it also means that the world slalom and Formula champs aren't "windsurfing" if the water is flat, nor are speed attempts in the Trench or at Sandy. Nor would spocks or flakas be "windsurfing" in flat water.
Secondly, I can't recall any other sport where people say that the original style of doing that sport has to be called by a new name. Lots of sports develop, but the original style is still called by the same name.
It's not a pig of a sport to learn unless we define what the sport is in a way that "learning to windsurf" means learning how to do the harder things like carve gybes or sailing in waves, and then you could say the same about any sport.
As I mentioned earlier, I may not have been clear enough about the bike analogy. While some cyclists can be snobby, very few of them try to limit the sport like some windsurfers do. I've never met any rider who said that "low performance" or old-style cycling (i.e. riding a '70s Malvern Star to the shops) isn't bike riding, or that downhill MTBing is cycling but track isn't.
And the main point was that almost every bike is designed to be so versatile that it can be used almost every day. You can ride a time trial bike with Zipps to work any day if you want to, and my mother-in-law could almost certainly get around the block on Cadel's TT bike. That's a far cry from some limited visiions of windsurfing, where it's said that the only real windsurfing involves gear most people couldn't use or that can't be used on many days.
Anyway, since saying "this is a great and versatile sport with lots of wonderful ways to have fun" apparently annoys many people, I'm outa here.
