yep I'm just about at the whatever stage, we have barn saying that its all high wind and a lot of people saying that getting wet is good enough. Truth is that I have been surfing for the past 36 years and I would say that I have earnt the right to have a say. So here it is, this post really needs to stop who gives a **** as long as your having fun. Go and get wet and stop the whinging. Really you sound like a mob of poms. So lets just agree we are all over it. Barn if you only want to sail in macking breezes and tell everyone else they are wrong so be it. If someone else just wants to sail in 5 knots but they are having a good time who the **** are you to tell them they are wrong.
What other sport do we see participants trying to convince others enjoying themselves, that only their level and what they're doing can possibly be fun?
Hard to think of other examples... Not skiing (I ski a little bit and local 'pros' are happy with beginners - you seldom hear anything bar a few jokes).
Not kiting, that I've seen. Not biking - plenty of guys with expensive bikes, and they're not trying to convince the world that only what they do is fun, or else. Not hockey (can you imagine comparing jockstraps like some compare their brand new boards??). Rugby: doesn't apply, never seen. Not running. Tennis: haven't seen, perhaps a few remarks tops.
Seen only at windsurfing, though never by the top guys. What we read from a few here, I've seen often - 'pro' walks out of his way to tell beginners that it's not fun if not 5 boards and 30 knots.
Heck, if I'm happy with people kiting (which is better than watching TV), sure as hell I'm proud of people getting out windsurfing, learning, getting used to the sport, improving, eventually getting good, all that stuff.
Strange phenom...
(Actually one exception: that show 'what not to wear', the missus watches sometimes.
A couple of dingbats laughing at the way other people dress. I suspect she's the alpha-male in that couple...)
For those of you who have forgot what PASSION for your sport is...Have a look at what Mike Vallely as done over the years for the skateboarding community and his motivation behind the series "DRIVE" very inspirational and the lengths people go to just to ride there skateboards..some people dont have perfect conditions they just love the ride......
One thing that might help windsurfing is if people didn't sell a beginner formula gear (another thread on this forum), wtf?
I think that alot of people who try and windsurf find it very difficult and frustrating.Most people who do there first lessons end up with dead arms blisters and a very low sense of accomplishment. Those that have perseverance and time will become windsurfers 4 life!
example...
To be a good windsurfer, you need 3-4 years
to be a good kite surfer takes 5 weeks.
The other main consideration is gear storage and transportation.
The pros and cons are a never ending topic.
Other sports have the same like
bmx vs mountain bike for tricks & dirt-jumping
One big advantage of windsurfing is windsurfers have a good principle understanding of sailing. (Yacht)
Select to expand quote
Yeah, I wanna learn the one-handed rail-ride as well.........
No problem, I can teach you that one.... although it only ever seems to last for about 3 seconds and ends in a swim!!
haha still don't see where I said people were wrong to sail in 5knots.. All those other things I definitely said, and stand by them.. Nothing strictly wrong with interpretive dance either.
It doesn't make sense either, calling something wrong..
what that dude is doing one handed on the wally sure beats what everyone in the background is doing
Does no one find it strange that in the SUP forum the longest thread is a heap of pics of girls in not much on SUP and here we mustered 3 pages, but this thread has taken over completely. Did anyone watch Grumpy Old Men the TV series? I reckon we have Grumpy Old Forum here
This thread has been going since the the internet was forged..
The question was first penned in 1973 when to everyones disbelief a 'complete windsurfer, including wetsuit and zink' was posted for sale on a notice board..
It will never die, it will come back in another form.. Some predictions..
'boards are too expensive, turning people away from the sport'
'Is Kitesurfing becoming less popular (Ergo; windsurfing cool again?)'
'Where is the wind?'
'Alternative sports'
'Help!, Rats ate my wetsuit'
'Help!, Rats ate the foam out of my Bic Veloce'
'Will hollow boards make a comeback?'
'How to replace the foam in a Bic Veloce?'
Once you have see a girl do the splits while doing a rail ride you know what a rail ride is. Revers tilting a board and standing with one foot on the dagger board and the other pulling the rail up is not a rail ride. However the wind in the picture would make it impossible to do a rail ride so his one handed board tip is about as much as one could do in the conditions.
Considering you can still buy a new one design windsurfer is a pretty good effort no other board model comes close to having lasted as long. But then with a black bin bag and a hot day you could make adjustments to its rocker!
Barn
I mentioned my results because at the time I was narked by you insulting me, many of my friends and some of my family with your arrogant claim that anyone who enjoyed light wind dinghy sailing was a weird.
The point was not that I'm some legend, because I am certainly not, but to show that many of us who think that it's wrong to put limits on the sport and say that only planing is "real" windsurfing actually DO know quite a bit about planing windsurfing. There is no great chasm between one type and the other; just as an original Windsurfer in a planing breeze feels different to a modern waveboard, but a rally car on a winding track feels different to a Formula One car on the straight, but they are both still cars.
Just because you don't enjoy something, whether it's scrabble or light winds, does not mean that it's boring. To call it boring IS an insult, just as slagging off someone just because they dare to find other things enjoyable is an insult.
I don't know why you have to slag off people who enjoy things you don't enjoy, but I assume that is why you are so hostile to my basic point which is that the sport may be harming itself by having a narrow focus. The fact that high wind high performance windsurfing is fantastic doesn't mean that other windsurfing isn't great, just like the fact that there are F1 cars doesn't mean that driving other cars isn't fun, just like the fact that the existence of tow-in surfing at Jaws doesn't mean that a clean 4' at North Narra isn't fun.
Don't bother replying because it's not worth reading posts from someone who thinks that he is the sole judge of what a sport ism why its name has to change, and what is boring or not.
Barn asked me to tell you that the above post is boring and no one should participate in the reading of it and if they do they are an idiotLOL
A fact of life is that most people grow up, and suffer the seven year itch. (Or, in the case of windsurfing, the 30 year, been there, done that, itch!)
The enduring thing to me is the longboard. It's what first brought many into windsurfing only to be discarded in the stampede for high octane action, which so rarely happens because the wind doesn't oblige. The long board memories patiently tug away in the back of our jaded minds, and we veterans eventually succumb to their magic once again.
I've never been without a long board for the last 30 years, but was far too focussed on the short board action for too many years. Over the last four years, the longboard enthusiasm has re built, and it now equals the short board in time on the water.There is no other board so versatile, in such a range of 'average' winds and sea states. If it blows up my Kona 1 will happily blast along in the mid 20m.p.h. range, and if the breeze backs off I glide along and GO somewhere. (Cruise.) There is no danger of not being able to get back with a daggerboard, and If cruising, I carry split kayak paddles on deck just in case the breeze dies.
My latest buy is the Mahalo tandem board for carrying minimal camping gear on 2 to 3 day journeys.Those who appreciate the long board 'feel' will see where I'm coming from. Those who have only ever been short board high octane windsurfers will eventually become bored after long enough, and move on to other sports. Seen it happen to far too many others!
I cant believe that this thread is still going on. are we going for a seabreeze record or something?
