Hi Everyone in the Windsurfing or Kitesurfing community!!! Occasionally I have been quietly enjoying the bantering between Kitesurfers and Windsurfers about how many of us are there, who is better, which is easier to learn....etc etc etc. And I thought to myself, do we really know how big of a community we are??
So I have put together a simple survey to help us get some basic answers about ourselves as a community. The link to the survey:
www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=350e290b-6b91-44de-bebd-d93f54770c1b This will take you about 55 seconds to complete maximum, and once I have put it together I will put the results back here for us all to share!
(for those of you who are academics) I don't think this method is complete in getting the entire picture, but I think there is a decent amount of activity on these forums that we could be representative of our windsurfing or kitesurfing community.
Please, please, please.....this survey is NOT a competition across communities. And please only complete the survey ONCE, or the results will be affected. There is no right or wrong, and there is no better or worse in these results, it is only so we know what our community looks like in general.
I will sum up these results in 2 weeks time, or earlier if I feel that there is really only dwindling responses after the early stages. I will also publish these in both the Windsurf and the Kitesurfing community forums so we can share the findings. Thankyou and I look forward to getting your responses!!
Yes...and sorry there are a couple of oversight on my part......the survey would be better to:
1. have age group
2. have a category for you who actually DO BOTH
3. there was no bracket for 0 - 15 knots (and I suppose > 0 knots is probably not reflective of some of you who go out on 10 - 15 knots)
I will try to improve it.....but it will have to be a Poll in maybe 6 months time
Anyway......just an INTERIM update (AS A GROUP, not by Windsurfer/Kitesurfer):
- There are around 87 reports so far at this time
- 94.25% are Boys
- Just about 50/50 Windsurfers and Kitesurfers
- Most of you sail from 15 knots and up
- Flat water vs Waves sailing a bit too early to tell.....but 20% of you USUALLY sail in the Open Sea, with One person who claims to sail in conditions which is "Too extreme to describe"!!
- 72.41% of you will (or can) sail on Weekday or Weekends as long as the conditions are right!!! (I am clearly in the wrong job!!!)
- 64 % of you have never switched from to/from Windsurf or Kitesurf
- 30 out of 34 people who have switched are people who started out as windsurfers (and within this group, 7 have gone back to Windsurfing)
- 83% of people did not see a need to switch from their current sailing type to another in the future, with 14% "Maybe", and 2% "Yes" (this question I need to further examine later, because I need to be able to show how this compares between Windsurfers and Kitesurfers)
- About half of you have seen a shark of some description!!!! Although one of you said that he/she saw one "Wrapped up in Batter"!
- For those who have responded, NSW and WA are equal with 26.4%, followed by Queensland (20%) and Vic (14.9%). There are 3 individuals who sail in the ACT.
I will update again later this weekend ......!!