There are over a 150 ( I stopped counting ) sailing classes in the world ranging from racing dingies multihulls, trailer sailers and keeled yachts windsurfing is one of them . And interestingly enough you can break windsurfing down to another 4 disiplins with RSX being one .
The ISAF gets to choose 8 classes to represent the sport of sailing not only as a representation of skill but what the sport has to offer . Its not the windsurfers right to be there at all ,its due to good fortune and as Chris 249 said being organised .
Every sailing class I have been apart of had me a member of a sailing club and a member of the class association. Windsurfing very doubtful any of us are mebers of anything .
This will have no effect on me or any of the sailers who I sail with. Sailing is still in the OLympics and if your good enough to get in the Australian sailing team then lets face it if you try hard enough you are probably able to win in any class you enter .
Dam71 Wouldnt argue about the Mistral being a nice board I found and old one last year and bought it and really enjoyed sailing it. Ended up selling it it favour of the RSX because that is/was the board being raced in brisbane. Had it been raceboards or formulas then i would have got whatever was being raced. After having the rsx i have grown fond of it and looking at a value for money scenario I have got more use out of it in the last year then probably all the short boards i have over the total time i have had them. I hope racing still continues as i really enjoy it but mostly because my young lad has only just started techno and i would hate to see that fall over. Happy to support windsurf clubs and i am in fact a member of bayside sailboards but they dont offer course racing only slalom. RQYS runs racing every weekend over the summer season it makes sense for me because thats what i wanted to do. I love riding short boards and will do some slalom racing but i love the fact that i know racing at rq will be on every weekend regardless of conditions. Still think windsurfing should be more involved with sailing clubs mainly to cultivate youth into the sport but i wont go into all that again. Perhaps the exclusion of windsurfing from the Olympics will help to unite windsurfing across all disciplines. Anyway keep getting people to sign the petition and show support for all the sailors who just had their dreams taken away.
Nearly 15,000 votes on the petition. Good work but now it's time to get your social networks to work and get your friends to vote. The more votes we have the better chance of having the decision overturned.
The Kites VS Windsurfers issue isn't something I think we need to concern ourselves with. New sports should be allowed into the Olympics and I hope they excell but to dump a long standing sport, perfectly aligned with the Olympic model needs to be challenged at the very least.
Great point re supporting the local clubs DAM71. So many come and go simply due to the fact that we (generally speaking) as windsurfers, do not make the effort to physically go out and actually join the clubs - despite ridiculously cheap fees.
There are some great and enthusiastic people running events specifically for windsurfers and yet they struggle for members. We should understand that memberships drive the clubs, the more members, the more clubs, the stronger the institution, the louder the voice, the more money in the sport to lobby change...
Perhaps if nothing else comes out of the ISAF decision and the great support we are seeing in the petition, we should all take a step back and realise that if we don't stand together (as individuals, wholesalers, retailers, brands etc) then we are never going to have the presence we need to be taken seriously.
Windsurfing/Kiting can and do run their own championships they don't need the money hungry corrupt Olympics which is what they have become.
I seriously think its been about 4 year since I've even watched the Olympics, I don't think I'm going to miss it.
......it is a little sad for those people who have dedicated their lives to training and spent every bit of their earnings to get to that level, I wish those athletes all the best with the partition.
does this new box rule make other classes in danger too. The international Moth is a very advance sailing craft and very easy to watch ?
Even better, the IOC does not know windsurfing is out apparently.
Reply to an email I sent:
"The Olympic programme is systematically reviewed after each edition of the Games to ensure it stays relevant to its audience. It is during this evaluation process that each International Federation reviews its own Olympic programme and suggests changes to its disciplines and events. The changes are then submitted to the Olympic Programme Commission, which will put forward a proposal to the IOC Executive Board for validation. The changes to the programme are validated three years prior to the Games.
The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) is currently going through this process and has yet to submit its proposal for Rio 2016 to the IOC. We suggest you contact them for more information on this matter. "
Whoever said: "the vast majority of people are happy to sail back and forth"
Is it not as simple as that? We may get annoyed once in a while and sign up Facebook petitions, but overall, windsurfing has become a purely recreational sport. At least 96% of all sailors I know have never and never will race or compete. Nor belong to a club or ever will. Even the local freestylers don't go out and compete.
There's nothing wrong with that, but I would simply imagine the continuous lobby for the Olympics and other support really comes from the hard work of a few... (which work I very, very much respect).
I would imagine the ISAF faced a bevy (?) of lobbying for the other activity, hence the result. No biggy ??
Well here is something very interesting a re vote may be needed
"The Spanish Sailing Association apologizes for his mistake in voting between the kite and windsurfing, as olympic class. The president apologizes to all windsurfers Spanish for his mistake. Could this change something in November? I think so :)"
Windsurfing needed only ONE vote and the Spanish Federation vote by mistake cause they were confused ????
www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=windsurfingtour&e=com
my 2 cents:
I'm a windsurfer and a kiter from a sailing background, but primarily a kiter.
I think it is a massive blow for Windsurfing to not be included in the games, it should be. However, just because Kitesurfing is in, doesn't mean that it kicked Windsurfing out, there are plenty of other classes as well.
Kite racing is just as tactical and skill orientated as normal sailboat racing, if not greater, as you need to call the shifts in the wind 30m away from you, and when going downwind look at the shifts downwind of you instead of upwind as you are sailing faster than the wind. It is also a little more athletic than other classes, minus windsurfing.
Yes it will be more exciting to watch than the other classes, from my session last week, in a very inconsistant mostly sub 10 knot breeze, the GPS showed speeds of 15-17 knots upwind, with a max of 21.35 downwind.
I feel sorry for people who have trained on RSXs. But you have got a serious skill set that can be applied to kite racing, which uses some similar board skills.
As per the other thread, IOC told me that they don't know anything about it, but after ISAF submit the proposal it still needs to be ratified by the IOC board.
Thus if there is some conjecture about Spain not voting correctly etc, and lots of pressure from windsurfers you never know the IOC may still want us.
Everybody sign the petition!
The olympic kitesurfing race will get # kites and a box rule for the board...
I could plane between 3 knots and 45 knots with 3 sails and a custom windsurfing board.
How did they compare a one design with a open class???
Here's the English version.
[hmtl]www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=windsurfingtour&e=com[/html]
Oh well, good on them for admitting it, IF it's true.... I can't find it on their official site as yet.
You ozzies get some of the blame according to this interview
""The Australians and Americans were consistently voting against windsurfing. They were joined by the Irish, who are not known to have a strong windsurf racing team. What was truly shocking, was the Spain who have a very, very strong windsurfing team, voted again windsurfing. This still leaves me speechless."http://boards.mpora.com/news/rory-ramsden-interviewed-full-details-on-olympic-decision.html
Here's the English version.
[hmtl]www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=windsurfingtour&e=com[/html]
Oh well, good on them for admitting it!
