Is Windsurfing Still in Decline

Cam- Lara and Shari have come from yacht club environment. Sailing Bic and RSX at a high level has made them super strong. They transitioned over to slalom with ease after using big ,heavy equipment . Lara and Joanna are keen to spend some time with us down at Gerroa to have a crack at wavesailing. All 3 of these girls will be great at any discipline they participate in because of the toughness required for racing.
Now is the right time for them to gain new skills, experiences and thrills from the other disciplines . It will also help finding that little bit extra for racing.
My point was that the kids from a windsurfing background (short boarders) refuse to even try a Techno. I have told them there is much to learn from racing, it will make them strong using big, heavy gear and improve their overall skills. With the generosity of the windsurfing community to kids, for what it would cost for a 2nd hand Bic they could score a complete slalom kit and complete wave kit as well. To them its a no-brainer.
The yacht club kids are happy to try other disciplines but how do you get the short boarders to try racing?

Had a read of the latest Brit Windsurf mag today, it contains a 10 page advertising feature for DUOtone sails. The count of the number of times the word 'freeride' is mentioned in those 10 pages is 0, nil, zero. Considering it is obviously their announcement to the world of their focus over coming years it is good to see one of the high profile (?) sail lofts being mindful of the lifeblood of the sport, not. Or maybe free riders are the minority and insignificant in the scheme of things? I assume the GP margins on free ride sails and boards is no less than all the other sectors.

I agree with Chris that "extreme" or "high performance" aspects are not what will get most kids into a sport. Maybe being a windsurfer in the US makes it easy to get the wrong impression - there are very few young windsurfers at many popular spots, but if you see a young windsurfer, chances are quite high that they are interested in high-level freestyle or wave sailing in crazy conditions.

In the US, soccer has close to zero presence on TV, but is the most commonly played youth sport (according to engagesports.com/blog/post/1488/youth-sports-participation-statistics-and-trends). There's nothing extreme about soccer.

By focussing on "high-performance" windsurfing, we have ended up with two different sports - some call the light wind version boardsailing, and reserve "windsurfing" for planing on shortboards. That ended up giving longboards and light-wind sailing the stigma of "beginner" - who wants that? Even worse, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of windsurfers have learned to windsurf on "tippy" boards like the original Windsurfer, the industry decided to focus on "easy" wide boards for beginners. That only widened the gap between the two sports, and took 95% of the fun out of light wind "boardsailing". Here's a little story to illustrate this point:
My wife usually displays the typical "windsurfer" behavior, and does not bother to go out unless there's a good chance to plane. When it's a light wind day, I'm often the only one on the water, having fun on a longboard or doing light wind freestyle on a windSUP. But we recently got an old D2 board, and she was curious how it sails. Every time she's been on the D2, she has had a ton of fun. That includes days where the wind picked up and she could have planed on slalom or freestyle gear, but she chose to stick with the D2 instead. Just a couple of days ago, I managed to get her out onto the water on the D2 in 8-10 knots, with an occasional gust of 15. She had a huge grin on her face the entire time, and even started touring a bit, something she never does. She kept saying "I don't know why this is so much fun!". I thinks it's partly the easy glide and seamless acceleration of the longboard (especially the D2), and partly that the board is a bit harder to sail and turn. Even a moderate "beginner board" like the Fanatic Viper lacks a bit on both of these areas - and it's still a beginner board that any reasonable windsurfer wants to outgrow as quickly as possible.

Needless to say, I'm quite excited about the Windsurfer LT, and about how fast it is spreading in Europe and Australia. But I'm afraid sightings in the US will remain rare events.

As for the high end not trickling down... well maybe not for the One Design - by nature it is not developing, but for average Joe Freerider, the gear that wavesailors & racers are using has massively increased the wind range, speed, versatility, & fun factor of the gear the rest of us use.

Also the cost !
you have to start

Well said Chris, I agree 100%, opportunity and accessibility are key, the coolness factor is cool but its not the "draw" that many think it is.

The places where opportunity and accessibility exist in Australia we see growth, a couple of places that come to mind are RQYS and Woollahra Sailing clubs with the techno class, but also KA360 has been providing opportunity and accessibility for kids at Sanctuary point on short boards and it is a place where youth windsurfing is growing.

We choose to promote techno class because its something that fits into a sailing club nicely and is possible to run every week, (given in Brisbane we don't get consistently strong winds required for other types of windsurfing). The benefit of having it in a sailing club is the infrastructure already exists and now its established as a mainstream activity in the club the need for myself or others volunteering every weekend standing in waist deep water teaching kids to windsurf has disappeared. We now have paid instructor's, coaches and formal programs from entry level to competitive racer.

That's not to say the above is the only way, its just the way we chose to go at RQ, other people can do whatever they see fit but one thing is certain, sitting on keyboard theorising about what's best won't grow the sport, posting a few cool picture's or video on youtube won't grow the sport. It takes people to provide the opportunity and accessibility.

Hate to say in Australia I just don't see windsurfing surviving the millenials, some things are just dinosaurs & not meant to survive. Promoting racing for kids... great for those that are doing it but sailing in Brisbane it's very rare seeing any of the RQ folk sailing any other spot or doing anything other than course race training.

I & im sure many others here did alot of competitive sport growing up & when was the last time you jumped in a pool to swim for fun, ran some laps, kicked a footy etc (yes many probably have done something like that but the people here are the exception, we're already getting off our a$$ & doing some activity). In short just because you are pushing kids to some competitive thing does not translate to long termers.

Windsurfing is not accessible, expensive, not social while you are doing it, rarely coached & takes a fair chunk of self assessment, tenacity & continual commitment to maintain a reasonsble level let alone improve.

Aiming windsurfing at kids & hoping that is the future is worthwhile for them but won't grow the sport, same happens to them as happened to me & all the guys & girls I windsurfed with as a teen... life happens. Sure continue with the development programs & fun focused school holiday windsurf camps for kids would be great as is done with many other sports. But windsurfing should be focusing promotion on the post life happens semi disposible income late 20's/30's people, they might stick with it, they can maybe afford to buy new gear which can in time filter down to new comers & young folk.

Gear wise well many of us are not really contributing to the sport, how many contributors to this thread bought a new board this year. & many windsurfers are a technically minded bunch who like to use what is on the cutting edge of the sport, not great for handing down. It's almost like freeride is a dirty word when it's what the majority actually do just baffing.

There sometimes seems to be a latent hostility where everyone loves to be pigeon holed into do you wavesail, freestyle, freeride, bump n jump, slalom, gps, raceboard, foil, formula, techno wally, windsup etc etc etc & the groups don't mix, what a segregated sport, how can it possibly focus on a direction... which path is the future. Instead the manufacturers just want to keep bringing the next thing like foils or windsurfer xyz's & i can't have a go at friendly course racing with my not one design trademarked windsup? well your loss.

Windsurfing is lucky to a passionate group of stalwarts to keep it going but are we the best people to evaluate the health of the sport? Look sideways to the rise & rise & demise (locally) of kiting. Sure things that fly in the air capture our inner child wonder but is that what prompted it's success? On a visual & ability scale it isn't much different, maybe a little more with them being bigger, more colourful & ridden closer to shore. It has the x factor of wakeboarding, better accessibility than windsurfing & not having to travel to a crowded surf break.

But as a casual observer it has 2 things windsurfing does not have, it is inherently social & many smiles, whereas windsurfing has the intense concentration race face thing going on (& yeah im very guilty of this myself). How much cooler did advertisements containing Josh Stones or Brian Talmas big beaming grins look? To the public comparing windsurfing to kiting one looks fun, the other looks... hard.

What has brought about the demise of kiting around here? It was targeted at the young, again life got in the way. It also requires alot of commitment & effort to progress to the next level. When it first hit I seem to recall it was quite a bit cheaper than windsurfing, now it is expensive. & around here after all that it's been left with a small group of regulars who are similar age to the windsurfers.

& cost affecting windsurfing... new boards approaching $4000 that's crazy, inflation of $100 per year in the last 15 years, & even back then when a new f2 or mistral cost $2400 those brands suffered bigtime in sales from local customs & cheap plastic or glass boards. But that's what happens when you have a monopoly with the cobra situation. I'm lucky enough to have a sh**load of gear but no way would i have even a quarter of it at full rrp, if i was a new comer & saw the prices even with my financial situation I would never have taken up windsurfing.

We shouldn't forget what it's like to be a potential new comer to the sport. Supping took off because it's easy & looks easy. Wally's & windsups look easy. Gps'ers zipping past, people doing loops, riding big waves or doing unfathomable freestyle moves is about as relevant to their minds as us looking at say hang gliding, yeah it looks cool but there is just so much going on for a mere mortal.

I got to experience the whole considering getting into the sport viewpoint last year with kiting, I wouldn't mind giving it a go, it has it's appeal to certain conditions & to me is as relevant as say adding a bump n jump setup to your quiver. But I tend to buy new stuff when I can, ballpark figures kite $2-2500, twin tip board with straps & fins $1000ish, bar/lines/harness $1000ish, lessons $500+. $5000 to jump into a new sport & only have one setup yeah nah, & people looking at getting into windsurfing would be thinking the exact same thing.

I was looking forward to see the impact the new wally's might have had on the sport purely on the initial rumours regarding pricing structure. $2000 seemed a reasonable price point for something that is easy to use, LOOKS easy to use, versatile, useable in a wide range of conditions & doesnt weigh a tonne (but is too long!). Final pricing though was different when really to be perfectly aimed at people looking at getting into the sport sub $2000 full turn key including paddle, uphaul, harness & carry bag should have been their goal.

Probably some retailers would read that & go hah you're dreaming but sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to expand your market, look at the industry that has developed from cheap kayaks becoming available. & why aim a discount at existing racers when all they had to do to make it appeal to them is make it perform better, just another example of how backwards this sport has things sometimes.

There is obviously some appeal for people still there, over summer it's pretty much daily where someone will approach one of us at my local beach & start asking questions but it's so disheartening when it comes to how much then oh & they walk away.

All things considered it's destined to be a dinosaur, there is just too many adverse internal & external forces affecting it but i'm going to keep on loving it while it's around & while I can

I've said it before, but it's only the industry that can change the uptake of sail boarding at a grass roots level.

The barrier is cost. The product needs to be something similar to the LT or a windSUP with a centreboard but it needs to be available as a full kit with a rig for less than $1k to make it appealing to families. To compete with a bunch of boogie boards or a few rotomolded kayaks or even the cheap SUP's they can buy from Anaconda as the family watersport toy of choice, the price needs to fall (but so can materials quality too, there's no point selling a family high-tech materials that they get no benefit from)

All of the big manufacturers right now are not motivated to develop grass roots windsurfing because they have diversified into other products that make profit (high end windsurfing, SUP, kites etc). The role of a business is to generate profit, so if you can make profit by selling another product because the market demands it, then there is minimal motivation to develop something that might be financially risky, it's a basic commercial decision. The best indication that this is the case is the new LT. The design development was done by a third party, the production was sorted out and developed by that third party and a reasonably cheap (by windsurfing standards) price point obtained. All of this was done at no commercial risk to the big manufacturers. Now they are only too happy to put their sticker on one and sell it, the hard work is done.

All that is left is to engineer a "dumbed down" version to mass produce at a very competitive price and get them out there and get everyone hooked on windsurfing.

I absolutely agree gorgesailor, it's the right product that needs to be re-engineered into a cheaper construction to compete with other products available to families. There's still a place for the "race" product, but there needs to be a "family" product that's not as good as the "race" product.

Fair call about loyalty & costs associated with wally class but if they really wanted to grow why didn't they offer first round of orders to existing class members & to entice new members at the same price for a time offer same price for everyone else then increase to normal when production slows, sorry but it's business... loyalty??? You either want to grow or not.

Cammd valid point but those sports aren't heavily gear dependant or driven by manufacturers, I can't think of too many other sports that have the same gear cycle/push as windsurfing, yeah there is plenty that appeal to our vanity such that we need to have that new season carbon road bike or cricket bat but there are others such as tennis that show they do just fine by keeping their top end racquets unchanged for several seasons. Actually I can think of another sport... Sup racing, who is that driven by & how is that industry going after 10 short years.

I really feel for the retailers in windsurfing, they carry the risk, they have to discount to move stock, they are not the ones setting the absurd rrp's for several hundred dollars worth of foam, carbon & graphics. Even then we are being fooled for every cent as we have carbon content being reduced, but carbon is expensive they cry, labour is expensive they cry, well carbon on their purchasing level ain't that expensive & a comparable amount of man hours goes into a $450 carbon fin as goes into that $4000 cobra bit of foam.

Windsurfing's past success of a board in every other garage didn't happen by having nations of action heroes or adrenaline junkies, it happened by having affordable appeal. I will hazard that the majority of us here learnt on & somewhat happily dragged to the water a heavy, relatively cheap bit of plastic, annoying splintery fibreglass mast & dodgy old wobbly boom. Super cheap materials like plastic no longer have to be the answer as China (& locally) proved it can pump out cheap lightweight sups, production techniques & materials have evolved for the better. With increased access to the sport there is potential for more people to then properly invest in moving to the next level.

& it ain't pessimism, just a reality check for the industry, it has a while yet left on the current wave. It is the industry who can make the choices to turn it around, not the users, we aren't the ones dependant on making a living from it. Windsurfing is in a great position where it's not dependant on spectators or gambling as so many other struggling sports are. I really do hope it survives but it just seems like the oligarchy are pillaging the sport & to hell with the future after they're gone.