Is the LT the best thing that ever happened to windsurfing? Or has it ruined it?

Raceboards have 8 under 19 - good effort.
They also have 14 over 50, so that's 44% of the fleet.
There are 4 between 19 and 40. (EDIT - beaten to it by Goodsy).

Total 32 entries. Doesn't look like an amazingly young fleet, with most of those under 40 getting pretty close to that age.... this worries me as I knew them when they were youth! :-)


Windfoilers have ZERO Australian youth and 4 from New Caledonia
40% of the Aussies are Grandmasters, so the average age of the Aussies (and perhaps the whole fleet) looks to be higher than that of RBs and possibly higher than that of LTs.

Total 19 entries as at 9 January, including 9 internationals.

Obviously the proportion of young sailors is not really relevant in many ways; a class that attracts 20 youth and 100 adults is surely better for the sport than a hypothetical class that attracts 2 youth and 1 adult, even if the latter has a higher proportion of youth. It is VERY hard to see how classes that attract 8 and 13 Aussie youth to national titles are supposedly less attractive to young sailors than a class that attracts not a single one.

The RBs, LTs and T293s are doing a far better job of attracting youth than we used to see, and that's a great thing.

Haha. Do not let tim tam and jinxy loose in that....

Lol

I'll admit, out on the water those LT's look like the most boring thing I have ever seen in my life! But, you guys obviously have something that gets a whole lot of people super stoked and rolling up to comps, so congrats! That many people, (and that much beer!), has gotta be a good thing!? Hope you all have a great comp!

Why don't you just **** of back to kindergarten looser. There yah go get your rocks of on my comment looser.
Grow up grow a pair.

Laurie grow a pair and get rid of this looser he is affecting your business.

www.sailing.org.au/news/windsurfing-opportunity-junior-and-youth-sailors/

Wow, great thread (mainly).

Anyway, getting back to the original question. I say "Yes". I learned to windsurf on a Windsurfer OD when I was 10 years old over 30 tears ago which sparked a life long obsession with wind sports. I am now down/over here in Adelaide at the Nationals racing after about a 15 years break (from the Wally).

As someone who ride neatly every day, I hydrofoil on Windsurf, Kite, Surf, Wing and DW, plus wave sail, slalom. I am also a kiter who's won some titles and ride at an acceptable level, I sailed for years on MJ, Laser, J24, Adams 10 then 505's. I surf all craft from performance shortboards to 10' loggers. I have to say coming back to the Windsurfer this week has been amazing, just as I remembered it just faster, and more performance.

Windsurfer is possibly the hardest and easiest sport out there, which is totally mind blowing. I say easy because yes, anyone can jump onboard and with a little tuition be sailing (real sailing). But then there's the technical aspect of it in the more advanced side of it. All of the biggest fleets in the world are not necessarily the "highest performing" in some peoples eyes, but they are all classes that reward excellent sailing skills, wind knowledge and a tactical mind. These classes that draw hundreds instead of tens to their regatta's aren't bringing the numbers because of exotic materials and ultra light weights or yearly reviewed and advanced designs, but because they have a tried and proven design that can seperate the fleet through the only means that matters - The Individual.

Windsurfer teaches you to sail with precision as every mistake costs you big, but good sailing rewards you well. Yesterday was my 5th sail on the Windsurfer LT and I am very impressed with how well it performs. Yes the racing was postponed due to the conditions, it was solid out the back. I was getting wind reading in the 20-25kn mark on the beach, and it felt like there was another 10+kn outside the reef, so trying conditions for most sailors. Locals were blasting around on 4.2's. Yes there was some difficulty launching even the IRB yesterday to do the wind check. The chest high shore break (at times) and dead onshore wind proved be quite hazardous and basically making launch of the quarter cab tinnies near impossible. But it was awesome to watch much of the fleet get out there anyway and blast around in the epic conditions.

Being a bit rusty, my skills levels are probably not the best to decide off, but I am accustomed to riding in strong winds and not sheepish to try. My initial attempt to Sail at midday was near impossible to hold out the back with my guess of 35kn winds in the gusts. After returning to grab my foil and Wing-Surfer and a fun session raking for weed, I returned to the Wally for an epic afternoon session in probably somewhere between 15-30kn - Soo much fun. It has confirmed to me that I will be leaving a Windsurfer LT in my quiver moving forwards especially for the Downwinding aspect (which I was not expecting - crap loads of fun riding bumps DW).

Anyway, again a big "YES" to being the best thing that has happened to Windsurfing in a long time.

Here's a bit of my kook session yesterday in pretty gnarly conditions (doesn't look it from the GoPro).