Olympic windsurfing part II

about 5-7 years ago, Olympique Federation was seeking to have younger viewers...so they were asking to bring new ideas and sports into the olympics, such as skateboard. Surfing federation didn't want to push to much...lately yes..but maybe it's more because some got wave pool to sell? However...during that period I send emails to all windsurfing company and asked them to group together and push for indoor windsurfing. One sail company was the only one who replied...and a magazine. They both pointed at the same direction, the idea was great...but...RS-X is Under pryde who is a sailing company(yacht)...and the sailing federation is the responsible for our sport at the olympics...and both would not push too much....that was kind'a what I read beetween the lines.

RS-X is quite challenging and to be an olympian windsurfer is a hell of sacrifice to my own opinion and indoor windsurfer could be also another discipline. If swimming can have back, crawl, butterfly, brest, medely, 100m, 200m, etc...well, we sure can have RS-X and Slalom and jumping indoor! ;-)

After reading these posts I have an even lower appreciation of the processes they use to include/exclude sports. They really have a predudice against some sports. Apart from what we have been hearing on this post, the sport of squash is still the only racquet sport to be excluded. What makes that ridiculous is that table tennis is included. Windsurfing is is just another sport suffering from how ignorant officials make decisions. The media also have a bit to answer for because they fail to report or give fair coverage across all sports. For example, today they are going on about how the wind is disrupting the rowing, but missing the opportunity to televise some exciting sailing. I do agree that a fleet of windsurfers pumping on their sails lacks excitement. Those races are on par with weightlifting or hammer throwing...hang on, those sports are still Olympic sports!

remember when Aust was the only country to vote for formula wind surf in the Olympics

forget Summer Olympics, forget winter Olympics.

we want the WINDer Olympics

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Mark _australia said..
Hmmm.

We are lucky to still be in, remember this is the Olympics that kiting was to be IN and windsurfing dumped. Until it was shown the vote was corrupt as blazes, backed with Branson's money and committee members not knowing a vote to include kiting was a vote to throw OUT windsurfing. Anyway, history.


In about 1997 -1999 Formula was developed so as to replace boring course racing with hopefully fast planing windsurfing that is more exciting.
Olympics mob rejected it as they want to be able to run it in zero to 1kn as many locations don't have wind.

Now they have included surfing! To attract the interest of young'uns apparently
Well hang on....... London, Beijing much good for surfing were they?
How can they say no to planing windsurfing (needing a mere 10kn) based on the fact some olympic venues don't have wind................ and then include surfing which plainly is also very dependent upon conditions?

Lets get planing windsurfing back so we can keep it in and keep the young'uns interested. And this seems to be a chance to fight again for a fast class with box rules not one design.

Thoughts?

Sorry, Mark, but my thoughts are that you are coming from a very biased viewpoint without looking at any facts. You show it when you declare that Formula replaced "boring course racing", which is entirely your own opinion and is NOT the opinion of most of the people in the world who actually do course racing (I know, I did a worldwide survey on the subject). Most people in the world who do course racing do it on longboards or hybrids, and they do NOT go out and choose to do a boring sport - they do it because they love it and prefer it to Formula (which is also great).

I don't understand how you can say "how can they say no to planing windsurfing (needing a mere 10kn) based on the fact some olympic venues don't have wind?" It's pretty obvious why they have to say no to a form of competition that may not be able to run at all. Exactly what do you want to happen - people to spend millions training for four years and then to sit around for a week and go home because there hasn't been enough wind?

Thirdly, there are many, many more "young 'uns" around the world who demonstrate their interest in competing on hybrids and longboards than in shortboards or in kiting, despite the lure of the world cup and other events. The Techno fleets are very big. Significantly, though, the number of young 'uns competing on shortboards is microscopic compared to the number of kids racing Optimist, Radial, 4.7, Feva and 420 dinghies. The number of kids racing cats is also very, very small.

What that seems to indicate is that cliches to the contrary, most kids aren't all that much into extreme sports - a fact that any check on surveys of sports participation will show us. Therefore the idea that kids would move into windsurfing if it was 'more exciting' doesn't add up. If speed was what they wanted they would all have moved from Lasers and 420s into 29ers and cats and boards, and they certainly have not.

If kids did want speed, why would they get into a sport that most of them will rarely be able to do because they don't get enough wind? It's not 10 knots very often in a lot of places in Sydney a lot of the time, let alone the vast majority of the USA, Europe or Asia. Even the RSX (a board I hate) is faster in 9 knots than sitting on your bum getting frustrated is. "Hey kids, get into windsurfing so you can sit on your bum" isn't the best slogan in the world, but that would be the reality most of the summer in Bremen, London, New York, LA, etc.

Finally, there is no way that a box rule class will get up in the modern Games because only a couple of countries can afford it. For an example, go back to 2000 and the Brits decided that they wanted their own mast for an 11' dinghy. They didn't want to join two bits of alloy together to form the mandrel, so they just went out and bought a one ton block of alloy and CNC machined away all but about 11kg of it. They then made their own custom-made custom-designed wing masts and sanded them from the inside to get them just right. Each mast cost (IIRC) $20,000.

That is just one idea of the enormous amount of cash that Australia and the UK are willing to spend, and it's completely unproductive. That class got thrown out of the Games and a one design put in its place because all the other countries thought that such development was ludicrous and unfair.

As another example, the British track bikes at the 2012 Games cost $165,000 each, or about 16 times as much as a normal top-level track bike IIRC. There is no reason why a full-on techno war on boards would be any cheaper than a techno race on bikes, so you'd could be looking at $150,000 for a board, once they are priced to allow for F1 wind tunnel testing at $20,000 per hour, CAD design etc. Do you actually think that Malta, the Maldives, Mali and Mexico are going to vote for a sport like that?

I don't want to be insulting, but working out what class should be in the Games isn't something that just comes with a bit of wishing and brainstorming. The reality of the situation has to be considered, and doing some research would help.

But the surfers aren't saying "we will only compete if the surf is good", which is the equivalent of saying "we will only compete if the wind is good". The surfers and IOC both know that there's a good chance they will be competing in thigh-high dribbles, not sitting on shore waiting for six footers to roll in. They seem to accept that being in the Games means getting out there on schedule when the cameras are rolling, not when the conditions are fun to go out in.

Secondly, surfing has only been added for Tokyo 2020; it's not a permanent addition so won't cause as much angst for countries that can't compete.

Thirdly, there's plenty of evidence that the major Olympic teams spend much more money than pros do on kit. The pros are limited by the fact that the manufacturers are there to make a profit and to make gear that can be sold commercially. The big Olympic teams don't have to make a profit, don't have to make stuff that can be sold commercially, and have a huge budget.

Take cycling again. The Tour de France is the biggest annual sporting event in the world. The top cyclists earn salaries of around $6 million each and the industry sponsors include manufacturers like Giant, which has a revenue of over $2 billion. The number of bikes that Giant alone produces each year is 250 times as many boards as Starboard produces each year. And yet despite being a vastly bigger sport than windsurfing, cycling didn't spend the sort of money that the British Olympic team spent on their bikes. As another example, dinghy sailing may be a bigger market than windsurfing, but no one spent $20,000 per mast until the British taxpayer funded it through their Olympic team.

The Australian taxpayer spends an average of $49 million per Olympic gold medal, so sports that look like pulling in a few medals don't struggle to get government funding that would dwarf what the windsurfing industry will spend. Other countries are aware of the issue and they will not let the Brits and Aussies and a few other countries spend millions to get a technological edge.

Homologation is one route, but it's not that easy. Rally cars are no longer homologated, apparently because it means that winning manufacturers had to lose huge sums building homologation specials that not even those interested in a performance car actually wanted to own. Cycling always required bikes to be available to the public -it's just that no one defined "available"...... And homologation has other traps; we can't build a Raceboard in Australia because of the homologation rules. Instead of levelling the playing field, it can tilt it even further.

Ps - calling something boring is normally seen as an insult.

Love reading your passionate articles on the merits of 0-10knt 'sailboarding' Chris, it's great that you know what you love and enjoy.
And there is lots of merit on your points, except you always reference 'sailing classes and groups' as some sort of bench mark for windsurfing??

But I would confidently predict that if you got the total sales/models of all the main manufacturers of 'windsurfing' over the last 20 years I'd be suggesting that 'planing board' sails would 'massively' outweigh 0-10knt boards. If your 'world wide survey' proved that everyone likes windsurfing in course conditions in 0-10knts , not the fun action end of the sport that we all think of then I'll eat humble pie for breakfast lunch and dinner.
Action sell's, ask any marketing guru a 'video' presentation is much more powerful than a still image, 0-10 knts is the still image.
so action and great images even if they are far off the real world is the way forward...surf brands choose epic conditions in their promotions..not sloppy onshore 1ft stuff..for a reason... its the dream that is sold, not the real world grind! Sell the sizzle not the sausage!

the decline in the sport isn't 100% related to +10knt sailing...lots of factors, kiting being a big one.

The greatest thing about the windsurfing at these Olmpics has been 'action and colour' it's been great to see those big boards zooming around looks great to the public, not ploddingaround and pumping in 0-5knts... just a bloody shame that the stupid Aust system didn't allow any Australian entries into it, especially when we had a extremely competitive female athlete that would have given it a real crack.
The next generation foil/windsurf looks great for the Olympics in 5-30 knts and if windsurfing was in or out of the Olympics don't think it would really make any difference to the sport.
Cheers

Yeah good points, especially the watch V participate...who in their right mind would want to run head on into 110kg Rugby front rower!
in amongst that I think the secret is the 'organised regular' sport activity for success, eg weekly netball, footy etc

RQ in QLD a breeding a new generation of windsurfers in Brisbane through their regular weekly set up they have started...but my money is when the students master the basics and move through the progressive levels they will want to pull off a massive jump in the waves or blast along for miles at top speed over disciplined course racing...but I could be wrong:)

Promoting sailing is not high on australian sailing agenda
victor and that condy fella want a very small team
but they have there favourites
they set a very high standard for the sailors but not them selfs
australian sailing is very well insulated
the stink will never go away

This is the third Olympics that the rsx has been used

Surfing will see Pool Surfing in spot where you can't really surf probably. Push for indoor windsurfing instead of ocean windsurfing. Keep RS-X on lake, ocean, river...but a big jump windsurfing and slalom racing with music, laser light...would be a good show and Rio already has a pool with green water...it's even more punky!

Hi Macro, there are snippets here : 7plus.com.au/ , then select sailing

sorry mate, but still couldn't find a single second of video windsurfing on your link

But here is link to RSX guys from championship in Takapuna after hours ( World Championship events).
I was so impressed with skill of this guys jumping on our borrowed gears to enjoy everyday sailing in the bay .
Video is 10 years old, but still fun ... this French Guy just after their races jumped on our boards and sail for a while...
(6.2 sail 25+ ktn wind at the bay ... quite amazing because minutes ago they have been racing on their 10-12 m ?? RSX deep in the bay, not in sheltered here close to beach)

Hi Macro, from that link, select Home, then scroll down to sailing.
Then you can select highlights (if you don't have premium) of the RSX sailing on different days. The page isn't very user friendly, but by selecting 'previous' or 'next day' you can watch different highlights.

Hope this helps.

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AUS1111 said..

JonesySail said..

... just a bloody shame that the stupid Aust system didn't allow any Australian entries into it, especially when we had a extremely competitive female athlete that would have given it a real crack.

What was the reason we don't have competitors? Sorry if that has been discussed somewhere already.

No one achieved the very high results in preliminary regattas that Yachting Australia requires. They no longer send people in the hope that the experience will help them later. They are interested only in medals and will specifically say that they don't care at all about grass roots sailing or overall development of youth.