I look at my SUP board and wonder what is so unappealing about windsurfing it is just so cool and fun when you are blasting with mates.
How do we generate the passion and get our sport in a growth spike again?
I am not interested in gear changes, I want ideas that get people to look for the windy days again and loose track of their important life and ipad in order to discover that life is all about the windy days.. 
I've been surfing my SUP recently and not doing much sailing. Supping is ok but seriously come on its incomparable.
I saw a couple of massichists a few months ago supping in 30kts on one of those 14' rowing boards (and then having to walk back against the wind for some reason), it was unbelievable considering we were absolutely ripping it up with our sails on board!
do many people cross from supping to sailing?
Select to expand quotewindsurftom said..
do many people cross from supping to sailing?
Herein may be the solution..
I know its not the answer you want but price needs to looked at.
The second thing to look at is the amount of gear that you need to carry.
1 board, 1 mast, 1 boom and a few sails so your average punter can cover a large wind range. Just like the way you used to be set up in the mid 90's when windsurfing was booming. Make it simple again.
Joe public sits at the beach watching a couple of guys blasting around and thinks yep i wanna get in on that, follows them up the beach at the end of there session to find them grouped around a couple of vans and furnature trailers jam packed with more gear than the entire stock held by the 3 local shops combined and hears the guys going on about how they should have rigged the .3 bigger/smaller sail or the wave board intead of the freestyle wave and thinks to himself that it all looks to complicated. He then looks over at the kiter who is grinning from ear to ear with his 1 board and 2 or 3 kites packed up in the boot of his small car. And we are left to wonder why so many of joe public decide to pull the polka dot bordies over there wettie and throw themselves at the nearest trees and powerlines.
Wasn't the original idea of windsurfing: to add a sail on a surfboard just to get out there to be able to surf back ?
Now we can do so much more.
But I guess more exposure on media.
That's a hard question. Here's my quick thoughts on the problems windsurfing has faced, and needs to overcome somehow:
1. The latest Fad - windsurfing was huge in the 70s to 90s. The latest and greatest water sport that everyone wanted to do. Now kiteboarding and SUPs have taken that title, and windsurfing is old school. Don't know how you fix that one.
2. Gear - in the 90s the gear got too technical and specialised for the average punter. That is correcting now with the new modern gear thanks to companies like Starboard. The wide easy to ride boards, sails with more control range, lightweight materials are all helping.
3. Cost - its relatively expensive to get the required 2 or 3 boards, 4 or 5 sails, 2 or 3 masts, booms etc.
4. Bulky - you need a van/wagon/trailer to carry and store all the gear. can't see that changing. This compares to Kites which just go in the boot. SUPs can go on the roofracks, end of story.
5. Fragmented industry - such a small industry, yet so many different products. for example, why can't we make things simpler and cheaper by having an industry standard mast curve? Fins - why do we have PB, US, tuttle?
that's it for now.
I can also add that the last few times I went sailing in the last month, there were some guys like me in their 40s or 50s and taking "the old board out" (the one that was under the deck), and actually get in the water and sailed.
Their kids were there having a go too. So it could come back.
And yes we should tell them that it is possible to have minimal gear (no need to have the whole range in the trailer). 2 is good enough.
I laugh when some guys come to see if I rigged my mast base a 10 or 12 cm.
I generally set it at "about here".
As if it would change my 2 hours out there and the pleasure I get.
Select to expand quoteDavage said..
1 board, 1 mast, 1 boom and a few sails so your average punter can cover a large wind range. Just like the way you used to be set up in the mid 90's when windsurfing was booming. Make it simple again.
.
I submit that is partly what killed it.
That gear really had bugger-all range and if that was slalom it covered you from 12 - 25kn, or if wavesailing maybe 18-30kn.
And it was really hard to use at either end of the spectrum.
Now one board and 3 sails will get you out so much more comfortably in a much larger range.
But even back then the true addict had a couple of boards and 5 or 6 sails. It was a lot more expensive than now, a new boards has been $2K for a very long time.... geez I paid $1500 for a glass waveboard 20yrs ago!!!!
People quit and went kiting just as windsurfing became so much easier, faster, lighter gear, more wind range and so on.
Those who have come back to windsurfing remark how awesome it is!
But those ex windsurfer kiters (who have not come back) that I talk to say how hard it was - and then I see their needlenose skinny 70L board and crap sails.
No wonder....
As for bulky that keeps coming up, I reckon that is rubbish. People are taking up SUP over learning to surf..... 11ft x 34" is pretty damn bulky!
I think it is a myth perpetuated by (again) ex-windsurfer kiters who had 460masts and 300cm slalom board.
Inside a small fourby I fit 3 waveboards, 6 sails 2 booms and 3 masts, covering me from 14kn grovel (fatman) to 40kn winter. A new style kite raceboard is almost as big as a 75L waveboard now and has fins 3x longer....
One problem is cost and that the stuff you learn on may not be the stuff you end up on.
A family would be able to buy one board for everyone to have fun on if they had a couple of masts one boom and about 4 sails. They could get by with that same equipment from learning to being competent.
Someone that wants more of an adrenalin rush would be happier if they could learn cheaply and quickly and move onto the gear that they joined the sport to be on.
The learning stage is the problem. Its either expensive or its a minefield to do it cheaply.
There is plenty of cheap windsurf gear that would make good learning setups, but the manufacturers have no interest in that route and why would anyone else go to all the trouble of buying bits and pieces as and when they become available to put together cheap beginner setups?
Depending on local conditions, you can select one board, one mast, one boom and 2 or 3 sails that will give you the best of the local conditions. Everything outside of that tends to be a matter of diminishing returns.
Select to expand quoteterminal said..
One problem is cost and that the stuff you learn on may not be the stuff you end up on.
A family would be able to buy one board for everyone to have fun on if they had a couple of masts one boom and about 4 sails. They could get by with that same equipment from learning to being competent.
Someone that wants more of an adrenalin rush would be happier if they could learn cheaply and quickly and move onto the gear that they joined the sport to be on.
The learning stage is the problem. Its either expensive or its a minefield to do it cheaply.
There is plenty of cheap windsurf gear that would make good learning setups, but the manufacturers have no interest in that route and why would anyone else go to all the trouble of buying bits and pieces as and when they become available to put together cheap beginner setups?
Depending on local conditions, you can select one board, one mast, one boom and 2 or 3 sails that will give you the best of the local conditions. Everything outside of that tends to be a matter of diminishing returns.
SupSail is the answer to the learning curve gear issue, 1 Board that kids can learn on, adults can learn on, and when there is no wind you can go for a paddle, 1 board for yourself to Sup on, that you can cover under the guise of teaching the kids and friends to sail on,
You don't need 'special' expensive gear to learn the basics on, of course the manufacturers would have you believe you need to start on a tank, then get a half tank, then something more suited etc etc, 
As for gear issues and amount of, Kitesurfing embarrasses Windsurfing in this area hands down, (its possibly the single biggest reason why so many windsurfers went kiting , speaking from experience, and also kites love light crappy onshore and shallow conditions) but if you set yourself a 'wind minimum' you don't need anywhere as much gear, and you avoid the crappy days, and only sail the good days = way more fun and a better family/ work/ life balance! 
Although mine mistakenly think 'its always windy, your always sailing' WT! If only that was true.
If we could get more windsurfing videos on mainstream media/ tv that would go a long way.....no idea how you do that !
Light wind windsurfing / windsupping. Light wind waveboards are a really good development.
The sport needs people just having fun in a non-threatening environment. I'm seeing it more and more down at Pelican Point recently - often down there with my wife and children all enjoying windsurfing at their own comfort level among positive like-minded people. I personally think things are looking encouraging.
Select to expand quoteterminal said..
There is plenty of cheap windsurf gear that would make good learning setups, but the manufacturers have no interest in that route
It's way too easy to blame the manufacturers. BIC makes excellent sailable SUPs that are great for teaching windsurfing, and quite affordable (about $1200 US). But most windsurfers I know would never buy a BIC.
I think feedback from bystanders on the beach is useful. I often sail at a beach with lots of tourists where there are typically more windsurfers than kiters. Tourists always ask about kiting - it looks cool, and kiters get air even in relatively light winds. The only time tourists ever ask about windsurfing is when they see someone doing cool freestyle, including light wind freestyle. Of the few younger windsurfers I know, most go towards freestyle, too. With the new freestyle gear, they get crazy good in a couple of years. But there are not many of them.
I think going back and forth for hours is lots of fun, and putting on a GPS makes it even more fun. Most windsurfers I know agree and do the same thing. But while this is fun, it looks boring. Why learn a boring sport?
The argument that wide boards have made it easier to learn windsurfing and thereby helped windsurfing is often repeated, but I don't buy it. Yes, you can learn to go back and forth on a windsurfer in a couple of hours in light wind. But you're in for a rude awakening when the wind picks up - you see that you really don't know anything. When I learned in 1979, it took 3 days before we reached the point of being able to sail, turn, and get back to where we started. That certainly gave you a feeling for accomplishment, and an understanding that windsurfing is not easy. I just watched a bunch of beginners learn kiting in Tobago. Surprise - it also takes them three days before they even have a change to go back and forth, and end up where they started, with a lot of frustration for many when they try to get up onto the board the first time (or rather, the first 20 times). The kitesurfing school there told everyone it takes a few days to learn to kite, but they still had a lot of business.
Perhaps teaching windsurfing is harder. The store in Tobago did not even have anyone to teach beginners windsurfing; I saw them turn people way. In the US, there is just one level of windsurf instructors. Instructor lessons are limited to the very basics. There is no program at all in the US to teach how to teach intermediate or advanced lessons (including beach starts, water starts, and planing). There are a few good professional teachers in the US, many of them who spend years with ABK Boardsports to learn how to teach. With proper instruction over a 5-day class, I have seen absolute beginners proceed to beach starts, getting into the front straps, and water starts.
If you want to blame the industry, I'd say blame Starboard. With their monster-wide boards, they created the illusion that it's so easy to learn windsurfing that you can learn it in an hour. Except that this is on a door that is absolutely no fun to sail in light winds, very different from older gear that actually was (and still is) fun in light winds. It's almost "false advertising".
But I don't think blaming Starboard is the answer, or even makes sense. Some of their ideas where partly copied by others and helped (for example, 85 cm wide beginner boards, instead of 70 cm or 100 cm wide boards). A more relevant question is: why would anyone want to start windsurfing? In the 80s, windsurfing was new, which was reason enough. Many new windsurfers came from surfing, and the windsurf board was huge in comparison. Now, the "new and cool" still applies to kiting, but not to windsurfing. If you want more people to get interested in windsurfing, show them cool stuff instead of lawn mowing - learn ankle biters, rail rides, loops, or new school tricks, and show them near the beach!
Select to expand quotearancini said...
teach your kids. Great excuse to buy more gear as well.
Plus grab one of their friends.
i use stuff that others no longer use
as such, i always get comments
from windsurfers in the summer and everyone including kiters in the winter saying "Cool"
in the summer i use Mistral Equipe I , longboard obviously, BIC Techno FreeFormula and AHD FF 160
the Fanatic Ultra CAT got more comments just due to the graphics - hint, hint to the manufacturers
now with SB US and JP SLW, the BIC has become less "visible" and "different"
for the AHD , due to thick rails, people are surprised it is a 160 and floats my 100 kilo carcass so well
why in the winter ??
here it is ice n snow and i have one sled for the ice and one for the snow
deep snow version is still being worked on
it would be ironic if we could get people on windsurfing through winter sports
however, there are less than 5 of us doing this in town, and at as many locations
here are my "boards" for winter:
downsides of wiindsurfing for a newbie??
joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/2013/06/windsurf-marketing.html
1) COST - new equipment is just very $$$. Still cheaper than a sail boat.
2) SPACE - hard to store, move about and travel with the equipment. Compared to kiting.
3) ACCESSIBILITY - where can you try, rent or even GO in your area - water access ??
{often in North America you can see the water, but cannot get to it - not allowed - polluted? }
Windsurfing and kiting has always been male dominated, always will be. My better half just isn't interested being down at the beach/ lake when it is windy, anything above let's say 8 knots. That's just wiped out both windsurfing and kitesurfing as appealing to her. But, get a nice sunny calm morning, glassy conditions and she loves her sup, and from the shore watching people just drift along is very appealing for the fairer sex. And for me it is a water sport we can do together, means I get the arvo for when the winds up.
Having been both a windsurfer ( fairly high level) and now a kiter a common question from the public is that it looks too hard, I would never be strong enough to lift the sail / hold the kite. Have lost count of how many times I have explained how that most if not all the load is through the harness. Sups just look easy and nice to use, very appealing to the non macho part of the population.
Interesting argument
I have been a windsurfer since the 70's although I lapsed in the late 80's as i lost the plot with all the gear changes and cost and just went surfing instead.
I have now come back to where i started sailing on one design wally boards as they are simple and cheap and fun, i cut down a really old 5 metre mast and put an old 3.2 meter wave sail that i had in the roof of my shed and now both my kids are sailing on my one design board with that rig and loving it. My son can water start that board and gybe and do some tricks. I reckon he is now ready to move on to a newer style board and he will have all the skills, he is 14 and stoked. I will buy a new free ride board that we can both use and it will get sailed a lot.
I also have a SUP which i justify, as it means i don't have to go to a gym and am on the water where I want to be. It is a 14 ft downwinder.
My friends who have seen me doing both windsurfing and Supping yet they seem only to ever ask about having a go on the SUP.
I think they get the SUP concept easier than windsurfing. I even offer to teach them to windsurf but these days no body seems to want to do the hard yards to get the rewards. They want to get on the SUP and say hey look I am floating around. No Rig No Hassles. They don't understand wind or sailing and don't seem interested enough to learn.
I also see friends who jump from one windsurf discipline to another as if searching for a better experience, I say make a choice then give it a fair go and stick with what you are suited to. I am a good surfer but Sh@t at jumping higher than a table, I like flat water and speed so. It starts to make my choices more obvious. Sure I like the look of jumping 30 ft in the air but the few times i tried i almost killed myself and now i have no knees left any way, so flat and fast what a buzz. I think I will ease my way into GPS sailing.
I don't know that you can blame the manufacturers as they are selling boards to stay in business and mostly to euro trash sailing in light winds anyway.
My Message is stick with what you are happiest with, build the stoke and get your kids sailing. remember they really want to hang out with you and going windsurfing is a pretty cool way to hang out with Dad and think of the brownie points you rack up whilst doing it. Good enough
for a trip to Hawaii.
Hugo
We need a keen, motivated big shop again like YD Russ, with continual lessons happening, gear hire, second hand gear for sale, the ultimate gear for sale. People like the look and touch factor, not the look on the internet and seek out who sells the stuff locally, that's too hard basket and people give up on the idea. Gear is so expensive now too, I remember I bought a fantastic plastic Bombora brand new for $800 and it was just as fast as the Bics that were around in those days.
But I've been chatting to a few old horsey mates lately and saddles are up to $5000 now and horses selling for $26,500, wow that makes windsurfing cheap!! A decent MT bike these days, $4000 - $5000. So people are willing to pay for their beloved sports, they're just looking for what I've said above, a big shop like YD was.
Select to expand quotealohahugo said..
no body seems to want to do the hard yards to get the rewards.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. No one wants to do the learning part of sports. Kids and even adults would rather have a plug and play style sport where they can walk in and become an instant expert on every aspect of their chosen sport.
Children and a lot of adults would rather pick up a console control then a ball these days, unless they are playing a sport game on the console, because it is easy for them to do this.
I think as a few people have said, the sport needs to be advertised a lot more through main stream advertising, and the prices brought down to make it easier for the lower income families like myself to be able to afford the new or even second hand newer gear.
A lot of families are not on the so called average income of $65000-$90000 like the government say. I know I am not anywhere near that amount.
So I sail the old gear and I love it, I am not in a big rush to advance to new gear although it would be a luxury to do so, I am quite content with what I have, Which is an old BIC Metal Rock 139lt Board. and an old Bombora Big Toy for my light wind days.
Lower Prices and Better Advertising, even getting some of these Pros that do the Storm Chasing or even Olympic Racing etc, to do some school talks to promote to the younger generation, If they see something that is Adrenalin Pumping other than football or cricket it might get them interested in something else.
The key is getting your kids or grandkids to windsurf. I'm trying to get my 21 year old son interested. Its a struggle, I should have started when he was in his early teens, but I wasn't sailing then.
The biggest potential for new windsurfers in Australia are the former windsurfers who gave it up in the eighties, nineties or naughties for whatever reason they did. Most of them know how to windsurf and most would be pleasantly surprised to find out how nice it is to consistently plane on modern equipment.
Other than that, to get new people to try it out, that is pretty hard. There are lots of different activities out there and most people nowdays seem to enjoy sticking stuff up on Facebook and getting liked. If people post their windsurfing stuff on Facebook then that would be positive encouragement. However if a New Idea celebrity type who said they lost 20 kgs and met the man/woman of their dreams through windsurfing, then we might get a few new faces into the sport.
I disagree with those who say the big fat learner boards make windsurfing less appealing. Anything that makes the first hours of windsurfing as fun as it can be is a good thing. Its fun sailing along. Its not fun falling off all the time, grazing your shins against a non slip finished deck and getting frustrated.
Select to expand quotealohahugo said..
I don't know that you can blame the manufacturers as they are selling boards to stay in business and mostly to euro trash sailing in light winds anyway.
Hugo
Really?
You been to Europe?
Been windsurfing for nearly 30 years and the best thing I have done with my windsurfing of late is downsize. I now have only one board (apart from an old play free-formula board and gear), two sails and one mast. The decision making process used to do my head in - 5 sails and three boards...get the wind meter out, should I change up/change down how will I get the best gear for the right conditions.....aaargh! Now I know that if the wind is howling I use my small sail and moderate I use my larger sail. Problem solved and the one board covers all conditions. If it doesn't...suck it up and make the most of it. Now days I will just upgrade my board when needed and get rid of the old stuff.
Having said all that...I have now added kiting to the reportoire and am enjoying learning new skills and enjoy the fact that I can wander onto the beach with a back pack and board. Plus going away on holiday with wife, kids, bikes, surf boards etc..... is so much easier with kite gear than windsurfing gear. Though I will never give up windsurfing as that has always been my passion.
Our sport wont die off, the European market is too big, it has just weeded out the passionate ones from the others that find more enjoyment with sitting by a computer screen all day or going to gyms and cafes. The less crowds the better.
All wrong, you can't ask this question to people who are already involved in the sport, they end up coming up with THEIR problems, cost, size of equipment, etc etc
These are not the real problems. Peoples interests and the options available change, you could partially say kitesurfing has taken a lot of people away because it is easier to learn, but fundamentally they aren't wildly different sports.
Don't see many people playing this anymore?
And its probably unlikely to catch on fire again soon...
Some of you might find this interesting:http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020303560_skisalesxml.html
So you never know.. there are a lot of moms and dads kiting :)
As a newbie to the sport, i'll put forward a few of my own experiences;
Cost: I was fortunate to be given a full set of stuff from a relative who wanted the space in his shed, but I couldn't use any of it because it was 20 years old. I went looking for affordable 2nd hand equipment but here in Perth there is huge demand and so its gone in 60 minutes. If you purchase new, you're looking at minimum $2000 and that setup will not last you long as you'll want to progress.
If I took up tennis, i could get a $50 racquet and $100 shoes. If i took up cricket, i can borrow the clubs kit or buy cheap stuff to begin. If i took up surfing i can buy a $300 brand new foamy to get me started. If i took up golf i can get a fully kitted out beginner set for $300-500. If i took up cycling i can get a Giant bike for $400-600. Unfortunately when i started windsurfing i couldn't find a manufacturer who is pumping out some cheap gear that could get me started, get me through that first season. I'm sure if a company started pumping some cheap gear out of china it would be good to drop the entry price to this sport. There's a foamy manufacturer here in Perth, i wonder if someone worked closely with them there could be some locally manufactured product?
Irregular Weather; one of the unique but also frustrating things about this sport is waiting for the weather. The best times to be on the water always coincide with some sh-tty dinner/drinks/brunch that the missus has organised with friends that I just have to be at. Secondly, as i'm learning to windsurf, i'm also learning about how to read the weather charts like here on Seabreeze. Understanding the difference between 10knots at Melville compared with 10knots on the Perth forecast, compared with 15-20 knots... how windy can i take it, etc.
Other sports operate under almost any weather, so its easy to organise. "Hey, i'll see you Tuesday at 7pm". Sweet. That's not the case with windsurfing... everytime its windy my 2 mates who windsurf always have some commitment, or I do.
One solution that I dreamed up for this came from my previous workplace who started using SalesForce to manage the customer database and when linked with SalesPop it allowed us to email and sms out to our customers en-mass at very cheap rates. I'm sure here in Perth there is hundreds of budding windsurfers who work in the CBD or nearby... if an inner-city windsurf school had a list of interested people on an sms list, when conditions were looking like being conducive to windsurfing, they could bang out an sms to this crowd of people (approx 2-5 cents/sms) and let them know the conditions are perfect and the hire gear will be in the water until sunset.
Along a similar line, perhaps competitions could be more irregular and spontaneous to match up with the conditions. I have noticed that there are some awesome sponsors here in Perth that commit resources to evening race nights and events... yet all too often the conditions don't match up with the regular timeline. IF the windsurf community did make their contact details available to a central system, then a sponsor or organiser could spot a patch of awesome weather coming on Seabreeze and arrange a spectacular event 2-3 days out, market the event and invite participants using the database, and execute it all in optimal conditions which would be spectacular for everyone involved and would make for good marketing material as well.
Technique; ... it is much more technical than most sports at the beginning. At least with most ball sports even if you're completely uncoordinated you can still hit the ball or get some idea of the fun. With windsurfing... if you can't balance and get going then you can't even do the "lawnmower" stuff that is referred to on these forums. Its brutal at the beginning/intermediate level.
Lastly. The social aspect seems to be loose and disorganised. I think more people would windsurf if there was a public BBQ on the grass at JH Abrahams Reserve (Pelican Point) right at the front of the patch of grass where the windsurfers rig up. I've thought about taking a little portable bbq down there in the back of the car and while my rig dries out on the grass to cook a couple of snags, have a beer, watch the people who actually know what they're doing and chat to them... then pack down the kit. I think if these kind of facilities were easily accessible we'd see people hang around a bit more and socialise just like other sports "clubs" do. But you've got to be able to see the windsurfing while you're holding tongs over the bbq... that's important!!
Some of the things that DO HELP a beginner >>> biggest factor... is everyone who contributes to this forum. Given the lack of windsurfing clubs or associations... I owe all of my windsurfing improvement to the tips and advice on this forum, to the video's posted on youtube and the consistently friendly and helpful people i run into at the beach. Windsurfers seem to be some of the best natured people i've come across. Thanks to everyone for their experiences, advice and jokes because they help a noob like me.
(even if it took me 3 months to work out what a noob was = windsurfer slang for newbie!)
The equipment cost is not the problem.
You don't need the latest & greatest equipment.
I have a van full of gear from 4.5M to 8.5M sails, 84L to 138L boards.
I just analysed my sessions for 2013, 74 sessions.
The gear used most of the time (54%) was a 94L board & 7.0M sail, mid range.
The average busy family man would be more than happy with 40 sessions a year so you don't need all that gear.
Good quality modern S/H Freeride gear:
1 board, 1 sail, 1 mast, 1 boom, 1 fin, approx $1200 - $1500.
This kit can also be quick, I often pass guys on race gear
I think the real problem is time. time to learn, time to rig, time to tune.
People are always looking for shortcuts so they look at simpler sports like golf, bike riding or SUP.
Windsurfing is just too difficult & requires too much effort for most people
I am still using my old gear. It's all over 20 years old. After getting married in 1990 I couldn't find the time to get out any more and the gear went into storage. The sails are old wavefoil pros and have de laminated the board a stew Martin wave slalom with a slotted fin. The mast a killwell 2 piece. The boom is a bent sunshine and I've just started using them again since the kids are all grown up and want to learn how to sail. My skill level is still there but my fitness isn't and I haven't even tried any new gear yet so I don't know any difference. Strange how quickly the wind watching and desire to be on the water constantly returned
