Those guys are awesome. Anyone know what size boards and rigs they would be using there?
my best mate spent 3 months in margs while thjis was being shot... he sailed everyday, i spent 6 months in WA and now he is alot better than me... dang!..
that board gollito is sailing is a custom 83ish slalom board with real sharp rails cause he wanted to be the "FASTEST" and runs with a 10cm fin.. reckon hesdoin about 30knts into those tripples.. and max reckons gollito is doing doublespock into burners, which he doesnrt make in 2for10..
u can book holidays here for next season at clubvass.com full 2009 kit and 5.0 4.7 everyday... or come to greece with vass over winter....
My shoulder hurts just watching this...
And Barn, I think you'd be negligent if you didn't mention the other thing Margs is known for...http://www.boards.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19732&KW=margs
its just ending now cause all our staff are coming across to vassiliki, so basically our summer, id say the off season also has more wind than WA in summer.. its pretty choppy so youll learn your gybe and then youll be able to do one anywhere anyime
def awesome stuff,mind boggling......and they recon big guys sailing fast in straight lines on flat water are skilled!!!!
My knees were hurting just watching that.
Oh to be 20 odd years younger and tallented.
Great vid
Just like any day on the Australind Estuary, only difference is we don't have quite such tall palm trees though
yea a bug went around this season, they found the cure, take one teaspoon of concrete and harden the F*&K up!! but probs wont be around next season!!
Impressive video.
Reminds me of the two weeks holiday I had there a few years back. An awesome place with the best holiday vibe, oh yeah and wind every day.
Sure they're using computer graphics at times as some of the moves defy the laws of physics.
Get some of that action onto OZ tv, summer bay or whatever it's called and then the kids will want in!
That's the reason the surfing scene is so big, it's on all the ads & soaps, expose the kids to it, they don't even know it exists.
People just think Wallies when you mention windsurfing, tried it or saw it 20 years ago and it was toooo hard.
Turn that clip into a Coke ad at the start of summer and you would see some instant interest.
Even the danglers would have to admit thats good.
I've never been to Margs, but don't rule out Dahab, Egypt. It's windy year-round. I spent a few months there, and generally you don't bother going out if you can't sail a 5.7m... My last stint there I had a 4.7 and a 5.3 permanently rigged, never touched the 5.7, and sometimes had to resort to a 4.2. It's also CHEAP when you get there. You'll probably get sick when you get there as well from the food, (The Dahab Dash), but go to the pharmacy the moment you get the SLIGHTEST twinge and ask for Green Pills - you'll be fixed in 24 hours. I spent the equivalent of 4 months solid sailing there, and went from being unable to gybe a "shortboard" to being able to speedloop and just about Vulcan. As for the gear, you've got it in one - dedicated 98 litre freestyle board (F2 Chilli is my weapon of choice) and a 4.7 to a 5.3... and a tiny fin (you won't be using it much!)
Oh, you mob in Victoria have got one of the most perfect freestyle venues in the world on your doorstep - Sandy Point! As long as you can dodge the speed nutters, it's nothing short of perfect...
Being back the wind, I wanna go backwards...
That sounds like a fairly negative outlook. I think it gives people starting out something to look forward to. If you want to just flap around in 10 knots on a long board then thats fine but I dont see how people taking their skills as far as possible can be bad for anything. The other thing with freestyle is that you dont need amazing conditions. I got some freestyle gear for last summer to try and learn a few things and it turned out to be a good move. All the guys that only have wave gear had a pretty slow season. The freestyle gear lets you get out in heaps less wind and if theres no swell its still fun. There should be more people in oz getting into it.
Yeah, you are right Paul and Hoops. Does the sight of Tiger Woods put people off golf or Roger Federer off tennis? - not a bit. The airing of extraordinary expertise can only earn the sport respect. It might help identify the sport with kids again. In the poley/kitey wars the perjoritive most often thrown at windsurfing is that it is associated with geriatrics.
> Does the sight of Tiger Woods put people off golf or Roger Federer off tennis?
Not the same. In golf or tennis, I do the same as the pros, just much less good. A difference in degree.
At windsurfing, most just are not doing anything (whatsoever) like them.
> I think it gives people starting out something to look forward to.
People, as you call them, have had some 20 years of watching freestyle: VHS and videos and now Tubes. And yet very, very few do it, be it North America or Australia.
Looks like having something to look forward to don't change their not taking it up. It falls in the "too difficult" category, and so be it. Those who stick at it happen to be good early.
> There should be more people in oz getting into it
Only the missus ever tells me what I should be doing all the time.
As long as they go out and have a good time, live and let live.
How about motorsport.. Motorcross for example.. How much air time does amateur motorcross get as opposed to pro level FMX for example? or go-karting/formula ford as opposed to the V8 supercars? The top end, contemporary stuff is what gets the punters interested..
I have seen Chris249's perspective repeated quite frequently on this forum (every post he makes it seems!), and while I agree that Wallys and one designs have, and had their place, and he's obviously very passionate about them, bringing up the historical boom in the 80s on this forum doesn't help the sport today.
As far as I can tell the "Back in my day sonny.." line only serves to turn off the younger generations. What will help is figuring out what will catch the eye of the future market, and running with it.
Kiting has us beat there - lots of bling, colour, and attitude. It's easy to learn, easy to transport and store, and you can rapidly see that the step from doing the beginner cruising stuff to the extreme dingle-dangle spinny stuff is as simple as not paying attention for 0.5 seconds. None of that stuff applies to wally or OD gear. It's heavy, bulky, and lets face it, today's old people used to do it.
The newer stuff has more bling factor, and we seem to be getting a bit more colour back too, but it is still bulky (compared to kiting), and requires more effort to get good(again - compared to kiting).
The plastic sit-on-top kayak market has taken over much of the 'Chris249 niche' where windsurfing was 'back in the day'.. they're bright colours, accessible, not overly energetic, can be used in stuff all wind, and the price is right for the market. And like the windsurfing equipment of old, there are plenty of them sitting in peoples sheds because the fad has passed. Not many of them have gone out and bought a whitewater kayak, or sea kayak as a result of the sit-on-top, but I bet that some of them were inspired to buy the sit-on-top by seeing one of those other more specialised genres of the sport.
I say don't blame the specialised genres - these things seem to have a natural lifespan... like flared jeans, and corduroy, and kiting.
Sure, flares and corduroy still work well as pants.. they're just not where it's at any more.
we have to be careful where this part of the sport goes! Have a look at the attached vid, Id hate to see the same thing happen too windsurfing
You sound like you've been whipped into submission pierrec. You seem to be telling us that not many people do freestyle in Aus at the moment and thats the way it should stay.
It is a good way to make average conditions more fun and also gets you on the water more often. If your happy with your wally board then thats good but there's no need to talk others into not learning something new. As for only doing what your missus lets you do ,well thats hardly anyone here's problem.
I have been watching guys on the river this season & some only started sailing this season, yet they are already doing freestyle tricks (pity they don't look before hand).
The young kids pick this stuff up really quick because they are dead keen.
Young kids only want to do extreme stuff these days and this is one way to attract them to the sport, once they're in they will try other stuff like wave & speed.
Everyone sees kites because they are highly visible, either in close to shore, in the air or in the news.
Freestyle can be done in close to shore & people can actually see it.
No-one sees slalom racing because it's too far off-shore for spectators and doesn't look exciting anyway (to the general public)
Are there any teachers out there that could get a DVD shown at their school for sport or PE, I'll bet the kids would be excited.
This is a chance to grow the sport in Oz, maybe the Clubs, Associations, Importers & Shops should try a different approach.
I believe sponsored sailors should be visiting the beaches and giving demos when not on tour & competing.
We have the F2 Team in Perth most of summer & get to see them training and sailing with the rest of us and it's great to watch.
I believe this alone has resulted in an increase in freestyle in Perth.
Expose the kids to it and they will be busting to try it.
I don't think anyone's saying this is isn't brilliant stuff that's not exciting and can't be inspirational; it's just that promoting windsurfing may not be as simple as just showing the extreme end of the sport and then watching it grow. Arguably, that's what caused the collapse of the boom (and that's a point of view supported by many of the top people in the industry).
Is it negative to point this out? No way. It's much more positive than just saying that the sport is at the mercy of wider trends and we have to accept that. Is it negative to put forward a case that there have been errors in the past that we can learn from? No way!
BTW, extreme sports are generally not very popular; the most popular kid's sports are old ones; kids I know don't seem to have any problems with "back in the day", in fact they tell me that worrying about generation gaps is old fashioned ; and motor racing has huge spectator appeal and enormous sponsorship yet has no more participants than sailing, and it's been used as an example by the top sports survey company in Oz to show that publicity does not equal participation. It's not a great example to follow.
This forum has gone to schit. On this thread we've got people saying we shouldnt be encouraging the more performance aspects of windsurfing because it's too extreme for the general public and most people would find it too hard. Another thread has people pannicking because they have kitesurfers on a few postcards. Now some anonimous tool has started up some crap about boards designed for gays.
If there are image problems in windsurfing then theres your answers.
