MatStirl said..

windsufering said..

RichardG said..
Will the LT be at Sail Melbourne ?

No the Glide is

Too many classes.
The Glide looks great (looks similar to my Mistral Prodigy) but how will it ever develop a class following in such a saturated market.

LT - all ages/poor (time or financial)
Techno - junior
Foil - senior/rich

Rest just need to fade away.
Sad to see raceboard go mind you.

You assume by reducing classes you will concentrate the sailors and increase the fleets of the few remaining ones. My bet is the outcome would be a small increase in the remaining classes but an overall reduction in participation. Why would you seek that outcome.

Not sure why you bring up kite foiling, it's a completely different sport and far far more niche than windfoiling. I have never ever seen a local kitefoil race in NSW. Sure the world HPT had a round in Sydney but save for that is there organised racing anywhere on the east coast? You can't really rock up with one at most local sailing clubs.

Speed wise, nothing short of an AC50/SailGP machine can compete with them...and you know what in some conditions I reckon they'd struggle against them, the Olympic kitefoil isn't quite in the same league as the setups on the hydrofoil Pro tour but would still smoke a windfoil. But again what's the point rally comparing them?

Speaking to the topic, anything that brings people back to the sport is a good thing. Here's how I see the LT; It's something you have in the shed and crack it out on a sat Arvo to have a fun race down at the local club. It's cheap, easy to sail and it's appeal is aimed smack at people who used to do that exact thing 30 years ago. Yep, cool, love it. Kids will sail one because mum or dad have one, however, as soon as most kids see someone on a foil, in my opinion they'll want one. Because it's now the Olympic class the junior pathways will hopefully develop. Now there's costs and all sorts of other things associated with that but we can only hope.

That said it's pretty tough to get kids interested in this sort of stuff these days. When I was younger our junior fleet was probably triple the size of the entire current fleet at my old club these days....that says a lot. And it's the same everywhere.

"In any event, good thing there is LT, Techno, Raceboard, Glide and other classes to satiate the masses."

What masses? How many surfers are really participating in races? 2 from hundert?

In germany on our lake: 160 surf club members plus 40-50 regular windsurfers coming to our location (it's one of the best lake in Northern bavaria): 1 woman is doing successful speedsurfing and 2 guys are competing in slalom races. So it will be <2-3%.
And no regular surfer cares about it.

In Greece (we have a house) from 150-200 surfers in the argolic gulf: 1 friend is top 3 national championship in slalom, my best friend does slalom in the master class.
A few years ago my best friend organized a formula event in the argolic gulf - it was a great success - but many many of the regular surfers complaint, that during these racing days there were blocked parts on water and on beach for the races :-)

During the olympic games with Nikos Kaklamanakis (who won several titles and medals) long long ago, the greece surfer cared that years about the olympic windsurfing. Some bought the RB class boards these years - I havn't seen them on water for many years now.
The olympic class was helpful for us windsurfers.

Is kiting or now kitefoiling so successful, because it's good to racing (and faster as iFOIL) - no.
It's so successful, because it's easy to learn, cheap, easy to transport, cool, fast and modern. The opposite of LT.
Why should people outside of surfing (the thread question was: is LT saving or destroying WS) - choose a LT to learn and perform surfing?

LT will be a successfull racing class for an fast aging sport. If I would care about the future of windsurfing, my hope would be a combinationboard able to provide SL and Foil.

P.s. we have LT in Europe and a friend in our surf-forum is taking part in the races and tells us. I surfed in the eighties Div.2 und RB (Browning Kevlar) boards, but I went immediately to short fast boards, when available. I planned to buy a LT, but after a long Foil saison I don't see a need for me anymore. Flying begins in 7-8 knots.

RichardG said..
We have probably close to 40 in WA and we had 20 in a race just over a week ago. That is not bad and its as good as IMCO (a dead class) was for a while in the same location perhaps better in terms of numbers as it is more accessible and clubs are buying the LT for youth training. Germany and Greece might be different but so be it. Glad you are enjoying foiling (which is great by the way) on the lake and if the LT one design course racing, slalom and freestyle are not for you then good for you. We have ex PWA wave world champions, SUP champs and top windsurfers and foilers in the LT WA fleet so there are many who do different classes and even skiff champs and former Americas cup sailors. We are getting large fleets in Australia at State and National level larger than most other sailing classes. That has got to be a good thing.

It is a good thing and I don't think the increase in numbers has been at the expense of other classes in Australia which makes it a really good thing.

cammd said..

MatStirl said..

windsufering said..

RichardG said..
Will the LT be at Sail Melbourne ?

No the Glide is

Too many classes.
The Glide looks great (looks similar to my Mistral Prodigy) but how will it ever develop a class following in such a saturated market.

LT - all ages/poor (time or financial)
Techno - junior
Foil - senior/rich

Rest just need to fade away.
Sad to see raceboard go mind you.

You assume by reducing classes you will concentrate the sailors and increase the fleets of the few remaining ones. My bet is the outcome would be a small increase in the remaining classes but an overall reduction in participation. Why would you seek that outcome.

That's your outcome. Not mine.
I do think manufacturers produce too many varieties of gear these days and we buy it which doesn't help race fleets.

Bigger fleets would inspire and maintain more interest than small disparate fleets. I've only bought the LT to race in a fleet. If lots were sailing the raceboard or Techno I'd get that.

We got 6 LT's at my local club the other day. Before that there were no windsurfers racing. Ever.

News from the Siam Cup.

The family is growing at Siam Cup: 7 Cobranded distributors FOR THE WINDSURFER LT: Mistral, Naish, Exocet, Windsurfer class, I-99, Starboard and the news of the day NSP (surf and paddle brand). The class is going gangbusters !

I understand Severne is next.

jusavina said..
Which one is faster?

The sailor is more important and determines the speed since it is one design. I think the Exocet one looks the best.

The one with the mistral scheme. Oh the nostalgia...

I don't get the co branding.
I know it's just some livery but I like even a non sailor knowing it's the same gear/brand.
Big companies only have one logo after all.

the point is that more boards made equals cheaper production.

jusavina said..
Which one is faster?

All of them??

MatStirl said..
For me too many brands/varieties of gear and ignoring beginners/intermediates is what wrecked windsurf racing in the first place.

I'd like the 'Windsurfer' to stick it up the brands and dominate the race market on their own.

The great myth: "the industry is ignoring the beginners"

For just a few over the last 25+ years:
HiFly Revo, Motion, Mambo
Starboard Starts, Gos and Rios, Serenity
Mistral Superlight II, Prodigy, Ntrance; Pacifico (both the SII and Prodigy were intended to be OD classes)
F2 Phoenix, Discovery
Fanatic Viper
Kona everything
Bic Novas, Techno 293OD/180, Beach
JP Funster
Exocet Cruiser
Bic, Exocet, Naish, JP Windsups plus windsups from probably a dozen other companies I don't know about.
A crapton of inflatables from Mistral Windglider to modern inflatable windsup and planing boards.

I've owned at least six boards off this list.

Paducah said..

MatStirl said..
For me too many brands/varieties of gear and ignoring beginners/intermediates is what wrecked windsurf racing in the first place.

I'd like the 'Windsurfer' to stick it up the brands and dominate the race market on their own.

The great myth: "the industry is ignoring the beginners"

For just a few over the last 25+ years:
HiFly Revo, Motion, Mambo
Starboard Starts, Gos and Rios, Serenity
Mistral Superlight II, Prodigy, Ntrance; Pacifico (both the SII and Prodigy were intended to be OD classes)
F2 Phoenix, Discovery
Fanatic Viper
Kona everything
Bic Novas, Techno 293OD/180, Beach
JP Funster
Exocet Cruiser
Bic, Exocet, Naish, JP Windsups plus windsups from probably a dozen other companies I don't know about.
A crapton of inflatables from Mistral Windglider to modern inflatable windsup and planing boards.

I've owned at least six boards off this list.

you should have just bought a windsurfer. a lot cheaper, and almost unbreakable.

the Lt and WOD all play together now.

i think you guys answered your own question re co branding.

we should all look to the industry that put ego and image behind them and joined forces for the good of the sport.

get over the mines bigger and better than yours bull**** and just go sailing.

cammd said..

Gestalt said..

Paducah said..

MatStirl said..
For me too many brands/varieties of gear and ignoring beginners/intermediates is what wrecked windsurf racing in the first place.

I'd like the 'Windsurfer' to stick it up the brands and dominate the race market on their own.

The great myth: "the industry is ignoring the beginners"

For just a few over the last 25+ years:
HiFly Revo, Motion, Mambo
Starboard Starts, Gos and Rios, Serenity
Mistral Superlight II, Prodigy, Ntrance; Pacifico (both the SII and Prodigy were intended to be OD classes)
F2 Phoenix, Discovery
Fanatic Viper
Kona everything
Bic Novas, Techno 293OD/180, Beach
JP Funster
Exocet Cruiser
Bic, Exocet, Naish, JP Windsups plus windsups from probably a dozen other companies I don't know about.
A crapton of inflatables from Mistral Windglider to modern inflatable windsup and planing boards.

I've owned at least six boards off this list.

you should have just bought a windsurfer. a lot cheaper, and almost unbreakable.

the Lt and WOD all play together now.

i think you guys answered your own question re co branding.

we should all look to the industry that put ego and image behind them and joined forces for the good of the sport.

get over the mines bigger and better than yours bull**** and just go sailing.

If that were to happen none of us would even have footstraps let alone other modern innovations

its ok to be uninformed. the WOD has footstraps.

Paducah said..

Gestalt said..

you should have just bought a windsurfer. a lot cheaper, and almost unbreakable.

And totally unsuitable for the task at hand for my needs when I bought my boards. Not to mention in my part of the world, the WOD hasn't been seen in the wild for about 25+ yrs. Quite trying to pretend that the WOD/LT is the answer to all problems for everyone - it's not. It does certain things very well. Other things, not so much.

Back to my original point which you did not dispute: the industry has been making beginner friendly boards pretty consistently over time. We, as the windsurfing general public, chose not to buy them. That's on us.

There's not much fundamentally different with the LT vs a dozen other similar boards other than the critical mass of enough nostalgia to get people to buy them.

you choose not to buy them but many many did chose to buy them.

your just being argumentative. you say the LT/Wod doesnt suit your needs then go on to say its fundamentally the same as the boards you bought which you listed above and bought at least 6 of.