The WindWanderers club has been looking at how to encourage new blood into the sport at recent meets. During one of the meets a few of us gathered around the bbq and talked through some ideas.

One idea, which i believe to be a winner, was a Windsurfing Library.
(Nice work Kerry, great idea!)

So after lots of discussions we have now put the idea in place and built our "Windsurfing Library" http://www.windwanderers.com/Library.html

What we are looking for is as much secondhand gear as we can find. from wally's through to slalom boards and including sails, masts booms extensions etc.

"How it Works"

New comers to the sport and short board beginners borrow the gear from the "library" and use it until they purchase their own gear, decide to borrow something else or a 6 week period expires. if no one else is after the gear then they can borrow the gear again.

The persons that donate the gear to the library remain the owner of the gear. they can request the gear back at anytime and even borrow other gear if they want to try something different. (an example would be someone who has an old wally but wants to try short board sailing. they could borrow a short board from the library and then lend their wally to the library for someone else to use.)

the conditions would be that the user is expected to carry out any repairs due to damage and look after all gear and the gear will only be available to members.

The advantages with this idea are that it makes it free for people to enter the sport. allows each individual to go sailing whenever they desire and means that the WindWanderers don't have to buy a trailer to cart all the gear around for people to use at each meet.

that said, we encourage all new comers to get proper lessons before borrowing equipment to make the most of there time.

The idea can also be used for books, dvd's and anythng else that people see fit. The windWanderers will be the librarians as such and help everyone link together to provide the gear.

So if anyone wants to get involved. has some gear out in the back shed that hasn't seen daylight in years or just wants to put something back into the sport then please, please, please help as much as you can. We hope that once we get a pool of gear it will help expand the sport in QLD.

This idea is in it's infancy so if anyone has any other ideas, suggestions etc please don't hesitate to post. we are particularly looking for kids gear as well.

cheers
Gestalt.

i agree, aweseome idea

déjà vu

Bloody awesome.

Anyone in Perth want to set it up? All we need is storage space, I've got some quality stuff to donate already. I believe very strongly in such a concept but can't be too involved in the admin as I live in the country.

Anyone?

PS top stuff windwanderers!

If at first you dont succeed... try, try again