At the WindWanderers we have been looking at how to encourage new blood into the sport over the last few meets.

During yesterdays meet a few of us gathered around the bbq and talked through some ideas.

Lookkc came up wih an idea which i believe to be a winner.

A "Windsurfing Library". So we are now endeavouring to put the idea in place.

what we are looking for is as much secondhand gear as we can find. from wally's through to slalom boards 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 there own gear, decide to borrow something else or a 5 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.
Plus 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. a web page will be set up on the windwanderers site to show what is borrowed and what is available.

To kick the idea off i am offerring the following gear into the library.

1 2000 model 6.2M Naish alana slalom sail
2 2/alloy booms
3 the aloha classic vhs cassette.
4 40cm early 90 speed needle. ()

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.

great idea, but i think you may find a problem with people putting gear into the library and taking out other gear to try, almost as though people who can already windsurf are just swapping rigs. therefore the gear wouldnt be availible for newbies to borrow...
just a thought! best of luck though hey!

Hey Gestalt,

I have a tyronsea 380 board with center board which is still undergoing a replacement of the fin box thou.
I only have 1 suitable mast extension and one 1 peice mast which I am willing to donate. I can also round up a boom and sail for it. I have a 6.0 NP Gybe and 6.5 NP V8 Street racer, but nothing very suitable for beginners. I used to use this gear actually as my main kit, it rocketed along in a good bit of wind.

How are you going to organise the library? Photo archive showing all equipment and whats in or out of the library? Does the owner hang on to the gear until someone actually decides thats what they want to borrow? Who shows them how to best rig the gear - the orginal owner or people at a WW meet?

Brilliant idea by the way

I also think if we could organise to produce a video showing beginers and advanced sailors alike on the water and hearing some descriptions etc in face to face type video sequences would be good and then take that to schools to attract teenagers from local schools into the sport would be good? what do you think? They could then perhaps have access to the 'library' etc etc

if anyone has anything they think may be of use let us know. could be an old mast. or a board with no rig etc. we can use it all.

sounds awesome guys, best of luck

Got an old mast and some other bits to add

Instead of taking your old unwanted sh1t to the tip just chuck it in the windsurfing library
You will have a choice of tiga, tiga or tiga
There will be fibreglass masts which flake fibreglass, sails that dont set right coz they are on sh1tty masts and flexy booms on a plastic board that weighs a ton
What a way to be introduced to windsurfing
Loan a kit, it falls to pieces, breaks and tears and your p1ssed off coz your experience sucked and your stuck with the repair bill
Maybe accept nothing under the year 2000 models

Greenroom- dont cry too much. Mate every region of australia will whinge about others, and there is a really simple answer- dont read em, no one is holding a gun to your head there.

(The Bay) Sounds hardcore hey, yer you're right i mean it only produced 1 multiple world champion.

You are right in some of the things you say though, people will have to be matched to what they want pretty carefully. That said no one has suggested bad gear so far, and as for fibreglass splinters nothing a coat of paint (short term) or resin wont fix. For all the latest high tech gear I use, I have fun getting on a learner board and fooling around on rare occasion. When i do I dont care if the boom flexes etc. The only thing that pisses me off about old gear is those damn UJ's where you jam your toes trying to downhaul with. Maybe it's just i'm not hardcore enough though, I mean i dont wait around till it's 30knots or logo high before I hit the water

And as for learners and new gear making it all easy- I call BS on that to a certain extent, every person i've taught has been up and sailing back and forth within an hour and that includes a couple of small chicks. This was all long before wide boards and skinny masts.

guys

Its great that you all want to get new people into the sport but from my experience (been sailing since 1979, in the industry since 81) putting people onto old narrow boards and heavily battend sails slows down the learning curve. I teach at manly every second sunday and we are booked out all the time we use 90cm wide boards with centreboards and 4.0 soft sails . For a cost of $50.00 .
I thinnk we all tend to forget what we went through when we where learning on the older gear. Who is going to show people who get gear through the libary how to rig etc

Jeesus Greenroom, I've never read such turgid drivel in my life. What are you on? What ever it is, I wouldn't be making any important decisions, or driving, or even crossing the road til I was well and truly over it if I were you.

quote:

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Originally posted by racycoot

I believe it may be a substance known on the streets as "adrenalin". corros can do that to ya.

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So can cars, sharks and women but there's no need to get elitist about it.

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i think you are rude!

pardons are for gentlemen.

you're numbers are all a bit low there Gestalt I think, BC would remember best.

No doubt WA has awesome conditions but I think it's down the list a bit on being the home grounds for top level aussie sailors- NSW would definately have to be in first place.

errr back on topic