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Originally posted by Chris 249

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Originally posted by laff77

Its different horses for different courses. I compare windsurfing and kiting to skiing and snowboarding. Kiting and snowboarding are both much easier to pick up the basics and get going at a decent level compared with windsurfing which can take seasons to get really good at!

We need events like Carbo Verde '07 publicised to the masses in greater volume to show people how the sport has evolved and how exciting it can be. The thing I notice the most is when you tell a non-water person that I windsurf, the first thing they say is "oh is that the kite thing?" When you say no, they say oh yeah I remember trying that years ago and kept falling off. Its then very difficult to change people's perception that the sport has evolved and board design has gotten to the point where a complete novice can be cruising about in half an hour.

Am going to get my girlfriend into the sport this summer and have kept my GO board for this sole purpose. I have warned her, not to expect great things too early and that she really has to WANT to windsurf to get good at it. I would love to get more people into this sport. Its more than just getting out lots, its that passion that only windsurfers understand. How do we bottle it and market it?

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I don't think we can sell the radical stuff to the masses. The sport has been trying to do that for over 20 years now. They used to get 250,000 LIVE spectators to the Dutch round of the World Cup, so truckloads (okay, more than truckloads) of people have seen all that stuff - but they no longer windsurf. We used to get televised contests in Sydney - but now the sport here is a tiny fraction of what it used to be.

Maybe, after 20+ years of trying to push the radical angle, we can admit it's not working?
After all, what similar sports are there that are really popular? Mountain biking and surfing are designed more about "real world" conditions. In sailing, only a small (or tiny) minority do the spectacular stuff. The fact is that the activities that people actually do are pretty laid back or conventional things, like cricket, walking, bushwalking and fishing.....or look at kayaking, which is a boom sport around the world.

Australia's top survey of sports participation, publicity nad sponsorship has said it loud, clear and simple - there is no decent relationship between the publicity a sport gets, and the participants it gets. It may seem strange, but it's a fact.

The undeniable fact is that windusrfing was huge when it was about less demanding sailing - it was about sailing in light winds, which people can actually DO without spending those years of learning you write about.

The sports that are doing well are generally making it EASIER for people to reach a decent standard - windsurfing is making it harder. I sail boats as well as boards. If you told people that they couldn't "really" sail until they'd done an ocean race or sailed an 18 Foot Skiff, they'd drop out of teh sport - yet we do something similar by saying that you're not "really" windsurfing unless you're on a shortboard in a planing breeze. Sure, let's hope they get there - but putting the bar too high just puts people off.

By the way, we have taught dozens of people on old longboards. Put a decent little rig on them, and they do a great job. They have less lateral stability, but staying upwind is much less of a problem and in the ligth winds beginners like, the longboard is actually fast enough to give them some sensation.

So why tell your girlfriend that she has to put years into it to become a windsurfer - why not tell her that as soon as she can get the board moving and have fun, she is a windsurfer - because that is the truth.

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