After some years of decline, windsurfing has started to grow again. Both as a recreational and as a competition sport. The transition from downward into upward trend came around 1999 when the new short & wide style generation of boards was first produced.
That was a major step forward. It turned the sport away from a specialist; elitists only image. (high wind and big waves). Suddenly, due to the wide style boards, the sport got a lot of street credibility. These new boards are far from elitist. Being extremely stable, they are suitable for beginners, providing excellent learning curves. But not only that, there was a huge impact on competition, now being able to plane in a mere 7 or 8 knots of wind. Gone were the pumping matches and the waiting on the beach for strong winds..
The success of these boards is reflected in today's sales figures. Over 90% of all boards sold world wide are short boards under 3 meter in length. Leading manufacturers such as Starboard and Bic (together 50% of the market) no longer even produce any boards longer than 3 meter and have no intention to change that in the near future.
Youth participation.
Looking at the age spread, one would get the impression that the majority of windsurfers is between 30 and 60 years old. Kids and teenagers are under-represented.
This has a few reasons:
- The afore mentioned elitist reputation. Hawaii conditions are not found at most inshore lakes.
- The available boards in schools and clubs to learn on and to compete with were long and heavy and had no appeal at all.
- The choice on many lake beaches in summer was:
Either being cool, sitting on the shore with a high wind board waiting for the rare winds to fill in
Or sailing with outdated, huge boards, looking totally uncool. Not surprisingly, windsurfing lost many youngsters to other sports.
- Less juniors and youth in competition meaning less coaches and less windsurfing and sailing clubs with a competition program.
- Less club activity also means that kids had to rely on their parents to get to and from the beach.
- Finally, in 2000, the windsurfing community shot itself in the foot by selecting an Olympic format without credibility in the eyes of many. Pumping around a course is not seen as windsurfing by windsurfers and is not media attractive for the general public. Strangely enough, ISAF with the reputation of being conservative was in favour of a change to short boards but a lobby from inside the windsurfing community prevented that. Result, less and less kids willing to take up a competition career. A steep downward spiral. It is not without reason that a once very popular junior & youth one design longboard class like the Aloha has died down to a level where hosting valid World Championships are no longer possible.
Equipment designed 10 or 15 years ago simply cannot be "sold" to juniors and youth any more.
A turn for the positive
Fortunately, the more progressive majority of the windsurfing community moved on. New feeder classes based on short boards are active and a lot of new kids are starting competition. What is more, sailing clubs are again interested in starting up competition programs and providing coaches. Leading countries such as France have switched to short board competition only for their youth programs. In the USA, short board racing is growing rapidly.
Now, once again, Olympic equipment has to be selected. A wiser decision this time is hopefully forthcoming.
Windsurfing and Olympic Games
ISAF is in the process of selecting suitable windsurfing equipment for the 2008 Olympics.
The question what is suitable however is very difficult to answer without addressing a few questions and agreeing on some basic principles. So far this fundamental analysis has not been made or at least not published. This leaves the selection process rather unclear and the outcome likely to be unsatisfactory. Questions that need an answer are:
1. What is the status of the Olympic games in sailing and windsurfing and what is it supposed to achieve?
A. the Olympic event, one person per country, once every 4 years, is the ultimate sailing event and everything else should be is just facilitating this event.
B. The Olympic games are the ultimate way to promote the sailing and windsurfing sport. In this case the entire Olympic process is the important. The 4 year cycle, the junior and youth feeder classes, the promotional aspects (media).
Choosing A or B will result in fundamentally different approaches an the answer to the windsurfing equipment question will be very different in each case.
If A is the starting point, than the equipment should be tailored to the event. The 2008 Olympics is predicted to be a very light wind event. (If that is going to actually be the case is a different matter). ISAF can make light work of the selection. The best possible equipment has already been tried and tested extensively: a Lechner with a modern 10sqm sail. Nothing, absolutely nothing can possible beat this combination in light winds.
If B is the starting point however, the outcome will be totally different. Here the question is what is the best possible equipment to promote windsurfing at all levels.
Items that play a part are:
- How is windsurfing defined by windsurfers and general public?
- What aspects of windsurfing attract potential new participants? Read what is popular with juniors and youth and the recreational windsurfer?
- How can the sport be made attractive for media? Apart from the ultimate sport event, the Olympics are first and foremost a giant media show and sailing/windsurfing has to fight with other sports to get some attention
- What about costs control and availability of equipment?
Some answers to the questions above can be given:
How is windsurfing seem by participants and interested TV viewers?
For windsurfers, sailing a board is all about planing. On very light days with less than 4 knots of wind, hardly any windsurfer will go on the water to sail. In the eyes of the general TV audience, windsurfing is a fast and dynamic sport. Not many will identify a 45 minute pumping race with windsurfing, or sailing for that matter. Let alone that anyone will be able to actually understand what is happening based on a few TV images of mark roundings and a finish. It will not generate much interest.
Getting new people into the sport.
As in any sport, kids identify themselves with the heroes of a sport. With all due respect to the Olympic campaigners, for 90% of the windsurfers and those potentially taking up the sport, the heroes are the professional sailors racing PWA and Eurocup events. Not many people will even know the names of potential Olympic medallists.
That can and will change when Olympic equipment is selected that resembles that used in professional racing. And professional sailors will consider an Olympic campaign. In this case, kids can identify themselves with both professional racers and Olympic Campaigners as it will be seen as the same sport instead of worlds apart as in the present situation.
The principle of identification with heroes and their equipment is reflected very well in the sales figures of equipment that has many features with race equipment in common. In the very active internet forums where racing and equipment is discussed. And in the fact that feeder classes using similar equipment are gaining in popularity rapidly.
Media coverage
It is beyond any doubt that the short wide boards are far more suitable to attractive media coverage than any long boards can ever hope to be. And media coverage is important. Conditions for successful media coverage are short races on simple courses that fall within the attention span of the average viewer (and fit in between commercial breaks). And, the image must be attractive an dynamic. In other words, fast moving boards and rapid manoeuvres. Let us be frank, nobody wants to watch a bunch of pumping sails for more than a few minutes.
With the new style boards races are far shorter (15-20 minutes). Boards move at higher speeds. Start to plane early. Are capable to sail fast at all wind angles making creative course layouts possible without compromising the sport. Pumping is far less an issue.
Availability and cost
The new style boards and sails are available world wide at competitive prices due to the market competition between brands. Some feeder classes reduce the cost even more by limitation of equipment.
2. One design? The always present question.
For some reason, sailing and with it windsurfing, values one design. Many other Olympic sports have long left that position behind. Skiing, Ice skating, Bicycle racing to name but a few. It is a bit of a mystery why one design in sailing is valued so much as there are many sound arguments against it. But before going into that, the very important question is how to define one design. It is clear that none of the present Olympic classes is truly one design, including windsurfing. The problems with the present IMCO One Design are well known. At the moment, all boards built in previous years are banned from racing at major events. So much for one design.
A true one design is not easy. It requires the use of high quality moulds in a very controlled production environment. (Temperature, relative humidity). Problems increase in case of multi manufacturer one designs. Too often, one of the manufacturers builds the fastest design and the class becomes de facto a one manufacturer class.
As said, the arguments in favour of one design (cost, easy selection and level playing field) are not really valid for windsurfing.
The arguments against are stronger.
Equal playing field? Well, people are not one design and thus one design equipment will favour some and disqualify others. It is well known that the present one design only permits light sailors. Multi design allows competitors to select equipment that suits their weight and length and allow more people to compete on a level playing field.
Easy selection? It may actually be harder to select the best possible matches from within the building tolerances which as shown in the present equipment can be huge. Many IMCO sailors have a lot of sails and masts to choose from. All slightly different.
Cost? A monopoly is never cheap. You fully depend on one manufacture. Nowhere else to go for better deals. Competition between brands will always improve both quality, price and availability. And as said above, if variations in the one design concept exist, buying many masts, sails and boards to select the best combination will not make OD racing very cheap.
3. Olympics, a reflection of the sport?
While the Olympic discipline does not need to be an exact copy of professional side of a sport, it is indeed very rare or possibly even unique for the Olympic discipline to differ as much from the main stream of the sport is representing, as it does in windsurfing.
- As said, 90% of all boards sold are below 3 meters in length. Both in competitive and recreational windsurfing.
- Outside the Olympic circuit, the present Olympic One Design is neither raced nor sailed or sold. One will look in vain for such equipment in any windsurfing shop.
- Virtual all major regattas world wide are short board regattas. Both at professional level (PWA, Eurocup, Asian Windsurfing Tour) as at feeder level. Long board racing is fast becoming a niche market or is limited to regattas directly linked to the Eurolymp events.
- More and more national programs outside the direct scope of the Olympics are short board only. A leading nation such as France is an example.
Of course, Olympic equipment requires a somewhat different approach than full on professional racing. An arms race is not consistent with the Olympic idea. A problem that can easily be overcome however by, for Olympic equipment, freezing development for an Olympic cycle.
While a another wrong choice would not kill windsurfing, it would seriously hamper the development of the sport.
Both windsurfing and sailing would benefit from an attractive Olympic representation that is in line with what is happening elsewhere.
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