Can you believe that they are having to make a choice between kite boarding and windsurfing for the 2016 summer Olympics...What can kite boarding bring to the Olympics, a fashion contest, best hang time...In a tree, Most kids they can terrorize in a swimming zone.

In the Neilpryde book there is a question asking "What may surprise people about the Pryde Group"...There is a quote from Neil himself saying that if windsurfing doesn't become profitable that we may see the Pryde Group walk away from the sport...Maybe this will be the death of Neilpryde in windsurfing.

Windsurfing will never be profitable to the extent mr. pryde wants. Maybe he should put more into promoting windsurfing outside of windsurfing rather than to windsurfers- might be way off but im thinking people buy based on price & availability rather than pretty ads in a magazine, results on pwa would probably influence market more.

Re: olympics class- pryde is reaping what he sowed, the problem with brand ownership of a class is the rest of the industry is going to leave you swinging & no one brand has enough strength to promote as it should. It will be interesting to see if kites go the same way, i'm guessing not- I dont think skiers, snowboarders, kayakers, cyclists etc etc have to be on 1 registered type/brand. In no wind, sailboards can float. Kites cant unless they develop bigger boards & more performance oriented light wind kites.

Neil is an excellent business mind but I think he's made an error this time- not a real good comment to make. All those pryde owner's, prospective owner's & shops investing in his brand might not have support in the future.

I heard Michael Phelps swam in the windsurfing race and he won the windsurfing race and they had to close the windsurfing race..

Hopefully just shooting other kiters...

mkseven said...

Windsurfing will never be profitable to the extent mr. pryde wants. Maybe he should put more into promoting windsurfing outside of windsurfing rather than to windsurfers- might be way off but im thinking people buy based on price & availability rather than pretty ads in a magazine, results on pwa would probably influence market more.

Re: olympics class- pryde is reaping what he sowed, the problem with brand ownership of a class is the rest of the industry is going to leave you swinging & no one brand has enough strength to promote as it should. It will be interesting to see if kites go the same way, i'm guessing not- I dont think skiers, snowboarders, kayakers, cyclists etc etc have to be on 1 registered type/brand. In no wind, sailboards can float. Kites cant unless they develop bigger boards & more performance oriented light wind kites.

Neil is an excellent business mind but I think he's made an error this time- not a real good comment to make. All those pryde owner's, prospective owner's & shops investing in his brand might not have support in the future.

To be fair, the advent of the NP trailers this year is the best promotion of windsurfing to new people in years.
As far as the Olympics go, all sailing classes are One Design classes. That's an IOC thing to level the playing field and find the best competitor, not the one with the deepest pockets. It used to be Mistral, now it seems to be Pryde, not sure if it was something else while I wasn't looking. Not sure that any manufacturer could do it differently.
Windsurfing seems to need to be carried as a non-profit thing at pretty much every level, at least here in Oz these days, maintained for the love of it by the people who do.
It's a good question as to how long that can continue.

There is a difference between one design & one make.

Interested in the Numbers quoted here...2+Million Windsurfers in Germany alone thats staggering, I struggle to believe its correct, with 80ish Million pop, your talking 2.5% of the population that windsurf.
Wonder what it would be here in Australia, has anyone any idea? I'm thinking it would be more like 0.0002.5% of the population?

I'm no expert but Germany only has one coast and it snows half the year,

Interested to see if our participation rate in the sport is much lower than other country's , I have a horid feeling it is.... as they said in the Cadbury Chocky Adds...'why is it so Professor' ?!

There are many lakes in Germany to windsurf on. Many keen German windsurfers travel to various coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to go windsurfing regularly. Windsurfing to Germans is what surfing is to many Aussies, a sport with an image and aura.

Has anyone ever watched a kite surfing event on TV? I watched one a couple of months ago. The event was somewhere in Asia, perhaps Vietnam. The competition seemed to revolved around two different styles.

Firstly kiters boosting then doing sort of skateboard tricks like rail grabs along with a whole bunch of dangling twists.

Secondly they were racing on funny looking boards with big kites. They did not seem to be going all that fast and it wasn't terribly exciting. It was about as interesting to watch as Olympic windsurfing so its probably in with a chance to be included.

Let them have Olympic kitesurfing. It won't do anything for the sport as a whole. Windsurfing would probably be better off without having an Olympic discipline.

Is it worth noting that the Olympics includes synchronised swimming ? I think that says a lot about the relevance overall.
I've often wondered where the synchronised swimmers go to between Olympics.
I mean, does anyone actually know anyone who does it as a sport ??

KenHo how can you not know the individual team members names from the Bulgarian synchronised swimming squad??????????????

Seriously though I dont think that a place in the Olympics adds credibility to a sport. A TV deal on Fuel TV maybe. Truth is that we have been talking about the impending death of our beloved sport for the last 20 years and it has been through some really tough times, still it survives, and some would say is flourishing. Unfortunately though I dont think we do the right thing in promoting the sport, it is technical and it is difficult to learn and expensive. All not good things in todays must have it now world. SUP windsurfing in the waves will make the sport more attractive I think, increased colour in gear (thank god that is coming back). Now the big one, smaller manufacturers that appeal to the crew, just like surfing. Step 2 lets demystify the whole rigging up thing. I dont mean dumb it down I mean demystify it. So lets all learn about synchronised swimming

pierrec45 said...

Synchronised, diving and others anachronistic oddities: in-between Olympics, they seem to compete amongst themselves for the next Olympic cycle...

I know a few of those oddballs (synchro, figure skating, speed skating, skeleton), they're nice folks and not cocky nor equipment-driven.

Whereas we windsurfers are nice folks

Skeleton racers are easy to find. You just check the nearest $140 million sliding centre. There are only 13 in the world, I think.
I did the "Skeleton Experience" at the Whistler Centre in March, which was the last 6 corners, trap speed was 98kph. It was OK, but to do a good time, you have to slump like a sack of potatoes and not lift your head, which means a close view of the ice, with your chin scraping. I have to say it was a bit of a let-down. Not really that much fun. 4 man bob has a better view, I think, but even then, only one guy gets to steer.
Skating is fun though. Steve Bradbury is tied up with a company that makes top-end custom shoes for skating and cycling, so it has some use.

Windsurfing would be better off in the X games than the Olympics. They need a ocean sports X games contest or something like that. They could have surfing, windsurfing, kiteboarding, wakeboarding etc.

CJW said...

The rest, at least in Australia (Europe may be different), are classes either well passed their used by date or so expensive/rare to be considered void. I raced boats at a national level from 14-21yo and in all that time I saw one Finn...i've never seen a star...

Europe has a much larger range of boats, and a much higher participation rate in terms of small boat sailing... although I say this from personal experience of any given weekend on any given body of water in the UK, as compared with Port Philip, not from any statistical analysis. I was amazed when I first came here that there was such a limited range of small boats. Very few RS boats, virtually no trapeze dinghies from Topper and Laser. The only modern dinghies I've seen are 49ers (which are terrible things to sail unless you are astonishingly good) and the occasional 29er. It seems that the cost of bringing them in / limited participation in small boat racing compared to Europe really impacted the range of craft available here.

CJW said...

Surely if they were going to have Kiting in the Olympics it would be course racing on kites which at this stage is very much a minority segment of that sport. There are only a few classes in the Olympics that really deserve to be there imo, which are; Laser/laser radial, 470, 49er and a winsurfing class (currently RSX). The rest, at least in Australia (Europe may be different), are classes either well passed their used by date or so expensive/rare to be considered void. I raced boats at a national level from 14-21yo and in all that time I saw one Finn...i've never seen a star...f@#ing bin them.

My Olympic class roster would be:

Laser
Laser Rad
470
49er
Formula18 cat
Windsurfing class (RSX/BIC293 etc)
Kite racing class (but realistically how many ppl race kites?)

As you said, lots of the Olympic classes are bigger outside Aus.

The Star's one of the more popular classes in the USA, for example. There's about 800 members of the class association and 400 boats counted by the class (i.e. ignoring ancient ones). Compare that to the Hobie class association, which has only 900 class members across 16s, 17s, 14s and 18s.

The Finn is getting some big fleets in Europe - 280 members in Germany alone, for example. I don't think any windsurfer class comes close to that - there were only 40 entries at the German FW championships and while I think RB is bigger, it certainly doesn't get 280 members!

If there isn't enough wind for formula then I would not think there is enough for kites.

Maybe windsurfing should bring back division 2 or a class like the serenity

lanky said...

I think we could do perfectly fine as a sport without the Olympics if we offer the same structured development programs for kids in the wave, freestyle and slalom disciplines as they get with RSX. Regular racing, regular training, etc, etc. Most kids coming through are pushed into RSX and techno by their parents who think its good for them to take part in a structured sailing environment and they just see us freestyle or wave windsurfing as (f@#(@ing around and fun time).

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. Having done a lot of coaching over the years in BIC/RS:X classes, I always come across parents with kids who sail various types of windsurfers and ask what they should "gently" push their kids towards...?

I continue to push kids towards the BIC programs available in a lot of Yacht Clubs (through YA's various state-based programs) and follow on to RS:X. I am not sure RS:X is the best pathway for all (or any of) these kids, but there is structured training available and the kids learn a lot of "life" stuff in this environment outside of just windsurfing which I don't believe you will ever get just windsurfing on the weekends with the 0-1 friends who also sail (I never sailed with anyone my own age in 20 years of windsurfing till I went to Europe!).

As soon as windsurfing is bumped from the Olympics... all these programs will disappear. What then? There is absolutely no funding/infrastructure in place for windsurfing in Australia to take up the programs themselves.... so then what?

Also, I think you guys forget the "Olympic factor" in terms of funding for sports. Certainly, these state based programs for sailing (including windsurfing) only happen because the AOC pumps money in to bodies like YA as well as sponsors. If things aren't "Olympic", it's very hard to get sponsors to put their hands in their pockets... It's also a lot easier for sailors in these training programs at present to get sponsorship when they can plug the "Olympic dream" idea, rather than just saying they are training full time to be the best guy at x-beach in Brisbane on Saturday afternoons etc...