I kite, I love kiting.

Wouldn't watch kite racing...... Ever! Even if it was during the Olympics.

Surely they could have left things the same -or, how's this for a mad ass idea! Introduced Midget UFC into the Olympics! Now that's got my attention!

Mark _australia said...

DAM71 said...

Is anyone really that surprised?

I am.
Considering they have 8 classes that involves sitting on your arse in a boat, and the general public could not see the difference in ANY of them, let alone name a class in sailing, why not cancel one of those classes?
6 sailing, plus windsurfing plus kiting.

That would be a spread of styles and abilities

Those classes represent a huge number of sailors, whilst windsurfing represents very few. They are for lightweights (laser), heavyweights (Finn), 2 people (49), and so on. Windsurfing was always meant to bring excitement to the regatta. It failed, because just like windsurfers do daily, the class was talked up to be this amazing planing class, that would be exciting to watch. It wasn't, and now kite racing is beeing touted as doing exactly that - it probably won't, but that is for time to tell. But like any sport, someone or group with coin are behind this push.

I's as shocked as anyone but if we want windsurfing back in, stopping the abuse of ISAF and ignoring the problems they face would be a good start. It's not easy being ISAF and trying to fit all facets of sailing into the available spots. It's a bit like windsurfing - lots of people will complain about what we in the associations do as volunteers but very few of the whingers will actually get off their bums and do something to help.

Lots of cat sailors abused ISAF after they got dumped, and some of the guys who helped get the cats back in said that the abuse simply made their job a LOT harder.
Abusing the volunteers from ISAF is about as productive as abusing a referee or a traffic cop.

Most of the ISAF councillors are keelboat sailors AFAIK and you know what, there are now NO keelboats in the Games although the majority (by far) of racing sailors are keelboaters. If they were a bunch of selfish old farts as some claim, then the Games would be full of keelboats. Maybe the problem is that they are trying so hard to seem kewl because of the shyte they cop!

Mark; "why not cancel one of those boat classes?" Simple - because just about all of them represents a type of sailing that attacts more racers than windsurfing OR kiting! We can't get back in if we just ridicule the choices ISAF make and ignore the reality they face!

The ISAF kitesurfing submission has major issues as far as I can see (some claims are wrong according to available info and some are greatly exaggerated) but if it was some cartoon villian of a one design manufacturer behind the kitesurfing submission then how come they are not talking about it being one design! Come on guys, how can we abuse ISAF for making ill-informed choices if we can't even be bothered to read about what is being proposed for kites!

There's still some discussion about how to react to the dumping of Olympic windsurfing. From some aspects it could be a good thing, if it lets us concentrate on grass-roots sailing. For decades, some boat classes have known that Games selection can be a poisoned chalice, and it didn't seem to help windsurfing in a lot of ways.

But if windsurfing does want to get back into the Games then it may need a lot more help from the sailors. One reason classes like the Star class yacht were so well represented in ISAF decisions was because they were well organised by lots of individuals who put their own time in. Hands up everyone here who is willing to help organise and developing windsurfing!

I'm as narked as anyone. One of the guys currently on the Olympic trail used my gear the first time he ever got on a board, and I was involved in training and running events for several of our recent Youth reps. But we won't get back in without volunteers from within the sport or by insulting ISAF and ignoring the problems they have.



Dam71, about "Windsurfing was always meant to bring excitement to the regatta. It failed, because just like windsurfers do daily, the class was talked up to be this amazing planing class, that would be exciting to watch."

Actually, windsurfing was brought into the Olympics because it was cheap, popular, new and fast growing. When windsurfing was brought in for '84, the choices were between the original Wally, the original Mistral, and the Windglider. All weighed around 21kg and the Windglider, the slowest planer of all, was selected. For '88 to '92 the Olympic board was the 12'9" round-bottomed Lechner.

It could be that it was the obsession about being a cool fast planing class, rather than a simple popular class like the Laser, that killed Olympic windsurfing, because as soon as something newer and faster when planing came along (like kites) windsurfing was going to be vulnerable.

The sport may have been its own biggest problem.

PS DarkHorse, you say " Yachties have tried several times to get a more up to date Keelboat in instead of the Star but to no avail.."

When did that happen????????????

This will give Windsurfing a chance to go back and work out what they did right & wrong. This gives them the chance to work out if there is a better class for the olympics.

The same thing happened to the multihull, They are back in with a better more up to date design.

We will see what the future holds.

Chris 249 said...


Mark; "why not cancel one of those boat classes?" Simple - because just about all of them represents a type of sailing that attacts more racers than windsurfing OR kiting! We can't get back in if we just ridicule the choices ISAF make and ignore the reality they face!

Hang on, who told them they had to include kiting? Nobody. Thus your "less participants' argument works in our favour as bugger-all people course race kites.
The kite org's made a great submission to have kiting included, or ISAF / IOC wanted Branson's $$$, or the IOC wanted to improve ratings, whatever.

So they decided to include kiting and cut out one class. Fine, their perogative.

But my point is if you have a total of 10 classes (8 yacht and 2 'board' sports) and want to fit 9 in the Olympics, why the hell would you cut one that is more athletic than the others, and a totally different skill set? Wouldn't you cut one of the boat classes? You talk about different weights of sailors - do we have a 100m for fatties like me and a 100m for Somalia stick figures? No of course not.

Why make a surprise announcement just before the olympics with no calling for submissions from windsurfing organisations? Yes I understand their job is hard and they don't deserve abuse but they do deserve to be called to account for a bloody weird decision - more to do with money? (They can't claim it is due to unpopularity of RS:X when THEY forced it upon windsurfers when largely we wanted Formula and kite racing is not as popular as any form of windsurf racing).

I smell a rat

The London event is now going to be massive. Think I'll head to the pub, watch it on the big screen...

^^ OK agreed Chris

so you think I am a sprinter huh?

Mark _australia said...

^^ OK agreed Chris

so you think I am a sprinter huh?

Half your luck - no matter what sport or discipline I do, I'm just one of those middle-of-the road allrounders!

Have you seen this from 2010? The decision was made a long time ago...

Looks like the yachties admitted windsurfing to the Olympics because they thought it was the new extreme sailing. Maybe they thought it would help their image. RSX is not extreme enough for them now so they need the latest to show they aren't really dorks...

Surfertoday.com said


Former ISAF president supports kiteboarding in the Olympic Games
Monday, 22 November 2010 15:23


Former ISAF President Paul Henderson believes the kiteboarding class should substitute windsurfing in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Henderson says it is necessary to "take a leap of faith" and make a revolutionary decision in the next two years.

Forty years ago, "windsurfing was the new 'Extreme Sailing'. For the next decade, every other car going down the highway had one on their roof. Now it is in strong decline and should be dropped for 2016. Forty years was a good run. KiteBoarding is the new 'Extreme Sailing'", wrote Paul Henderson in a confidential report leaked on the internet.

Considering it a "tough decision", the former leader of the sailing world compares windsurfing and kiteboarding to what happened in the snow sports. "Skiing is a good example as they have replaced events with SnowBoarding disciplines", tells Henderson.

That's why he supports the decision to "drop the 470 and Windsurfing Men and Women". Paul Henderson's ideas will certainly fire up a very tense discussion and relationship between windsurfers and kiteboarders on the Olympic ticket issue.

www.surfertoday.com/windsurfing/former-isaf-president-supports-kiteboarding-in-the-olympic-games

JonesySail said...

Its not so bad, we still have the beach volley ball! See attached Pic
Windsurfing doesnt need the Olympics.

I'm sorry, apparently, you didn't know:

sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/women-beach-volleyball-players-don-t-wear-bikinis-152113917.html

I reckon Chris 249 pretty much nailed it.

Just want to add that as far as world sport goes, sailing is justifiably seen as both elitist and fragmented. That's right, the sport is "sailing" - not boardsailing, kitesailing, skiff sailing or keelboat sailing. There's a pretty strong argument for just having one sailing class in the course racing format, and the strongest contender for that spot is the Laser.

As for "elitist": we all know the Olympics is big business these days, but we still like to imagine Haile Gebreselassie training barefoot on a bush track in Ethiopia. In theory it can happen. But how many Tornado's or 49ers do you think there are in Ethiopia? Same goes for two-thirds of the nations in the IOC. Anyone can run, anyone can swim, only rich people sail.

So I expect things to be pared back over the next few years. In just the last couple of years keelboats are out, multihulls are out, windsurfers are out. Now kites are in and multis are back in, but I don't expect either of those to last. That leaves us with dinghies, and the point has been amply made on this forum that it's hard to justify four different classes of dinghies.

ikw777 said...

It'll be so exciting too watch.
Gotta love a sport with in-built comedy potential.

What a dangerous bloody mess!!

Chris 249 said...


Dam71, about "Windsurfing was always meant to bring excitement to the regatta. It failed, because just like windsurfers do daily, the class was talked up to be this amazing planing class, that would be exciting to watch."

Actually, windsurfing was brought into the Olympics because it was cheap, popular, new and fast growing. When windsurfing was brought in for '84, the choices were between the original Wally, the original Mistral, and the Windglider. All weighed around 21kg and the Windglider, the slowest planer of all, was selected. For '88 to '92 the Olympic board was the 12'9" round-bottomed Lechner.

It could be that it was the obsession about being a cool fast planing class, rather than a simple popular class like the Laser, that killed Olympic windsurfing, because as soon as something newer and faster when planing came along (like kites) windsurfing was going to be vulnerable.

The sport may have been its own biggest problem.

sorry Chris, I meant the RSX, my brain and fingers did not communicate. I was on a state committee when starboard tried to get the formula one passed, and as I understood it the whole idea at the time of dumping the IMCO for the RSX, was the idea of a planing class that would look great for spectators and tv. It failed to do that, and I agree totally with you that it could very well be that idea of the planing class that killed it. From my knowledge the RSX is no better in light winds, and is possibly worse than a long board, and considering what I can imagine the original pitch of " this will plane in 4-6 kts " or something to that effect. So when it failed to perform as touted in super light winds, it was inevitable that the ISAF would look elsewhere.

I agree with the consensus that windsurfing needs to stand up and be counted, and maybe even start to regulate itself. However, for it to get back into the Olympics, it will need to stay in good with the ISAF.

Bjorn makes a good point, kiting is not sailing.

Do kiters ever refer to themselves or their activity as sailors or sailing?

Anyway it will be fun to watch the guys and girls out there on their funny boards and big kites in Rio, at least when the wind drops. Blame it on Rio.

It's a touch ironic that kite racing gets into the Olympics and the general reaction from kiters is, "That's nice. I hope they have fun. I really don't care.", and the windsurfers are going ballistic about it. I would be quite happy for kiting to forgo the Olympics in favour of windsurfing.

Elite sailing in elite sailing boats is ... elitist (but the boats are cool to watch). I see the mums and dads and kids racing in dinghies and that looks like a heap of fun and very democratic (not sure about the $12m yacht club and the several hundred dollar annual membership fees.

I would not enter a kite race, but I love my kite race board. Blasting up and down the coast at speed in light winds is huuuuge fun. It just gets funner when you add in some waves and stronger wind. I had two excellent sessions last weekend in 10-12 knots and the only other boats on the water were the racing dinghies.