I can see that investing in all that kite race gear with an expectation that you were off to Rio is a little sad but the RSX guys looked pretty happy to me.

JBFletch said...
just want serious, interesting feedback.

good luck with that

Many disciplines or classes lose numbers shortly after being selected for the Olympics. The usual keen amateur racers find out that they get knocked off by the full-time Olympic contenders, and that makes it hard to stay keen. So you end up with a very small group of people in the class and no one else.

For this reason, dinghy classes like 505s campaigned AGAINST being selected for the Games. The Lasers showed what happens. Before they went Olympic they had a strong fleet of 20-35 year olds. Now that is a very small group because no one has a chance unless they are almost full-time Olympic aspirants. Most Laser sailors now are kids or those in the over 35 age group, who aim to beat the other Masters rather than trying to beat Olympians.

RSX is similar. It's disheartening to sail a few hours a week and then come up against full-time pros with funding.

The kites are in the honeymoon period, which was also seen by other Olympic classes like women's match racing, Mistrals, Solings, Lasers, etc. Sadly, once the Olympic aspirants start getting really going then they will burn off the rest, who will drop out.

Yachting Australia is not interested in building big grass-roots fleets; they are interested only in getting a couple of medal prospects. So the RSX will never be a big fleet, just as 49ers, 470s, Stars etc do not attract big fleets here (or overseas, with a few exceptions like the US Star class or German Finn class).

But we could give the RSX love by building stronger junior and club racing fleets. That's not too hard. It just needs volunteers who are prepared to pitch in.

We also need to get rid of those who feel that they have a divine right to determine what windsurfing (or kiting, or sailing) is; you know, the keyboard heroes who say "RSX is not windsurfing, windsurfing is planing reaches" etc. Their narrow-minded view of the sport just undermines the Olympic class.

I remember the days when One Design racing meant exactly that.
Now there is still Windsurfer One design racing (Wally)
And there is the Youth Bic Techno 293 racing.
Olympic board is the Neil Pryde RSX which they say is Olympic One Design
And then they bring out the Neil Pryde RS One, Design Racing for all.

Is there a clear and defined progression plan for our up and coming Youth Classes to follow to get them up to Olympic RSX?

Last year was kite surfing invited too sail Melbourne

Chris 249 said...
Many disciplines or classes lose numbers shortly after being selected for the Olympics. The usual keen amateur racers find out that they get knocked off by the full-time Olympic contenders, and that makes it hard to stay keen. So you end up with a very small group of people in the class and no one else.

I've gotta say I don't really get this. I've never in my life gone to a regatta expecting to win, so the funding level of the hotshots up the front is pretty irrelevant to me. If anything I think it's pretty cool being on the water with those guys and watching them in action. I'm not doubting you're correct, just the attitude of people dropping out of a class because they aren't winning doesn't make any sense to me.

I wish they'd change the name - 'RSX' is meaningless. If it was called 'Windsurfer' it'd make it more obvious.
It looked like the kite racing wasn't going to be called 'TBG' or anything - they were keeping it simple.

Ben Severne said...
I wish they'd change the name - 'RSX' is meaningless. If it was called 'Windsurfer' it'd make it more obvious.
It looked like the kite racing wasn't going to be called 'TBG' or anything - they were keeping it simple.

"RSX" is a brand of Sailboard the same as "Windsurfer" is a brand of sailboard. I thought you would have known that seeing that you are in the industry. Lets call the "Laser", "49er", "470" etc, they are all brands of sailboats.....ahh but lets just call them all Sailboats that will confuse everyone.

i never understood why you would want to call a racing class phonetically

"arse sex"

surely they saw that coming a mile away?

JBFletch said...


I have just returned from SAIL MELBOURNE.
Where (ok) i was kiteboard racing.

I have previously windsurf raced and honestly believe there is room for both kiting and windsurfing in the olympics.

Just thought the start of this clip might be of interest.

(kite wrap followed by RSX)

whats peoples thoughts?
and how do we as a group, get more people on RSX's and representing the country?

Sure ill be training on a kite, but for now while RSX is in, it seems like it needs some love.
what to do?

When people were entering Sail Melbourne they thought it was an event where entering the kite racing would have some relevance to kite racing in the Olympics 2016.
The other way with RSX - it was thought to be out of the Olympics.

RSX isn't a big deal for the windsurfing community.
Maybe after 25 years in the Olympics, it wont be a big deal for kite racing either.

So dont do anything is the answer. Things find their own level and nothing stays the same.

terminal said...

JBFletch said...


I have just returned from SAIL MELBOURNE.
Where (ok) i was kiteboard racing.

I have previously windsurf raced and honestly believe there is room for both kiting and windsurfing in the olympics.

Just thought the start of this clip might be of interest.

(kite wrap followed by RSX)

whats peoples thoughts?
and how do we as a group, get more people on RSX's and representing the country?

Sure ill be training on a kite, but for now while RSX is in, it seems like it needs some love.
what to do?

When people were entering Sail Melbourne they thought it was an event where entering the kite racing would have some relevance to kite racing in the Olympics 2016.
The other way with RSX - it was thought to be out of the Olympics.

RSX isn't a big deal for the windsurfing community.
Maybe after 25 years in the Olympics, it wont be a big deal for kite racing either.

So dont do anything is the answer. Things find their own level and nothing stays the same.

I totally understand and to be honest, if i was still windsurf racing, the olympics probably wouldn't be on my radar.
And neither is it for Kite racing at the moment.

The question i was asking, is when is the core association/group responsible for junior windsurfing development going to wake up and implement strategies to get young crew in both windsurfing and windsurf racing.

Sure windsurfing is still a popular sport world wide, but far more new and young people are taking up kiting over windsurfing.

I was lucky enough to be one of the young guys that had support back in my early days and therefore was heavily involved in windsurfing, both waves, slalom and racing.

After returning from Melbourne (and having 9 hrs of driving to think) i just found it sad that a sport that has been around for almost ever had 3 reps at an event where a sport that is 3 years old had 50.

I love watching windsurf racing and still doing it when i can.
I just hope something happens to spark a revival.

I agree there is a lot of room to grow for junior windsurfing in Australia, and there are moves afoot to form an official techno 293 association here. In the meantime there is structure and competition in place.
This year alone the youth in Queensland have done around 70 races including club racing, Youth Nationals, Oamps midwinter youth week, Qld youth week at Yeppoon. Still to go in the next few months are Sail Sydney, (Techno was not invited to Sail Melbourne?) Youth Nationals in Hobart and Bic Oceanics at Hawks Nest as part of the Down Under Pro.

Both RSX and techno will grow but I agree more needs to be done to facilitate this. What I dont understand is why Australia struggles to attract big numbers whereas overseas the class is massive. NZ has a much bigger fleet with a much smaller population and sucky weather.

jusavina said...

After returning from Melbourne (and having 9 hrs of driving to think) i just found it sad that a sport that has been around for almost ever 6 weeks opened registration had 3 reps at an event where a sport that is 3 years old has 7 months opened registration had 50.

RSX was an invitational class prior to the olympic swappsy.
Then kiting became the invitational.

Sail Brisbane will be a good test!

No it wasn't!!

RSX was not included in Sail melbourne at all until 10 days before the event started and after the ISAF decision was changed. The RSX class association was very peeved about this. It probaly reflected YAs support of kites not RSX.

It was NOT an invitational event. It was missing all together. Check the last amended NOR if you don't believe me.

Jo had signed for the kites and then changed to RSX. She tried to rally other girls to come but it was just too late for everyone to get organised. Overseas people are not going to come with 10 days notice, little/no training over the last 6 months, changed to kites, changed back again, rsx worlds in feb in Brazil so saving money - especially since spent up on kite gear! Now having to get new RSX gear. ISAF sure know how to stuff everyone around. The expense incurred by this exercise is ridiculous for those funding themselves - which is 99% of us.

Two of the female registered kiteracers for Melbourne who dropped out are RSX sailors who have now gone back to RSX. Jo and Justina from NZ. The other NZ was a dinghy sailor.

They are all back in action now though - training for the next 4 years. Some are doing Sail sydney. we had to nag Sail Sydney to have it included!

re junior/youth development. Most of this has fallen on the parents to get organised. in the past few years numbers have risen. At RQYS each saturday we have 5-7 technos and 4-5 RSX racing every weekend as well as some raceboards.

Sterlings said...

re junior/youth development. Most of this has fallen on the parents to get organised. in the past few years numbers have risen. At RQYS each saturday we have 5-7 technos and 4-5 RSX racing every weekend as well as some raceboards.

Why are more windsurfers not racing on RSX?
Surely the switch from slalom or Formula would be a cheap step down?
This is what i'm getting at.

Whats wrong with the RSX, why is no one riding it?
Not everyone wants to goto the olympics, surely a one design race class should be popular.