First report: Are you a windsurfer or a kitesurfer

have 203 responses, and it is really looking like the responses are only slowly dwindling to nil. I think it is probably pretty OK to attempt a first cut of an analysis to get a sense of we look like as a community.

(Later this week.....I am going to attempt to do some complex stuff with the data to compare how differently Windsurfers and Kitesurfers reported for each of those questions. To do this I have to "cut and paste" 203 results into a spreadsheet so I can use a pivot table......let's see how long this takes. I am also going to have a go at plotting on a map where sharks have been spotted by you guys and will share!!! )

BUT FOR NOW:

95.6% are Boys
53% Kitesurfers, 47% Windsurfers
93.6% of you are at least Intermediate Skill or higher
82.2% of you will get off your couch when it is 15 knots or more
43% Flatwater, 32% Waves, 25% Open ocean (and one other individual "Too Extreme to describe!)
71% sail any day of the week, 18% on weekends, and 11% whenever they find time.
69% never switched between Windsurf or Kitesurf before
For those who did switch, apart from the 9 people who said that it was "too complex to describe", the remaining responses showed that 60 Windsurfers had switched to Kitesurfing, with 14 of these switching back to being Windsurfers (Though there was one report that said he changed from being a kitesurfer to being a windsurfer, but then declared that he is Currently a kitesurfer....so i am not too sure what to make of this for the moment). It would appear at this stage that NO kitesurfers have actually switched from their sport. (again I think there could be some "complex ones" that I may have missed)
76% of people do not see themselves changing their current sailing sport in the future
58% of respondents never had an encounter with a shark

Respondents are from the states (approx):

WA: 33%
NSW: 23%
QLD: 22%
Vic: 14%
SA: 4%
ACT: 3%
Tassie: 1.5%
NT: 1% (2 individuals)


I am going to keep the survey open for now, but am going to start to see if I can tease a a report which separates out the Windsurfer responses and the Kitesurfer responses. This could be interesting.

Watch this space.

So just want to say a BIG THANK YOU for all you have participated so far!!!!

I hope you enjoy your week!!

The elephant in the room is that sadly once the baby boomers stop hitting the beaches, windsurfing will be extinct.

On the plus side, windsurfers have all the flat water at Pinneroo and then kiters can use the whole Pond.

Ooh look tons of thumbs down - thought it might happen cos a polie is daring to post here, but read it. ...

What the survey results DO say - of the respondents who kite, quite a lot used to windsurf.

There is not a "big chunk of windsurfers gone over to kiting"

That is not saying the same thing.

Loto your assertion is like if we ask all the kiters here if they live in a house, and 95% do. So thus 95% of people who live in houses must kite??

No of course it doesn't. So.... Because 60 people of 203 in the survey used to windsuf and now kite it does not mean 60/203 = 29.5% of windsurfers have stopped and gone over to kiting.

Oh markie,Denial is an ugly thing. lol.
I would guess the red thumbs would be for the contence of your post, not because you windsurf.
I dont think me or anyone else is quoting percentages of the whole of Australia, the results show 60 out of 203 surveyed switched codes,,,,,no matter how you twist it in your mind, that a pretty big number.
They are just interesting facts, dont let it worry you, its just a social media survey.

For any late comers.....the Survey is still Open. I will start to work on the data next weekend. I noticed another 14 new respondents came in overnight.



www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=350e290b-6b91-44de-bebd-d93f54770c1b

+ 1 more and for the record swing between both disciplines.

Look at the number of topics on seabreeze alone for a potentially more accurate representation of participants in the sport:

Forum posts:
Windsurfing -155313 posts
Kitesurfing - 258409 posts


However there may be a correlation with forum-use/age and age of windsurfers/kite surfers.

An online survey is open to whoever wants to participate.
So far 203 people have taken part, 53% kiters and 47% windsurfers.
Fairly even numbers, pretty fair really.
Is this survey only been advertised on Seabreeze?? If so, it is an accurate survey of the seabreeze community and could be broadly used as a guide for all of Australia.
Notice I said broadly, no survey will be 100% accurate because it is only based on the group that took part. In this case, its based on seabreeze social media members like me and yourself. Which, really, is a good cross section of wind junkies both young and old.
So far the survey we are talking about in this thread,,,yes,, a large chunk of windsurfers have changed to kite surfing as the facts have clearly showen.
How did you find out only 10% of windsurfers waveride, not 30%??? Interest thoughts, would be good to see the rest of the findings from that report you have quoted.
In the words of a famous American poet,John McClane,,, "Just the fax ma'am, just the fax." Words of wisdom from the man himself. lol

^^^^^Yes I have to admit, it would be a shame to see the number of winsurfers keep rapidly dropping as they have been over the last 5 years around here.
Its a rare thing to see more than one out on the water here these days.
A part of history (which invented kiteboarding) disappearing almost completely from many parts of the coast line is actually pretty sad really.

47% Seabreeze respondents Windsurf
53% Seabreeze respondents Kitesurf

99 pages of second hand kites on Seabreeze Buy and Sell
40 pages of second hand windsurf sails on Seabreeze Buy and Sell

So :

Do kiters replace their gear at 2.8 times the rate windsurfers do ?
Do kiters have 2.8 kites for every sail a windsurfer has ?
Do kiters write 2.5 times more text in an advert, due to their mastery of the English language ?

or

Do 2.8 times as many people take up and then quit kiting as those who quit windsurfing ?