Hi Everyone in the Windsurfing or Kitesurfing community!!! 
Occasionally I have been quietly enjoying the bantering between Kitesurfers and Windsurfers about how many of us are there, who is better, which is easier to learn....etc etc etc. And I thought to myself, do we really know how big of a community we are??
So I have put together a simple survey to help us get some basic answers about ourselves as a community. The link to the survey:
www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=350e290b-6b91-44de-bebd-d93f54770c1b This will take you about 55 seconds to complete maximum, and once I have put it together I will put the results back here for us all to share! 
(for those of you who are academics) I don't think this method is complete in getting the entire picture, but I think there is a decent amount of activity on these forums that we could be representative of our windsurfing or kitesurfing community.
Please, please, please.....this survey is NOT a competition across communities. And please only complete the survey ONCE, or the results will be affected. There is no right or wrong, and there is no better or worse in these results, it is only so we know what our community looks like in general.
I will sum up these results in 2 weeks time, or earlier if I feel that there is really only dwindling responses after the early stages. I will also publish these in both the Windsurf and the Kitesurfing community forums so we can share the findings.
Thankyou and I look forward to getting your responses!!
55 seconds to complete?????wtf, us kiters dont have the attention span to complete that
maybe you should add a question about age bracket? you could use the same used in gpschallenge...
Occasionally I have been quietly enjoying the bantering between Kitesurfers and Windsurfers about how many of us are there, who is better, which is easier to learn....etc etc etc. And I thought to myself, do we really know how big of a community we are?? So I have put together a simple survey to help us get some basic answers about ourselves as a community. The link to the survey: This will take you about 55 seconds to complete maximum, and once I have put it together I will put the results back here for us all to share! (for those of you who are academics) I don't think this method is complete in getting the entire picture, but I think there is a decent amount of activity on these forums that we could be representative of our windsurfing or kitesurfing community. Please, please, please.....this survey is NOT a competition across communities. And please only complete the survey ONCE, or the results will be affected. There is no right or wrong, and there is no better or worse in these results, it is only so we know what our community looks like in general. Thankyou and I look forward to getting your responses!!
Yes...and sorry there are a couple of oversight on my part......the survey would be better to:
1. have age group
2. have a category for you who actually DO BOTH
3. there was no bracket for 0 - 15 knots (and I suppose > 0 knots is probably not reflective of some of you who go out on 10 - 15 knots)
I will try to improve it.....but it will have to be a Poll in maybe 6 months time
Anyway......just an INTERIM update (AS A GROUP, not by Windsurfer/Kitesurfer):
- There are around 87 reports so far at this time
- 94.25% are Boys
- Just about 50/50 Windsurfers and Kitesurfers
- Most of you sail from 15 knots and up
- Flat water vs Waves sailing a bit too early to tell.....but 20% of you USUALLY sail in the Open Sea, with One person who claims to sail in conditions which is "Too extreme to describe"!!
- 72.41% of you will (or can) sail on Weekday or Weekends as long as the conditions are right!!! (I am clearly in the wrong job!!!)
- 64 % of you have never switched from to/from Windsurf or Kitesurf
- 30 out of 34 people who have switched are people who started out as windsurfers (and within this group, 7 have gone back to Windsurfing)
- 83% of people did not see a need to switch from their current sailing type to another in the future, with 14% "Maybe", and 2% "Yes" (this question I need to further examine later, because I need to be able to show how this compares between Windsurfers and Kitesurfers)
- About half of you have seen a shark of some description!!!! Although one of you said that he/she saw one "Wrapped up in Batter"!
- For those who have responded, NSW and WA are equal with 26.4%, followed by Queensland (20%) and Vic (14.9%). There are 3 individuals who sail in the ACT.
I will update again later this weekend ......!!
I'm confused I 'bat for both teams' .
And no... the Boy/Girl Q.was easier to answer!....
maybe the people who do both could answer the survey twice, once from each point of view...
how come laurie does not list on here every one that belongs to seabreze?? like all our names in different sections kiting, windsurfing, surfing ect...and also he could have a the auto green dot next to our names like what other sites use to tell you who is online, so we could say g'day to our buddys who online as well..
To be honest, I suspect Seabreeze wouldn't want to do that for commercial reasons. See all the Advertisements that are dotted around this screen? The shops pay Laurie based on the amount of traffic through the forums.
For every thread, there could appear to be "657" times a thread is "Read". But in reality, there might just be the same 26 people who keeps coming back again and again to the thread to read it every time someone post a reply. Commercially it is not good to show the shops that the forum only has 26 regular visitors. It is better just to leave the number of times something is "read". Also....I suspect not everyone who reads stuff on the Forum are actually registered on Seabreeze.
Sorry but its a bit hard to describe where we sail. Inverloch in 0-5kt, The Pit with 40/60kt, Bass Straight with 4-6m swell and Lake George with its magic flat water in the one sentence.
Occasionally I have been quietly enjoying the bantering between Kitesurfers and Windsurfers about how many of us are there, who is better, which is easier to learn....etc etc etc. And I thought to myself, do we really know how big of a community we are?? So I have put together a simple survey to help us get some basic answers about ourselves as a community. The link to the survey: This will take you about 55 seconds to complete maximum, and once I have put it together I will put the results back here for us all to share! (for those of you who are academics) I don't think this method is complete in getting the entire picture, but I think there is a decent amount of activity on these forums that we could be representative of our windsurfing or kitesurfing community. Please, please, please.....this survey is NOT a competition across communities. And please only complete the survey ONCE, or the results will be affected. There is no right or wrong, and there is no better or worse in these results, it is only so we know what our community looks like in general. Thankyou and I look forward to getting your responses!!
Hee Hee 
The Shark question is really just a trivial question.....it has no direct relevance and no I am not using the info for any reason other than for my own curiosity (I am scared of sharks).
The responses are quite interesting....and I am hoping to put up a Map with Red Dots and share it on the Forum as a bit of fun to provide a bit of interesting reading for you all over the winter months. That's all.
Sorry but its a bit hard to describe where we sail. Inverloch in 0-5kt, The Pit with 40/60kt, Bass Straight with 4-6m swell and Lake George with its magic flat water in the one sentence.
The shark questions are always crappy.
I've been out sailing, not seen any sharks and then seen the news that night with aerial shots of the end of the jetty with 2 4m sharks swimming around, we sailed that spot all day and didn't see them, they must have been there but we didn't see them.
Have sailed other spots where shark sightings have been every day or two for a month, sailed didn't see them, they are probably still out there but we didn't see them that day.
Always try and waterstart quickly in deep dark water, scares me but doesn't stop me sailing.
Done 2.
Had a small shark near me on Easter Saturday at Ocean Beach, Umina. Was SUP surfing only 100 metres off the beach when the lifeguards called me in and told me I had company.
Both Umina & Ocean Beach were then closed.
Said "thanks for that" to the lifesaver, had a look at the waves and went back out for a bit more, but this time kept an eye out. Never really saw it the first time.
For the condition, could you put "other" and allow the poller to type it in ?. I sail onshore choppy rubbish in summer, but ticked waves. I don't sail waves, but that was the closest thing. "lies, damned lies, and statistics"
Cool poll idea :)
