Does PWA even matter?

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sailquik said..

Subsonic said..

sailquik said..

When was the last time you saw, much less participated in a downwind slalom race on open ocean with a boat start? For me it was in the '90's. I did a lot of flatter water slalom figure 8 though and loved it, but that was also a very long time ago in the '90's.

It's still very much a thing over here in WA at least. Sure, we don't race every weekend, but there's around 6 race days of short course slalom spread over summer, and a few bigger weekend style ocean events that are long course slalom.

From what I've heard/seen, there's also a decent amount of slalom racing happening on the east coast as well. I envy what Qld has going on.

Yes. I thought there ware a few slalom type races in WA. That seems to be the last holdout.

Zero slalom racing in Victoria for a very long time!

Have heard of nothing in SA, NSW or Qld but it might be happening in secret.

I know Qld and NSW have a few GPS races, but I dont think thats really the same thing.

Nothing against it. It can be great fun and I certainly loved it in the 90's, but it needs commitment and organisers. WA seems to have a bit of that.

Definitely not happening in secret! Plenty there if you care to look.

bayside sailboard club in Brisbane has been running slalom and foil slalom the last two summers with an average fleet of 15 to 20 sailors at each round, 50 members total. The average age of our sailors is in the low 20's with many new sailors coming through, especially on the foil.

we have run successful state slalom champs for fin and foil the past two seasons. All downwind slalom. We have also held a marathon slalom and have a solid crew which compete at the green island slalom nationals every year.

we have a great photographer and some great drone footage with commentary on races over our Facebook and YouTube. Heaps there if you look.

Imagine the excess baggage bill for sailors carrying slalom, foil, freestyle and wave kit to become overall windsurf champion.

Sylt 2021
32 male wave sailors
22 male freestyle sailors (6 did wave)
41 male slalom sailors

So for an overall title you would need all 89 to do the 3 events, or restrict the number of sailors on the tour.

I think the days of overall champion are gone.

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tbwonder said..
In NSW Marmong Point Sailing club run a six event summer series of GPS and Slalom events.
There are several formats offered ranging from GPS to Figure 8 and downwind slalom.
Downwind slalom is considered by the top sailors to be the ultimate format, but requires two boats and consistent wind.

I was aware that that club ran Course racing and GPS events. Its great to hear that there is still someone motivated, and organising racing, and obviously enough participation to make it worth it. I'm curious about how many times have they actually had a slalom race in the last few years?

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tbwonder said..
Whilst the events are not secret, generally they do not attract interstate competitors as regularly the events need to be postponed or cancelled due to lack of wind.

Thats not just a problem for potential interstate participants. It's very hard to get motivated even if you are even 100Km away when there is a high chance that there won't be enough wind to run the advertised event. Been there. Done that.

But I would think that if a club has the flexibility to run GPS events, and especially Foiling and/or Course Racing it would help a lot. It looks like that is the case with this club.

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segler said..
Of course PWA matters. So does NASCAR, Formula 1, America's Cup, Tour de France, Olympics, FIFA, you name it. High level racing/competition is the leading edge of development. We all benefit from that development.

To be honest,
Every person in Australia would know about or follow NASCAR, Formula 1, America's Cup, Tour de France, Olympics, FIFA.
But if you asked the majority of Aussies, or all country's for that matter, what is the PWA and what do those letters stand for,
they would have no idea..

Exactly. Thats my point, and I think its a good thing.
Those who truly love, live and breath surfing, windsurfing or kiting dread it getting more commercialized and increasing in popularity equalling more crowds in the water.

Looking through the SA forum, they have a slalom series as well. They also have their very own gps challenge:

The only PWA I'll watch is highlights, I'm not tuning in for the whole thing and mostly just look at wave events.

what's the PWA?

PWA is good but very Eurocentric and for that reason says little to many in Australia about their lives. However I still watch it and enjoy it. I think the IWT (with events in Australia) would be very good for media coverage, sadly though the first two events were cancelled, if that is possible and especially any surf slalom. I think the IWT should have an event in Sydney and Torquay as well.

I used to stream the PWA about 10 years ago, when J P. Phil Mcgain & Steve Allen were kicking RS. I have no time for it now.
Roll on the Tour de France.

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Obelix said..
We need our "heroes" in every competition.
I follow NBA clubs which have Aussie players.
Watched MOTOGP while Doohan and Stoner reigned...
So will watch with interest any PWA where Aussies compete, otherwise, prefer to watch the local competitors in Cervantes, Safety Bay...and Lancelin. (Yes Lancelin is comming back next year).

Would be good if they could somehow stream the Safety Bay slalom series, as the footage that was captured by Ironbark photos and posted on Facebook from that series this year went viral and was watched by thousands of people all over the world.

It is not necessarily the sport but the commentator that wins interest. Like Ben's reports. They are entertaining. Set your TV on mute and any sport is boring.
Also the issue with windsurfing is the weather dependency. Being at a PWA event and seeing a bunch of guys/girls sitting on the beach waiting for wind for a week has no charm.

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Peer78 said..
It is not necessarily the sport but the commentator that wins interest. Like Ben's reports. They are entertaining. Set your TV on mute and any sport is boring.
Also the issue with windsurfing is the weather dependency. Being at a PWA event and seeing a bunch of guys/girls sitting on the beach waiting for wind for a week has no charm.

I was watching the tour de france one year (back when i was riding) it was the final day, it was live feed and it was a race decider. SBS that year had also won the rights to screen the ashes.

They kept switching to the ashes in the closing moments of the race when things were really starting to heat up. I could sort of understand this, except what they were actually switching to was rain falling on the cricket pitch as they pulled the covers over the pitch. It was extremely frustrating.


Cycling fans across Australia missed parts of one of the most exciting tour de france closing races, to watch rain fall somewhere else for no reason whatsoever. (Sorry, reading your comment about watching nothing going on made me think back)

but windsurfing is more of a watch after kind of a sport anyway. I know Ben Proffit does live streams, but in a wonderful fantasy world where they broadcast it on tv, pretty sure we'd be watching a delayed telecast (like the 18ft skiff broadcasts back in the day) where they could do away with the footage of nothing happening. Back to reality, windsurfing will never be a fully televised sport. The best we can hope for on tv is some iq foil footage when the Olympics are on.

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RichardG said..
PWA is good but very Eurocentric and for that reason says little to many in Australia about their lives. However I still watch it and enjoy it. I think the IWT (with events in Australia) would be very good for media coverage, sadly though the first two events were cancelled, if that is possible and especially any surf slalom. I think the IWT should have an event in Sydney and Torquay as well.

IWT is 5 or 6 regulars plus 20 others doing a one-off event for their holiday.
Not much prize money & no live stream(?), so its cheaper to put on.
If someone takes a win, so what, the world best arent there. But it might be good to watch (if someone videos it and puts it on youtube later).

I personally don't like PWA because it has nothing to do with windsurfing that I do and that I love, I prefer to watch RED Bull storm chase or amateur windsurfing videos on Youtube. In my opinion, even without PWA there would still be a development of the equipment because I think that competitions are not needed to develop a product that in the end must be used by those who really does not compete in races, the only thing that matters for brands is that there is a market that buys their products if there is then you don't need the inputs of the competitions, those of the testers are enough to develop excellent products