But no one who isnt a world champ is worthy to post on this thread,,apparently.
Chill out man,I made a little joke,It wasnt even a troll,I didnt even metion kiteing, you PMed me and said you enjoyed the little banter????
And sponsering him would be like sponsering beta,,if the company isnt making money they wont give him any... how is that trolling about kiteing?????
I'm a PRO straw bale builder. I don't get paid enough. Let's all shed a tear for me aswell and then move on. I won't give up my job though. I ain't no quiter. Not unless i crack the PRO windsurfer ranks, or the PRO downhillers for that matter.
If only we could be happy with what we got.
I think if you worked your ass off and at the end of the day didn't make enough money to pay the bills yet alone get ahead in life, you would think about a different career too. I agree with what he's saying completely ( just wouldn't blog it to the entire world haha)
It's footage of these guys that stokes us and get kids looking and thinking. It's a shame some of these guys can't make a living out of it.
I think he should just be stoked he has had the chance to live the life he has, now it's time to live like the rest of us, and do something you don't like to have money to do things you do.
I'm pretty sure he still will get payed a little by some sponsores and he won't have to work full time and miss all the epic sessions like 90% of the rest of the windsurfing world..
If you didn't have people like these to inspire us there wouldn't be a "windsurfing world".
I would love to be forced to go to work where he's coming from and have at least 2h a day for 300 or more days a year covered with minimum 4bft wind force :)
I think because you made it sound easy.
There's a very short list of guys who've made a go of their own brand. In the last ten years , big players like Mistral, Bic and F2 have faded away to nothing.
There is not really room for a new brand in the market, and it would be a major deal at this stage to achieve that. Getting venture capital to get started would be a miracle in itself in the current financial environment. You'll need more than a knick-knack, Paddy Wack, to get the frog a loan.
Sure, boutique brands like Nude will pop up, but he is a shaper, not a sailor, and will no doubt do surfboards and SUP as well. How much money will be made is another question too.
My point exactly Kenho. My comments were not meant to be a personal attack. I saw a comment that I thought needed validation as I felt it was misguided and ill informed. Last time I checked this was a forum where we are all allowed to express our own views on topics that are raised. Sorry if I am not a wall flower and just nod my head obediently and agree and disagree in total silence. I do however find the constant diatribe between windsurfers and kiters pathetically boring and they have a wonderful ability to hijack threads and ruin what most of the time is very healthy discussion. Kind of like what I am doing now so I apologise and hope we can get back on topic!!
Let's all play nice now kiddies ok
I think his problem was that he moved from Fanatic to Mistral. Mistral is a dying brand with limited funds. He is not only an awesome jumper but can ride waves too as this light wind video shows:
Point taken, however for me personally it's watching guys like this that makes me push myself to get better. It's what inspires ME. Ever since I was a kid I was watching videos of naish and waltze, cabrinah ect and dreamt of going to Maui one day and being able to do what they were doing, sh!.t I used to go to bed and dream of it! Certainly wasn't getting that from watching some guy on a Wally going back and forth in a bay!?!
All I was saying is that it takes a he'll of a lot of dedication, injuries, and time to get that good ( all without making a cracker) , and it's a shame these guys can no longer make a living out of it. By the way I thinks his main beef is not being able to survive rather than not being able to rich. which isn't unreasonable......
Following on from Chris249, I believe windsurfing has developed into one of the most complex/diverse sports on the planet.
From the extremes of, say, sailing a One Design windsurfer in a couple of knots on a lake, to say, Levi landing a 50 foot+ backloop at Hookipa (see Utube/Shadowbox for the video) , this sport has so many variations/levels/complexities to it.
From the freestyle of Gollito/van Broeckhoven to the "new generation" sailor Philip Koster (aged 16 doing double loops off chop), to the speed and slalom and etc. etc. the sport keeps moving further ahead (and even further away from the majority of us weekend sailors).
But what I've found, from my perspective, is that you can keep getting better at this sport, where age is no barrier, provided you maintain a reasonable level of fitness.
There has never been enough money in professional windsurfing, as you need to carry as much gear around the world as a rock band, with only a couple of hundred people showing up for any PWA gig.
You do it for "the fun"/"the rush"/"the adrenaline hit" or whatever.
Enjoy it - it's the best fun you can have standing up!
yep, new people getting into windsurfing and older dudes and chicks getting back into it after a long hiatus always see people windsurfing locally and decide it's something they would like to do.
none of these people have any idea of the world speed record or the state of backloops and other crazy moves.
OK so I have a lot of opinions on this but I would just like to ask the people who are banging on about how he deserves more money why they dont just send him some if they think that him windsurfing as a pro is so important. Realistically this is what happens when a brand sponsors a rider anyway.
Yes it's sad that a pro windsurfer can't make a living out of windsurfing. But what does he call "make a living”??? Is it $30/40/50/100k for himself/his family? Is his wife working? How big is his mortgage ($200/600/1500k)? To get a realistic picture I would like to know some (ball park) numbers (realistic income - after all expenses)...
BTW: If I'm not happy with my job/salary - I have to change something... (Whinging usually does not get me anywhere)
Sorry for being so negative - but we all are "battlers" somehow.
Ty Bodycoat was PWA rookie of the year in 2002
He retired not long after
He still rips today and sails for the love of it - I reckon his wave sailing still out powers many of the top ten on tour today.
interview - including some very candid comments on the PWA tour-and action herehttp://exposureroom.com/f29f33e058e041f28b4d2d36ca9db478/
Check out the huge buckets of spray he throws at the camera!
I agree totally with you JayBee about what you write about being a professional windsurfer in this day and age. I apologise for becoming defensive and making accusations against Andrew. Its not in the spirit of these forums which I've gotten many hours of enjoyment and interest out of.
they're good at making stuff with no moving parts. i've got an awesome set of chinese made chopsticks
Unfortunately windsurfing is a sport with a relatively small following that provides only a small consumer base for advertisers, therefore there's not a lot of money in it for the stars.
It is that same small following that keeps that friendly community atmosphere which is part of what we love about our sport -where relative newbies can sail at the same location as top sailors and get tips from them and have a drink with them at the end of the day - where someone will pick up a piece of gear left behind and advertise for it's owner rather than keep it for themselves - where we all help each other and are glad to welcome a newcomer to our beach. That doesn't happen in the big sports.
Interesting post... I totally understand what Jonas is talking about. That being said, "welcome to the real world" buddy.
The first mistake is looking to the windsurfing brands as a sole source of sponsorship. The reality is, the market isn't big enough for a brand to reap the benefits of sponsoring more than 1-2 "big" names (ala Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Antoine etc). If you look at sail manufacturers, you'd be really surprised to learn that the margin they make on selling sails to their distributors is really, really, really, really small. In the vicinity of 50-100 euros per sail.
So if a rider comes along asking 20,000 euros sponsorship for a year (which to be honest, is a trifle compared to what I could make working 4 days a week at McDonalds), the brand has to come back to them and say, "sure, please let me know your plan to help us generate 200-400 new sales in 2011". There aren't too many riders who can come up with that plan. A few magazine articles and 1-2 youtube videos that barely get 2,000 hits just simply aren't going to generate those sales.
That being said; there's a real emerging market for sponsorship for the new generation who are a bit more internet savvy and are willing to go the extra mile. As JayBee mentioned I've just signed a deal with the Starboard dream team. Hard to imagine my results were the factor when they already sponsor Dunkerbeck, KP, Moussilmani, Menegatti, Van der Steen, Diaz, Vesterstrom, Brzozowski, Schurmann ... right? But what I can offer them is arguably more valuable to sales than coming inside the Top 10 in slalom (aside from Bjorn and KP who simply generate sales from just being awesome everywhere they go) and Starboard were quick to work this out.
Like all formats of sport on TV, things need to adapt. The windsurfing sponsorship game has changed, and if you can't adapt, I'm sorry, but you miss out. It's really sad to see someone who sails like a king as Jonas does falling on hard times - but this is the reality in most sports that aren't prime-time superbowl style stadium sports.
I think for anyone aspiring to turn pro and take this awesome sport further, you really have to look outside of industry sponsorship to make ends meet, and treat the industry sponsorship for what it is - which is it's one of the best marketing engines you will ever get (I can tell you if I produce a video for Starboard it will get about 10x more hits than if I just plug it myself) and one of the best support tools for equipment, advice and general product help; but it is not a finance factory like a NFL or EPL franchise is. So you need to have industry sponsors AND outside sponsors.
The game has changed.
