We have had World Champs in Waves and we are very strong in Formula and Slalom but never have I seen an Aussie at the Freestyle PWA comps.
Why do you think this is?
Maybe because almost all windsurfing in Australia is done by the coast where there are waves, and hence anyone who is inclined towards doing tricks is more likely to wavesail. Isn't freestyle more popular in places that have wind but not much surf?
Just a guess.
I reckon it's a good thing for summer when it's windy and bugger all swell. The reality is there are not always waves that you can belt the crap out of (talking about Perth metro here) If you learn a few tricks it's good to chuck them in with your wave routine.
its directly proportional to the fact that we don't have a large enough number of black people who are interested in windsurfing in Australia,
They are so much more stylish and better at stuff than white people
I tried to join, but they said I actually had to be able to do some mad trix. I was confused by their gangsta lingo, so I went and made a cup of tea instead.
I think Haircut is on the money. The persistence required to master even some of the easier freestyle tricks (vulcan etc) is something that I don't think many people have. Then there is the wind factor. When you can sail every day it's a lot easier to learn something than when you sail a day here, a day there. It probably takes a year (or more) to learn something in Aus that it would take you a week to learn in some of the flat water meccas.
So I guess basically to be good at freestyle you need a crapload of time on water, requiring 18kts+ every day, not something most places in Australia are privy to.
something about a bloke called grubby..
but seriously - its a cultural thing here in oz - bit like how few euros have any style surfing - maybe something in the tap water?
Jaeger's got some moves!
) a budding freestyler could do 100 planing days and another 100 non planing freestyle days a year.
I would agree with you that in Australia, particularly in WA the lure of the waves is too great for most to stick it out and try and learn freestyle. But, I would absolutely disagree with you that it is harder to do a ripper bottom - top turn than it is to do a Vulcan. I say this because to learn how to bottom/top turn is something that almost anyone who can windsurf can pickup almost instantly, that is get almost instant enjoyment from. Sure, they won't look like Polakow but they can very quickly get enjoyment out of it. The same can not be said about freestyle.
How many Vulcan do you have to try before you even get remotely close to landing one, 50? 100? How many before you can do them consistently 300? And there in lies the problem. What sort of time span on water, assuming vulcans are all you do every session (which is not realistic), does it take to do 300 attempts? I'd say a metric shirtload.
I mean you can turn up at most windsurfing beaches in Aus and see people smacking lips with abandon, but it's very very rare that you turn up to a spot and see someone just busting out spocks and flakas. Maybe like Reflex said, it's also a culture thing.
Hmmm... yeah but no 
I figure a talented youngun who wanted to do freestyle would do 30 - 50 vulcans in a session, but may only get 10 -20 good waves in a session.
When you stuff up a turn on a wave it is a minute before you get going again, but a stuffed freestyle move and you can be planing again in 10sec and try your next straight away.
I guess what I meant is not not absolute difficulty, but rather time and environmental constraints too.
Technically, Australia is in, but rather sub-PWA level. I'm going to an event that has 2 PWA guys in 2 weeks time in the Great Lakes, piloted by this Soltsyak (sp?) guy. Will do crap on an Exocet, but should be fun. Last year at the same event were too light wind for vulcans and all, so I was able to dig up old board and do my stuff, until I broke the mast. Good time was had, but that doesn't include the guy who got the mast on the head.
Seriously, as a Sydneysider who did both a bit, I think there is a choice to be made. I hated jumping off Wanda on a NE, so I'd freestyle in Sanderingham and Kurnell at times, even Narrabeen in the winter. On a southerly it was Wanda or the north shore, except that those winds got rarer in the 90s.
Takes too much time to do both - a choice has to be made. However, it takes little time to get good, for those who do. I'll bet you most PWA guys were doing good after coupla years only. I mean, those have even shaved yet!
Also suspect the good PWA guys either live in the few forever windy places with 300+ outings a year, or moved there after getting good in their 1-2nd year.
In terms of perseverance, may I remind you of absolute great freestyle Aussie names of the past? Wilmot, Wylie, Long, Johns, Ludecke to name a few. Sure the gear was different, but the perseverance aspect was even more there, as more injuries were to be had. No excuse there for would-be aussie freestylists.
Cheers all, now going to practice me crappy moves...
Maybe we'll find the truth if we do a poll among we Aussie windsurfers.
Why don't you freestyle?
OK, I'll go first;
Because I haven't the remotest interest in freestyle. It doesn't even look like fun to me.
No disrespect intended to thse who enjoy it and are good at it - good on ya.
There you go.
not to confuse modern f/s with olden-day freestyle
i reckon the great thing with the new slidey jumping freestyle stuff is that it's not like learning to ride a bike & just because someone managed to pull off one or two vulcans or spocks in their windsuring career doesn't mean they can do them. They'll most likely stuff up the next 50 attempts, so it keeps yer interested - unlike learning to loop where once you've successfully done one, you've pretty much got them, and they keep getting better and better from there on.
The wind in Sydney is usually not that strong so I usually use a 7.2m RS6 and a Tabou 140. Not the sort of gear you can flick around. I can't even do stuff I used to do, like sail in fin first to do cool beach landings. Maybe the 48cm fin has something to do with that.
I enjoy blasting back and forth, and the GPS sailing has given that pursuit purpose. GPS sailing is the antithesis of freestyle.
there's noticably more folk now attempting new freestyle here in SEQ than 18 months ago, and the average age of the local windsurfer population seems to be getting younger too. From 2001 to 2004 i was lucky to sail with anyone under 40yo whether it be at the beach or on broadwater at the goldcoast or wello, now there's quite a few 25yo and under sailing regularly
try and do the odd vulcan etc. into one direction... can't do anything in the other direction as I busted the ligaments in my ankle a few years back and honestly don't want to go through that again...
... re wave purists not doing freestyle, I would say one of the best wave sailors in Sydney at the moment is Dan "skinny as" Berry. You will always see him busting out a couple of moves on the inside at Wanda
> taking 40-50 tries to do anything
True. More like 100-300 here on most moves, but I must be slow. Even then, it's a % thing, with the success rate increasing over time, never being reaching a full 100%.
This challenge drives some people, and discourages others. Having said that, it must be very quick to learn since at the last sub-PWA event here out of the 25 top guys, about 2/3 looked under 18yo. Since we're talking a 6-month season max with poor wind, they must have learned real fast.
Maybe it's not that hard in the end...
Freestyle IMO is definitely a young persons sport.
Having been a freestyle skater in my youth I'm paying the price for it now. I fully understand the dedication it takes for Skateboarders and Freestyle windsurfers to continually throw themselves at a move until they nail it. Remembering every time they don't make it, it is generally ends in a crash, you have to be tough to get up and do it again.
It's hard work and painful and it takes the resilience of youth to take the continual knocks and keep going at it.
One thing which I feel is that freestylers don't have as long a shelf life on the circuit as wave sailors and racers because sooner or later they will do something catastrophic to themselves which stuffs them up physically. This last bit is my personal opinion only.
Got Huge respect to the freestylers out there.
I'd be an awesome PWA freestyler...
..if I wasn't so sh!t at it, and shot every other freestyler in the world.
i freestyle, and freestyle is not gay... i dont need a wave to do a planing loop or a ponch, and thats not boring.. but were never goin to get in on the pwa freestyle cause aus is not windy enough.. unless u grow up in bonaire or margs and never went to school and have born style, u just cant compete..
