while flicking through some old sailing mag's I found some really cool windsurfing ads from the 80's. sorry that one of them is on the side but it still prety funny!!!
It is prety interisting to see how windsurfing technolegy has changed in the past 20 years and what their max speed was, 27 knots!!!!!! that must have been really pushing it for them, but i sailed faster than that on the weekend!! lol
windsurfing must have been really really big back then!!!!! so what happened to it?? why is windsurfing such a small sport now??
jamesy
oh, and there are heps more ads that I found but these are only the best so let me know if you want to see the rest.
what happened to it?
In the beginning Windsurfing was fun even when there was now wind. There was one board and you had maybe two sails (a normal sail and storm sail). You went out windsurfing in even the lightest wind and it was fun.
As board technology got "better" the shortboard craze started. More and more people wanted to have smaller and smaller boards. I remember most of those boards needed at least 25knts to work well. The mags this their thing to. More and more the image of Hawaii and big waves was pushed. You weren't a windsurfer unless you sailed in waves. The result was that a lot of people simply lost interest in the sport. It wasn't cool anymore to windsurf.
Only recently some board manufacturers have started to come up with new board concepts to make the sport attractive for the masses again without the need to monster waves or hurricane force winds.
... that's my 5 cents.
My favourite ad was a north ad from about ten years ago, It had a picture of some tits and next to it read "feel the 3d curves" or something like that. Unfortunately north got flogged by feminists and the like so the ad didn't get run after it's first publication 
.
As for why windsufing isn't as popular now number 1 reason, it got too complicated and number 2 reason, there are so many other great sports people can do which are easier to learn and nearly as rewarding.
in my opinion what happened to it was.....
the sport evolved from a Windsurfer which was a board that was fun, everybody had the same board, with the same simple rig with a sail that you could roll around the mast.... you could race your mates....go out in a couple of knots and do freestyle and try and control the beast in 30knots....there were weight divisions and a sense of fun that was more like sailing
then some guys in Hawaii (and here) started chopping the boards down until they were riding basically surfboards and suddenly the sport sort of divided into two parts.... a bit like surfing did with the clubbies and the surf board riders....
then with racing it sort of split again with funboards that went faster in stronger winds and div 2 boards that went faster in lighter winds
then slalom boards started and these went even faster in stronger winds - though not as fast as speed boards
then wave boards became wave slalom boards and then free ride boards and then became what ever is around nowadays.....confused?
basically the sport grew incredibly quickly.... it was exciting.... all these companies started producing all this crap (most of it was) ....rotomolded this and blow moulded that......and to keep them in business they would market their new equipment every year ....telling the punter that they needed the latest gear to be cool....windsurfing became an equipment circus .... big companies producing crap
trouble was that the top windsurfers were riding custom equipment that was way better than what was selling at the shop.... the 'pros' showed up, started doing incredible things or the good gear, made money, made it seem glamerous..... and they put very little back into the sport to regenerate it and make it exciting for the up and comers....the same guy won because he had better equipment year after year......
the equipment took a long, long time to improve to the point where it is now - that the gear that is available now in the shops is close to as good as what is available anywhere ..... but most people had lost interest by then....it was too late.... the companies that took so much out, didn't put enough back in....in the right ways...
basically it was the fastest growing sport in the world in the 80's and the fastest shrinking sport in the world by the late 90's ....
and then kiting started!
Windsurfing is still fun, though more of a 'solo' sport than it was back in 'peak hour'
Hausey is on the money - welcome to the way 99% of business work, especially anything "mass" marketed... sigh... 
im a noobie youngin at 14 who windsurfs and the reason no one else my age does is because they want to do the sports that they reckon get them chicks
, we need more adds like like robby naish to make windsurfing look cool, if you want to get people into the sport, but i have to say its good to be able to free ride on everones old thrown out second hand gear and not buy any
, we need more adds like like robby naish to make windsurfing look cool, if you want to get people into the sport, but i have to say its good to be able to free ride on everones old thrown out second hand gear and not buy any
> "because they want to do the sports that they reckon get them chicks"
OK, I bite: so wintonhuck, what sport do they into to get thems chicks ?
Windsurfer one design still race big fleet in nsw states . the windsurfer One design is still the biggest windsurf class in australia . But the formula class still gets all the press formula killed racing .
> utting around on a wally was as much fun socially as fun on the water.
> That is what was taken away I think?
Yep, this is what's gone from the 'sport' now.
I too much much prefer waves and 105 liter freestyle. But under say 14-15 knots, absolutely nothing beats an old floater and no harness to practice moves, general shape and for social. I got my planing inside the boom and fast tacking (fast for me) from practicing on longboards first.
Ironic that guys with more equipment spend less time on water...
Hausey - your reads are interesting. As a very old windsurfer - both in age and duration windsurfing, I've come back to the sport in the last 4-5years.
I couldn't be happier - boards are light and strong, sails are easy to handle, gear is cheapish.
Windsurfers do though get hung up on what sail you must use with what board etc. That IMO is crap. Who says you can't put a 5.5 on a formula board?? Granted you probably won't win a state titles but you will still have fun and get out there. Likewise - sailors love to own a dtl wave board - but realistically how many times do we really get those perfect conditions. It is ok to own this equipment, but not at the detriment of simply having some general run of the mill gear to get out on in most of your local conditions.
One thing I see from reading these posts is that windsurfers do care about their sport and are interested in promoting and fostering it.
Windsurfing has slowed down in terms of numbers from the heady days of the 80's although there are still pockets of people all over who simply love getting out there in what-ever their local conditions offer.
Gee I miss high cut female swimmers from the 80s. What is not to love about something that makes women's legs look longer. I don't mean to be sexist but am I right!? 
What is with these things that barely make it over the top of the thigh.
Giddy up 
I'm not 100% sure you can really blame all the developments in equipment for "killing" it. In retrospect that may seem like the obvious explanation, but maybe the manufacturers were actually trying to diversify windsurfing and maintain public interest in the sport as it reached and passed the peak of it's popularity. If they (the manufacturers) had stuck with just the original windsurfer type of boards and sails, the masses would surely have gotten tired of it just as soon, and the hardcore would've been getting a little bored too if there were no new challenges.
The developments from the mid-80s onward have led us to the cool kind of gear we have today, and anyway they must've been market driven; why would manufacturers have put out all that different stuff unless there was a demand for it? The new small boards were hard to use; sales would've tanked unless people wanted the challenge and excitement of taking windsurfing to that next level.
Everything has it's peak. It's called Fashion. I rememeber when everyone had skateboards (this fad came and went at least twice), bmx bikes, rollerblades...or was doing karate, or meditation, or breakdancing. The crowd picks up on things for a few years then move onto the next fad, without even realising they are following the herd.
Nothing maintains the public interest at peak level forever; better get over it, windsurfing has had it's heyday. Now it's a great sport and it could do with a few more participants, but let's not lose any sleep over it!
It would be an unusual alternate reality with Windsurfers still the main craft and windsurfing companies not creating and promoting kitesurfing as a new sport, Hoyle would be one happy camper in that universe.
I think of my first windsurfer and it had this super light super bendy rig that was just perfect for learning and for teaching girls to sail. The simple deck uncluttered by footstraps, maybe a little heavy but basically unsurpassed as a light wind craft. In some ways it was the advent of funboards, multiple footstraps heavy powerful race rigs that first made the sport less accessible, but more colourful exciting and diverse.
Al
Hausey,
I think you have written the longest posts I have ever seen...
Are the plants not growing up north, or do you long for a sailboard?
I am 33, and started windsurfing with I was 11. - I competed in slalom, course races, wave sailing competitions, was across all disciplines. - But my interest changed when I hit 25. - Got married had kids, etc.
Nearly all the competitors i was sailing against were 15-20 years my senior, which would push most of them at closer to 50. I started through my Dad, whom was an old surfer, and wanted a change from surfing as was frustrated from lack of swell and alot of wind on the nsw south coast. This seemed to be the same with most of the people we were sailing against.
I think that windsurfing is generally not a sport that the younger kids would get into, at the start. Mum and dad carrying around 1 surfboard vs a quiver of sails / boards booms etc. The start up cost isn't cheap. So surfing is the avenue for most kids. Don't really blame them either. I know when my kids get old enough, i don't want a garage full of their gear and that i have to ferry them to the beach with a trailer in tow.
That is why i now kitesurf. - Windsurfing gear in garage now collecting dust. (Though went out just after christmas).
Goodluck on raising the profile again. I remember that Robby Naish ad well. Bring back Tyronsea.
Two comments:
First, windsurfing on new gear is not cheap. I just killed my JP wave board on Monday with one too many belly flops. It cost me $1100 in 2003 secondhand. I reckon I have used it 100 times. Thats $10 a session for the board alone.
Second, the malaise of our modern society is creating a desire for things that are virtually unattainable for the masses. No wonder so many are depressed. The marketing department don't care - they'd love you to fantasise that you are Robby Naish.
As a returnee to the sport in the last five years, and still mentally stuck in the 1980s, I aimed for down the line sideshore wave sailing in 22 knots plus (and bought gear to suit). However, my reality is usually more like 10 to 20 knots in ocean chop. Being the dough head I am, I only recently worked out that I need different gear, and different ideas about whether what I am doing is fun. I don't need to get bored with with broad reaches on confused seas, because I love it, and because there are still many challenges. But in terms of progressing, I am now looking for a more slalom style set up, with a bigger wind range. And maybe a GPS and some speed gear for the lighter end of things. I wonder if the marketing department can promote that?
On a final note, I am careful not to desire too much. I still meditate occasionally.
ask formula guys why no one races any more where things went a bit strange was when starboard come along they took over windsurf australia and killed racing
> the malaise of our modern society is creating a desire for things that
> are virtually unattainable for the masses. The marketing department
> (...) love you to fantasise that you are Robby Naish.
Yep - everything in the mags and fora point to sailors thinking/hoping they can just buy the fantasy with brand new, ever better gear. (BTW, ditto the Tupperware party on ski slopes and fancy $1000 road bikes for weekenders...)
> No wonder so many are depressed.
IMO reality sinks in after a number of years and countless $$$ that it is hard and repeated work that leads to good jibes and other forms of improvement.
Ah well, I'm looking for a new used freestyle board around 100L, so I get some 'cheap' never-freestyled freestyle gear on the market...
sounds to me that the only ones depressed about windsurfing are the guys continuously pushing the one design.
to be honest guys, and please no offence. do you have anything positive to say.
i love one designs, but you guys bagging all htings not one design has turned me off them a little.
Gestalt, you're right to point out that negative marketing isn't good. Sorry if some remarks have turned you off.
But to be fair, I think you may be reading more into some comments than was meant. None of us are depressed about windsurfing; surely it's optimistic to say that it's great, but it could be even better.
No one from "our side" is saying high-wind sailing is bad, just that it's not the only part of windsurfing. And to be honest, there's a lot of negative marketing that comes the other way (have you had anyone call your board "****" to your face lately? I had it a while ago) and sometimes we do react to that.
Oh....yes, some of the comments may be too negative but (just like negative comments from 'the other side') they don't represent the normal attitude.
Good sailing.
