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buzzwordbrad
Joined: 17 Jul 2012 Posts: 56
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Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 2:10 pm Post subject: Re: Thought I'd bring this to your attention... |
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windsurfing dead? i don't think so. earlier in the day on on this same past windy saturday, here was the scene at the cal sailing club beginner class. pic courtesy of j. mazzanti. if you want to get involved just show up at 124 university ave at 10am on saturday or sunday and find out how you can help.
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bubbalover
Joined: 06 Oct 2015 Posts: 15
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Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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beallmd wrote: | But if I buy a Mini where do I put my 3 boards and 8 sails? |
I'm a BIG guy, but I'm down to 2 boards and 3 sails. I have a 9.5, 7.5 and 6.0. The sails have such a huge range nowadays I really don't have the need for anything else. The 9.5 will get me all the way to 22 or 23 comfortably at which point the 7.5 takes over all the way close to 30.
A normal sized person could do the same thing going with 7.5, 6.0, 5.0.
I pull up and check if it's sort of windy, windy, or really windy and rig accordingly.
Back in the 80's I had sails every half meter. Of course, I only had one mast for all those sails, so maybe having 3, $400 masts is the downside.
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koogzah
Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 530 Location: right here
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Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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carl wrote: | There's a guy in the bay area that puts everything INSIDE his Mini :
1 board and 2 sails, plus mast and boom.
and it's a standard Mini, not the big one pictured above. |
There was a guy. No longer have the Mini but still roll with only one board, on the roof now.
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MrFish
Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 248
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:05 am Post subject: |
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There were more windsurfers in La Ventana this year then there had been in years and years, on bigger days they outnumbered kiters easily.
And, there's some kids coming up, and some long time kiters are learning too--either for big days, or for the very light cruising long board type of days.
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windfind
Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1902
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 11:20 am Post subject: |
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MrFish wrote: | There were more windsurfers in La Ventana this year then there had been in years and years, on bigger days they outnumbered kiters easily.
And, there's some kids coming up, and some long time kiters are learning too--either for big days, or for the very light cruising long board type of days. |
Gang,
Just want to confirm what MrFish said about La Ventana and a few words about the Gorge and Bay Area winds now vs. the past and kites.
3 years ago near the La Ventana campground the % of windsurfers vs. kiters was about 10% windsurfers. 2 years ago the % began changing and this last winter it was easily 40% windsurfers near shore in the campground area. But outside, where the big swell and wind live, it was more like 70% windsurfers.
Part of this change occurred as some kiters realized that windsurfing gave safer access to the big wind and swell than kiting on big days. Part was the jet ski phenomenon... when a sport is easy to learn you just reach the plateau of your ability faster and from that plateau boredom becomes a factor. So in a few short years some people have reached their plateau in kiting and are returning to windsurfing since it is hard to plateau in windsurfing.
In the Gorge the ratio of windsurfers to kiters is about 90% the former except for a few lower wind areas like the Sand Bar and Stevenson or on weaker wind days. And the schools teaching windsurfing have to enter a lottery to get prime locations for lessons. Every summer day The Hook is jammed with beginners especially children. Just google "Gorge windsurfing lessons."
The problem for Bay Area windsurfing is that the AVERAGE wind and FREQUENCY of strong wind has declined at many sites. (maybe one day I will attempt a blog on the many reasons for this decrease) That decrease along with the huge increase in traffic issues has made it much harder to find wind strong enough for windsurfing. Kiting came along at the perfect time since it works in lighter wind and is easier on the body barring accidents. If kiting had evolved 15 years earlier in the Bay Area it would have had a hard time gaining traction for the same reasons it has been slow to spread to the higher wind sites in the Gorge.
Long time windsurfers will remember the early days when the waters & beaches were filled with windsurfing kooks who did not know the rules of the road, left sails on the beach clew into the wind, were dangerous due to tunnel vision or slammed cars with ineptly carried boards and gear. Now we are all a lot more experienced. And it is easy for us forget that once we were ALL kooks that did not know the rules or good beach manners until someone taught them to us...hopefully the easy way.
So kiting, being a newer sport, has more kooks and worse these kooks have a more lethal weapon in their hands. So it is even more important to teach them the rules....the easy way or the hard way!
And if you worry that windsurfing is a dying sport check out the video: "Windsurfing has been Canceled"
http://windnotes.phanfare.com/4743675_5825871#imageID=107559201
Mike Godsey
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Two of the light wind Gorge kite and windsurfing sites. |
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TheItalianJobber
Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 121
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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Strong post and solid video, Mike. Thanks!
(still one of the few "normal" conditions spots where I would recommend wearing a helmet to everybody, even to an onlooker )
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alextarg
Joined: 14 Apr 1994 Posts: 9
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 2:05 pm Post subject: Windsurfing in advertising in USA |
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Below is that windsurfing commercial from the 1990's of the lady windsurfing and looping in the field of wheat to advertise an allergy pill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8l1x0o5mAQ
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alextarg
Joined: 14 Apr 1994 Posts: 9
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Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 2:05 pm Post subject: Windsurfing in advertising in USA |
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Below is that windsurfing commercial from the 1990's of the lady windsurfing and looping in the field of wheat to advertise an allergy pill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8l1x0o5mAQ
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