Lessons from other sports

When sales of new boards started to decline, many high-wind fanatics blamed the drop on everything else in sight –the weather, the kids of today….. Others blamed the rising popularity of other sports, but that ignored the fact that one reason that sports like kiting and wakeboarding were growing was because (unlike high wind sailing) they didn’t demand good conditions. The resurgence of long surfboards was a perfect example. In the early ‘80s, those of us who surfed longboards were a mocked minority, like longboarder windsurfers were just a couple of years ago. Today longboard surfboards sell about as well as short surfboards, and the laid-back soulful longboard style could be a model for windsurfing’s future. Kiting was also attractive because it’s fun in light winds. Bruno Legaignoux, co-inventor of the sport, warned kiters about following windsurfing’s path; “remember (windsurfers saying) “Hey guy, how many cambers do you have ? Only six ? … and your board, what size ? 2.26m ? Too bad! mine is 2.195m !”. Windsurfing is dying for this reason.

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