Waiting For Joel

Lessons from surfing.

It looks like we’ve made it. Rumours of the longboard windsurfer’s death were much exaggerated. We know the longboard works, and we’re out there making converts. Manufacturers like Kona are pushing the concept. The Kona One, they say, is the world’s top-selling board. We may not be the biggest part of the windsurfing scene yet, but we’re not going away.

In a sense, it’s déjà vu. About two decades ago, longboard surfing was in the same position. There was a low groundswell of support, and the old walruses of the break were going to surf their longboards or “Mals” no matter what, but a longboard had no beach cred. There were exceptions, of course; my laid-back local break on the far north of Sydney was the stomping ground for former world champs or finalists like Midget Farrelly, Nat Young and Mick Dooley, as well as kids and kooks like me. But to most of the world, the longboard was social death in fiberglass form.

“Until about 1992, the typical longboard surfer was regarded as the outcome of eroded skills. Old, fat, and bald seemed to be the prerequisites” wrote Scott Hulet of The Surfer’s Journal. Legendary shaper Dick Brewer agrees. “Ten or 15 years ago you wouldn’t be seen on the beach alive with a long board. You know, the peers group the people on the beach would look at you and go, “Ooh, kook!” To those of us who stuck by the longboard windsurfer, it’s a familiar story.

But then (or so the story goes) came a new wave, largely lead by one guy out of California. “Consider the contemporary longboard explosion” writes Hulet. “Many factors have been cited as flashpoints – changing demographics, technology, outright boredom, but it could just as easily be said that a single surfer -Joel Tudor–ignited the bomb.”

“Joel Tudor’s contribution to surfing’s retro revival is unquestionable — it may have been in the works already, but it would have been drastically less cool” wrote Surfline’s Jason Borte. Tudor, his contemporaries like Rusty Kealana, and a few of the “old guard” legends like Nat Young, have taken the longboard to new areas, bringing a new angle while respecting the old style, and have given it the style that sells. They have inspired new movies and magazines, and brought the longboard back into prominence. The new longboarders are inspiring kids, and even the shortboarders give them grudging respect.
There’s inspiration for us in the way that the image of longboard surfing was turned around by Joel and his contemporaries. We are now in the place where longboard surfing was years ago, and we can take over the top spot again just as quickly. It may take just one pack of hot sailors to give longboard sailing the vital credibility that we still lack in some quarters. A new breed of sailors ( perhaps longboard/SUP surfsailers) could change the way that longboards are perceived in windsurfing, just like the new breed did for surfing.

We can learn from the attention that the new longboard surfing paid to marketing. And the longboard surfers have one big advantage over the longboard windsurfers. Surfing is very conscious of its roots, its history, and its mythology. Surfers will rave on about the spiritual and artistic sides of the sport. The new wave of longboard surfers recognized these factors and recognized that they had first rights to many of them. They charged into big waves on big boards and brought a new energy and a new style, but they respected the traditional longboard values like the “glide”. Longboarding still reflects a more soulful approach than modern rip-and-tear shortboarding. “It’s much more about the feelings” wrote Hulet.

THE LONGER VIEW?

The problem for us is that windsurfing doesn’t have the same sort of sense of what it stands for. After all, what is a longboard windsurfer? It’s not just someone who’s behind the times, as some shortboarders think (hell, they still cling to the idea that the 20 year old “windsurfing is planing” concept is new thinking) but there IS a different spirit to our side of the sport.
Longboard windsurfing seems to be an understanding that it’s about more than just high winds and planing. It’s about getting a zen-like glow as well as a hit of adrenalin. It’s about feeling the joy in all weather conditions, not just a narrow band of steady medium to fresh winds. We’re out gliding through glassy water when others are whining about the lack of breeze. It’s about boards that sail in multiple modes, not just planing off the fin.

Since just about can sail a longboard, everyone, anytime, everywhere, longboard windsurfing also intrinsically values every sailor, no matter what their age, skill level, or location. Since it covers everything from tight tactical racing to surfsailing, longboard windsurfing is more versatile than either shortboard sailing or longboard surfing.

As I write this, I’m just warming up from a midwinter longboard blast in gusty offshore winds that averaged 25 knots but had lulls down to 10 and gusts to a solid 35 knots. In a short board, the sensation would have been all about the short-term gusts, and the sense that this was “real windsurfing”. On the longboard, it was all about enjoying the whole sail, from the lulls to the gusts. The strong winds weren’t better than light winds, but just another angle.

It’s this versatility that could be an essence of longboard windsurfing. We get to the spirit of longboard windsurfing when we step back from the narrow concentration on planing and appreciate all its aspects. Maybe the whole point is that longboard windsurfing is all about standing back and getting the (’scuse the pun) longer view.

ALONE AND STRONGER?

But even if we work out how to crystalise what longboard windsurfing is all about, maybe the surfers have another lesson for us. Today, it’s accepted that longboards probably outsell short surfboards. Longboards are big in the growing women’s market, and among new surfers, as well as among the veterans.
But here’s the rub. Pick up a “mainstream” surfing magazine, and it’s overwhelmingly shortboards. Although longboards are more popular, they don’t really exist on the shortboard spectrum. Looking at the barometer of internet forums seems to prove that windsurfing is in the same spot. It will take years, if ever, before the longboard regains the high ground.

I’m sick of always trying to be the ones having to justify our side of the sport to the singleminded shortboarders. I’m sick of them ignoring the damage that their one-sided viewpoint did to windsurfing. Maybe it’s time to just break away, just like the longboard surfers did; just like Exocet did, when they created the Kona longboard brand. After all, that’s what LBWS is about. We’re still part of windsurfing, but we are our own part of windsurfing.

And so, at the end of this rambling read, maybe in the end these are all aspects of the same issue. Longboard windsurfing may need its own breed of Joel Tudors, because they highlight that the sport is still developing and vital, and they feed on and feed back to the longboard spirit and ethos. Longboard windsurfing may need to know what that its own spirit and ethos are, and work out how to market it. And longboard windsurfing needs to stake its own territory within the wider sport, with its own associations, publications and ideas.

Photo taken from Joel’s website www.joeltudor.com