FROM THE HELM
STEVE MORRELL,
EDITOR
Windsurfing as an Olympic Event In the mid 1980s, I started windsurfing where I was living in Palm Beach County. I started with a big board and low wind conditions, 1-12 knots, in mid-spring. I had no idea what I was getting into. I started in the spring and got pretty good at playing around on the board in light wind conditions. But one day in September, about six months after I started, I went to the beach to go sailing and there were dozens of windsurfers in the water—at the beach where I had never seen more than two to three on any day. But the beach was almost empty of regular beachgoers. Why? Because the wind was 20-25 knots. What happened next changed my life for the next several years. I learned how to sail in high winds—I needed at least 21-22 knots to go out—and owned several sails and boards. I learned how to water start (the most frustrating thing I ever had to learn) and jibe, and once sailed in conditions in winds that were 35, gusting to 40 knots (South Padre Island)—one of the most fun days I ever had windsurfing, on glassy water, too. To this day, I consider highwind windsurfing to be the most fun and most exhilarating sport I ever participated in. So when I heard about recent rumblings that my favorite sport might be taken out of the Olympics, I paid attention. Recently, I read an article by Neil Pryde (www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2018/01/05/windsurfing-olympic-event) on the Scuttlebutt.com sailing website about windsurfing and its place in the Olympics. Many wondered whether windsurfing would continue as an Olympic sport after the 2016 Games, but they were approved for 2020. However, it’s in doubt whether they will make it into the 2024 Games. Neil Pryde Ltd. was the main sailmaker and supplier of rigs for windsurfing for many years going back to the 1980s, and his letter was in response to Olympic committee concerns about whether to keep the sport. Windsurfing has been in the Olympics since 1984 and has gone through many changes in the boards and rigs used. The latest rig, the RS:X—in the Olympics since 2008— has been very successful. I learned some interesting facts in
Pryde’s letter about the sport, its current standing in the Olympics and its future. Although windsurfing was the most watched of the sailing events, sailing is the most expensive sport to host at the Olympics—and it carries the worst TV ratings of any sport. The International Olympic Committee is determined to reduce its cost. One of the costs is the equipment. Cobra is the sole manufacturer of the board, under the supervision of Neil Pryde Ltd., which also supplies the rig. It was decided that every competitor should have the same equipment, and the only way to do that was to have one manufacturer. Questions of a monopoly have come up and Pryde was addressing that problem, saying that the costs are extremely high, and the return is not so great. The company has to supply the equipment for free, as well as for each World Sailing Youth Championship. He also stated that having more than one manufacturer has already been tried, and all boards and rigs were not of equal quality, causing many problems. Pryde also wrote that windsurfing is practiced on all continents and is often the sport that countries use to enter international sailing competition. This is partially because it is the most affordable Olympic event. One requirement of the RS:X is that it have a guaranteed 4-year competitive life, so investing in it will last to the next Games, besides being used in international competition during off Olympic years. The sport is also the most widely practiced sailing sport in the world with competitors of all ages—plus it is the most physically demanding and uses the most technical and high performance equipment of all the sailing classes in the Olympics, racing in winds from three to 30 knots. Windsurfing is also entering the foiling age as more and more boards use foils. When planing, a windsurfer is basically sailing on its fin. On foils, the advantage of them is that the board will lift up out of the water under wind speeds as low as 5-6 knots. Let’s hope that this great and fun sport continues on in the Olympics.
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February 2018
SOUTHWINDS
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