sir ROWDY said..suniboy21 said..
The way I see it, foil boarding is the next level of competition which brings with it excitement for spectators. The more excitement for spectators means more credibility for the sport which is only a good thing.
Not that I'm against Foiling, I actually think it's pretty cool, but how exactly would a foil race be "exciting" for spectators? Unless they are crashing into each other or falling off I couldn't see many people watching a whole course race. (picture people silently cutting through the ocean bobbing up and down).
Kinda agree on why will it be exciting for spectators.
What makes it so compared to all the other forms of kiting?
Foiling will have big crashes? **** we all crash no mater what we ride and water goes everywhere I reckon they all look the same from 100m away, cricky look at any pics of pro freestyle events they must have big crashes cause they nearly all got knee braces!
Formula goes fast, sure foil will be faster but seriously will a spectator care if it goes around the course 2 min quicker?
Foil can go in lighter wind! while those in the sport think this is a big deal to the average joe probly dont get excited like we do.
Overseas they may get some big crowds to formula and freestyle events, but in Australia it has proven many times over to be predominately a participation sport way more than a spectator sport.
If any of the kiting disciplines was to be a spectator sport it should have been freestyle which really offers some excitement, but this is not really the case in any big way for one reason or another, who here remembers AKL that mike tried to get going all those years ago when kiting burst onto the scene?
Sailing has been around a long time in this country and with the exception of a couple of major events the crowds do not flock to watch like some other sports, I dont expect kite foiling to be any different.
I havnt seen lots of spectators at any of the foiling moth events and I reckon these guys are just as excited about there sport and think it will attract lots of sailors cause it is fast and exciting.
While the AC was a great success and showed sailing in a different way than ever before and bought sailing into the modern era they plowed buckets loads of money into it and even had to pay to get it on tele, kiting dont have that much money!
The sports that do get big crowds are generally also sports that people can kinda easily do themselves with little expense and play some small part in the sport, they can buy a racket, ball and bat or a pair of boots, even if they only get it out the cupboard once a year they still feel part of it and look up to the pros that do it really well (which they should cause they are full time pros).
With the possibility for people to mow the lawn in a cool way, do tricks, kite in light wind, race really fast, foiling has all the potential to do better than formula which realistically has about 50 active participants in the whole of Australia, but even if foiling was 10 times more successful than formula kite it still aint that big in this country.
Unless there is a large influx of money to promote a foiling event dont expect to many people to feel the stoke we do and pay more than a few minutes notice to what we are all doing in our little world
Will be interesting for us participants if nothing else
