I've been thinking a bit about this whole Olympics thing. It has always annoyed me that we never got to see the Naish's, Dunkerbecks, Hyde's and Klepich's take each other on and showcase the sport and I figured it was always because they were 'sponsored up'. But in the end, tennis, cycling, basketball they all seem to field their top pro's. Added to that is wouldn't it be so cool to see all the pro's take each other on in one design.
So what's the problem? Is the rsx just seen as being to 'Neil Pryde' or is the body type just to different?
Intelligent, insightful responses only please.
If you were going to put the top pros against each other it would have to be across 3 disciplines ie Equestrian. Total scores added. This way body size and shapes, abilities and equipent could be nullified by spreading it over these disciplines.
Most consistent or overall talented sailor wins.
see recent response from Bruce Kendall when the kite lobby have brought this up:
The PBA world tour was open check book racing in the 80's & 90's. Early on Raphel S was competitive because the equipment had not evolved & big rigs & fins did not work. By the end of the 80's it became pretty clear that people needed to be taller & heavier as they could carry bigger rigs which gave them a bigger wind range. It was about this time Raphel S started wearing lead weight jackets. He then stopped & stared F One kites. Born was clearly dominating partly due to his size. He was taller & heavier [95 kilos plus] than most but still with a great power to body weight ratio & had great board skills. He still has. I dabbled in the PBA after winning gold in 88. I could not afford to keep up with the check book racing & I found I was too small. [68 kilos] I went back to Olympic windsurfing as it was all I could afford & I was the right size. The RSX has a 9.5 & I am clearly too short [& beaten up] to win. Open equipment racing [box rule] makes the sport too expensive. The top racing pros are too heavy for displacement & marginal plaining conditions. They use 12 meter sails. The top RSX sailors are too light for the Pro events. Both the Pros & the Olympic sailors gravitated to where they were best suited. Both are very very skilled. Kite racing is still too young to have a strong one design class. When it has a strong one design it will have formats sorted & everyone out side Kite racing will know the pros & cons & be more ready for serious consideration as an Olympic sport. Kite freestyle would have been a different story. Currently Kite racing is not ready to be Olympic.
Bringdahl, VanDenBerg and many others excelled at both pro/am, Naish once said he figured he would be competitive as the olympic guys were racing a copy of his board.
