We had Lancelin downwinder - now gone ...
Safety Bay YC run slalom series - now gone...
Boss of The Bay downwinder- gone
Screamin Leeman - gone...

The only Slalom/downwind race left in WA is the Cervantes Windsurf Challenge.

The effort required to organise events, a lack of big $$$ sponsors, and difficulties in finding volunteers is killing the events.

Or is it a lack of interest?

Will this year's Cervantes be the last slalom event in WA?
A lot of international sailors dream of this event. A few arrive every year and yet, a limited interest locally.

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Obelix said..
We had Lancelin downwinder - now gone ...
Safety Bay YC run slalom series - now gone...
Boss of The Bay downwinder- gone
Screamin Leeman - gone...

The only Slalom/downwind race left in WA is the Cervantes Windsurf Challenge.

The effort required to organise events, a lack of big $$$ sponsors, and difficulties in finding volunteers is killing the events.

Or is it a lack of interest?

Will this year's Cervantes be the last slalom event in WA?
A lot of international sailors dream of this event. A few arrive every year and yet, a limited interest locally.

Like everything it's always left to a few to organise and run events, I'm surprised you can't find big money sponsors over in WA

Select to expand quote

Obelix said..
We had Lancelin downwinder - now gone ...
Safety Bay YC run slalom series - now gone...
Boss of The Bay downwinder- gone
Screamin Leeman - gone...

The only Slalom/downwind race left in WA is the Cervantes Windsurf Challenge.

The effort required to organise events, a lack of big $$$ sponsors, and difficulties in finding volunteers is killing the events.

Or is it a lack of interest?

Will this year's Cervantes be the last slalom event in WA?
A lot of international sailors dream of this event. A few arrive every year and yet, a limited interest locally.

I had a ball racing in WA a few years ago and Cervantes is such a great location. There's no appetite for racing left in Victoria which is a shame.

It was left to the same people to run and organise the events, so in the end they got sick of not being able to sail themselves due to hardly any volunteers. It got to the point for the safety bay series where we were relying on combining with the kite racing to run events, and then you still had people complain that there wasnt enough races on the day because we were having to alternate races with the kites in order to have an event.
Without the kiters and their volunteers, we wouldnt have had any races, but some people just cant be pleased or are clueless. It was also noticeable that those who complained never offered to help either, so here we are with one event. WWA struggles for people to volunteer to run the events as well so we are lucky to have an association at the moment. Not sure what will happen next year.
Its a shame because i wouldnt be able to sail anywhere as well as i am able to without the racing in WA, nor would i have met as many wonderful people ( and i hate to say this, but that includes some of the kite racers) to go sailing with. Its a damn shame.

They'll all going to www.waverally.org

Not many sailors registered for the event.

If people are hoping to check the 7 days forecast to register, they may be disappointed. If we don't get enough in the next 2-3 weeks the organisers may cancel the event.

Heaps of effort goes into this event, and the last thing organisers want is a disappointing turnout after spending a lot of money

Fkn hope not ! I'm driving over from Qld for it , Accom booked also ! .. This gig followed by the Gero Gig
even purchased a stupid safety light flare , even a bloody weed fin !!

Seriously local WA crew ,,
as ACDC sang ..' hey there you all you middle men....while you out there sitting on the fence ...get of you asses ' and register !

Its only 2-3 hrs for perth . not 4-5 days! ...Pull ya fingers out, its one of the best windsurfing locations in the world..
people are making a massive effort to make this happen .... what more do you want ... get on it ... you guys don't know how lucky you are there ..100x better conditions than we have to suffer through here :(

Get on the Windsurfing WA site and register ....or suffer the consequences of a couple of Queenslanders taking home all the trophies, and ya will never hear the end of it ....bit like the Lions ruling the AFL! :) :)

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Maddlad said..
It was left to the same people to run and organise the events, so in the end they got sick of not being able to sail themselves due to hardly any volunteers. It got to the point for the safety bay series where we were relying on combining with the kite racing to run events, and then you still had people complain that there wasnt enough races on the day because we were having to alternate races with the kites in order to have an event.
Without the kiters and their volunteers, we wouldnt have had any races, but some people just cant be pleased or are clueless. It was also noticeable that those who complained never offered to help either, so here we are with one event. WWA struggles for people to volunteer to run the events as well so we are lucky to have an association at the moment. Not sure what will happen next year.
Its a shame because i wouldnt be able to sail anywhere as well as i am able to without the racing in WA, nor would i have met as many wonderful people ( and i hate to say this, but that includes some of the kite racers) to go sailing with. Its a damn shame.

Are any of you guys members of local yacht clubs? maybe they could assist?

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choco said..

Maddlad said..
It was left to the same people to run and organise the events, so in the end they got sick of not being able to sail themselves due to hardly any volunteers. It got to the point for the safety bay series where we were relying on combining with the kite racing to run events, and then you still had people complain that there wasnt enough races on the day because we were having to alternate races with the kites in order to have an event.
Without the kiters and their volunteers, we wouldnt have had any races, but some people just cant be pleased or are clueless. It was also noticeable that those who complained never offered to help either, so here we are with one event. WWA struggles for people to volunteer to run the events as well so we are lucky to have an association at the moment. Not sure what will happen next year.
Its a shame because i wouldnt be able to sail anywhere as well as i am able to without the racing in WA, nor would i have met as many wonderful people ( and i hate to say this, but that includes some of the kite racers) to go sailing with. Its a damn shame.

Are any of you guys members of local yacht clubs? maybe they could assist?

I'm interested to see how many responses you get to this question .

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WindsurfingWA said..
Not many sailors registered for the event.

If people are hoping to check the 7 days forecast to register, they may be disappointed. If we don't get enough in the next 2-3 weeks the organisers may cancel the event.

Heaps of effort goes into this event, and the last thing organisers want is a disappointing turnout after spending a lot of money

Ah that sucks, Cervantes is a great event and location.

Well...
Here's a good event organising story, many years ago I organised a few events and one boy's day was being a bit demanding, so I said, "well your kids the really good racer". And then that he got right into organising, for years.

The the other one is Laurie was winning a heat somewhere and the bouy came loose and when he got to the beach he was agitated/apopolectic, and I said "you ok Laurie?". Then received a very contrite apology and he still buys me beers to this day.

But, this doesn't help the problem and I don't think there are any dad/son combo's left.

Actually we have a good number of young sailors. The WWA Metro Juniors leaders are doing a great job of getting kids into Windsurfing.
A lot of learners are a windsurfer-parent combo - the parents getting their kids into it.

However, once these kids get into a teenage competitor stage, there will be no slalom events for them.
At least we have wave events still going on.

Parents should definitely take over running the WWA if they wish to see their kids engaged through competitions.

This year's Coros Camp was great for kids.
And there is another one coming in January.

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choco said..

Maddlad said..
It was left to the same people to run and organise the events, so in the end they got sick of not being able to sail themselves due to hardly any volunteers. It got to the point for the safety bay series where we were relying on combining with the kite racing to run events, and then you still had people complain that there wasnt enough races on the day because we were having to alternate races with the kites in order to have an event.
Without the kiters and their volunteers, we wouldnt have had any races, but some people just cant be pleased or are clueless. It was also noticeable that those who complained never offered to help either, so here we are with one event. WWA struggles for people to volunteer to run the events as well so we are lucky to have an association at the moment. Not sure what will happen next year.
Its a shame because i wouldnt be able to sail anywhere as well as i am able to without the racing in WA, nor would i have met as many wonderful people ( and i hate to say this, but that includes some of the kite racers) to go sailing with. Its a damn shame.

Are any of you guys members of local yacht clubs? maybe they could assist?

A couple of us tried to get weekly racing happening on foils at a local sailing club a year or two ago, but we struggled to get even 3 guys to turn up to race each week, so we eventually stopped. The thing about windsurfing is if you do all disciplines of it, what you do on the day depends on the conditions, so if you wave sail and the conditions are good for wave sailing that day somewhere else, it can be annoying to be locked in to racing at a different location etc. That was the great thing about the slalom at Safety Bay though, as it was only one day a month which left plenty of time for other disciplines of windsurfing. Unfortunately with that no longer happening, it also cancels out the Boss of The Bay, which was one of my favorite days of the year. Such a fun race. :)

Registration for this event closes at Thu 02 Jan 2025 11:59PM.

Every one will be waiting till the last minute!
They should charge extra fee for late registration!

The Flying Dutchman is doing the right thing by charging late fees for the Wave slalom. It's seems someone knows what they are doing.

On a more serious note..this news has just filtered through here in the east... thinking of everyone there and hope thewind changes directly quickly and blows the fire back on itself! Stay safe.