The first windsurfing book I read was called The Wind is Free - with Ken Winner. Borrowed it from a library when I was 13 years old or so in the very early 80s. However, I reckon that's where it ends......

Equipment is expensive if you want new kit. Travel is costlier Post COVID but was already a stretch if you wanted to go anywhere exotic and windy. I'd hate to calculate the lack of income from taking days off to chase the forecasts, not to mention how many hours I have spent waiting on beaches around the globe instead of working and earning.

The final insult arrived today and it clearly illustrates that our sport is perhaps reserved for those with money. The Financial Review which contains many an advert depicting high end sports cars or other expensive items had this ad on the front page this morning. It would be nice to think that someone at CMC Markets, or the marketing company, is a fellow windsurfer!

And before you all have a shot about me reading the Fin Review - I don't - just deliver it. Newspaper distribution does have some challenges re circulation decline but the advantage is that we work at night and sail all day

well, I windsurf and I use CMC and they are actually ok/quite good. I definitely don't read Fin Review or any other newspaper/feed as they all have biased agendas.

you can do all the windsurfing you want staying in Australia. Second hand kit is cheap if you know what you want. I started about 15 years ago and bought and sold a lot of stuff, but if you spread it through time it comes around $50 per week, which is nothing considering the fun and health benefits you get.

I am a starving windsurfing artist.
I make about $25k a year working weekends retail (the best job I could get to fit Huey roster).
I am homeless (prefer term 'home free', no assets or investments. Family is a mrs, brother who sails, nieces. The dog is closest thing to kids I'll ever have.
If I have to, I'll stay at mums (I am 45, that can be painful) other times camp in the on-site caravan by the beach.
There is no future plan for security. It is a worry sometimes, but I made this bed and I'll lie in it.
I was working on boats. I could go do that again and make 100k if I'm lucky.
But my sailing obsessed mind kicks in and tells me how poor I will get doing that, how many days in the sun on the water blasting around I'll miss.

I was kiting and a windsurfer gave me (for free) a sail to shove a pole in and try.
Countless other windsurfers (legends and masters) gave me time to explain how to hang on to it.

I've now wrangled some decent kit that I can progress with, carefully selecting what used gear can get the job done.
I like getting used gear because it usually comes with a sailors story, always soul enriching and stoking the sailing fire.

Every day I don't work and spend it at the beach, which is most days, I can think of how much money I'd be making, how much it costs me to be there. How much salary I've sacrificed over the years.
Time - it costs millions.

To me, the memory of the feeling of a ripper carve jibe (which I don't have yet and plan to be working on another few decades) would be as important as a house, or other things, maybe, not sure yet. I'll know when I die.

It's all a gamble. No one knows their own longevity in health or other things.
Play it safe, manage it long term, get the finances sorted etc.
Or go all-in like I have. Short term it's easy. But it could all come apart and I have to stop and go back to work any day.
When I left home about 25years I started living like this. Somehow managing to do the the things I like without money.

Old windsurfing vids show it, it's not all about the gear. In the hands of someone with time, 90's kit can go ballistic. I think they had less money and more time back then, that's why there were so many better sailors around.
A spanking $5k board isn't going to do much for someone with no time to spend on it.

With the savings I have now, I could buy some new kit, but that would be it. That'd be too reckless and if my car goes I wouldn't get it to the beach. So I manage it.

There are so many old sailors in Oz right now practically giving away old gear that could go.
Yes the wind is free, and so is the gear. If you have the time to learn to sail it, then indeed windsurfing is free.

Sorry, I've gotta say it, as Wayne Lynch said about surfing, 'it is not a sport, it is a spiritual activity'.
I feel that with windsurfing. It is changing my life for the better just now. And that is worth a lot.

I stencilled this skeleton sailor over a repair on my JP SLW board to remind me - windsurf or die!

PS- if you've got a 115-130ltr freerace / freeride board sydney or newcastle not finding the time to use and want gone, I've got the cash!

If you've still got that book then you'll be owing the library a serious amount of over due fees.....

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MobZ said..
I am a starving windsurfing artist.
I make about $25k a year working weekends retail (the best job I could get to fit Huey roster).
I am homeless (prefer term 'home free', no assets or investments. Family is a mrs, brother who sails, nieces. The dog is closest thing to kids I'll ever have.
If I have to, I'll stay at mums (I am 45, that can be painful) other times camp in the on-site caravan by the beach.
There is no future plan for security. It is a worry sometimes, but I made this bed and I'll lie in it.
I was working on boats. I could go do that again and make 100k if I'm lucky.
But my sailing obsessed mind kicks in and tells me how poor I will get doing that, how many days in the sun on the water blasting around I'll miss.

I was kiting and a windsurfer gave me (for free) a sail to shove a pole in and try.
Countless other windsurfers (legends and masters) gave me time to explain how to hang on to it.

I've now wrangled some decent kit that I can progress with, carefully selecting what used gear can get the job done.
I like getting used gear because it usually comes with a sailors story, always soul enriching and stoking the sailing fire.

Every day I don't work and spend it at the beach, which is most days, I can think of how much money I'd be making, how much it costs me to be there. How much salary I've sacrificed over the years.
Time - it costs millions.

To me, the memory of the feeling of a ripper carve jibe (which I don't have yet and plan to be working on another few decades) would be as important as a house, or other things, maybe, not sure yet. I'll know when I die.

It's all a gamble. No one knows their own longevity in health or other things.
Play it safe, manage it long term, get the finances sorted etc.
Or go all-in like I have. Short term it's easy. But it could all come apart and I have to stop and go back to work any day.
When I left home about 25years I started living like this. Somehow managing to do the the things I like without money.

Old windsurfing vids show it, it's not all about the gear. In the hands of someone with time, 90's kit can go ballistic. I think they had less money and more time back then, that's why there were so many better sailors around.
A spanking $5k board isn't going to do much for someone with no time to spend on it.

With the savings I have now, I could buy some new kit, but that would be it. That'd be too reckless and if my car goes I wouldn't get it to the beach. So I manage it.

There are so many old sailors in Oz right now practically giving away old gear that could go.
Yes the wind is free, and so is the gear. If you have the time to learn to sail it, then indeed windsurfing is free.

Sorry, I've gotta say it, as Wayne Lynch said about surfing, 'it is not a sport, it is a spiritual activity'.
I feel that with windsurfing. It is changing my life for the better just now. And that is worth a lot.

I stencilled this skeleton sailor over a repair on my JP SLW board to remind me - windsurf or die!

PS- if you've got a 115-130ltr freerace / freeride board sydney or newcastle not finding the time to use and want gone, I've got the cash!

Sounds like you got it sorted mate.

I learned everything off that book. As a young fella. Brings back memories. I still have the book. The wind IS free. It's definitely my escape

Re: the CMC windsurfing pic... how he's going to master the landing on that move? Is that a front loop/forward, off the lip, down the line, into white water?

For some of us the wind is the most expensive part of windsurfing ...you pay for it with time, time taken from wife, kids, pets, family etc.