while flicking through some old sailing mag's I found some really cool windsurfing ads from the 80's. sorry that one of them is on the side but it still prety funny!!!

It is prety interisting to see how windsurfing technolegy has changed in the past 20 years and what their max speed was, 27 knots!!!!!! that must have been really pushing it for them, but i sailed faster than that on the weekend!! lol


windsurfing must have been really really big back then!!!!! so what happened to it?? why is windsurfing such a small sport now??

jamesy


oh, and there are heps more ads that I found but these are only the best so let me know if you want to see the rest.

what happened to it?

In the beginning Windsurfing was fun even when there was now wind. There was one board and you had maybe two sails (a normal sail and storm sail). You went out windsurfing in even the lightest wind and it was fun.

As board technology got "better" the shortboard craze started. More and more people wanted to have smaller and smaller boards. I remember most of those boards needed at least 25knts to work well. The mags this their thing to. More and more the image of Hawaii and big waves was pushed. You weren't a windsurfer unless you sailed in waves. The result was that a lot of people simply lost interest in the sport. It wasn't cool anymore to windsurf.

Only recently some board manufacturers have started to come up with new board concepts to make the sport attractive for the masses again without the need to monster waves or hurricane force winds.

... that's my 5 cents.

It was a fad that evolved into a sport.

for some reason the images didn't show

Haha...
Thats a priceless pic of Naish and that girl...
the 80is man

My favourite ad was a north ad from about ten years ago, It had a picture of some tits and next to it read "feel the 3d curves" or something like that. Unfortunately north got flogged by feminists and the like so the ad didn't get run after it's first publication .

As for why windsufing isn't as popular now number 1 reason, it got too complicated and number 2 reason, there are so many other great sports people can do which are easier to learn and nearly as rewarding.

There we go again.

Nice Avatar Jamesy!

in my opinion what happened to it was.....

the sport evolved from a Windsurfer which was a board that was fun, everybody had the same board, with the same simple rig with a sail that you could roll around the mast.... you could race your mates....go out in a couple of knots and do freestyle and try and control the beast in 30knots....there were weight divisions and a sense of fun that was more like sailing

then some guys in Hawaii (and here) started chopping the boards down until they were riding basically surfboards and suddenly the sport sort of divided into two parts.... a bit like surfing did with the clubbies and the surf board riders....

then with racing it sort of split again with funboards that went faster in stronger winds and div 2 boards that went faster in lighter winds

then slalom boards started and these went even faster in stronger winds - though not as fast as speed boards

then wave boards became wave slalom boards and then free ride boards and then became what ever is around nowadays.....confused?

basically the sport grew incredibly quickly.... it was exciting.... all these companies started producing all this crap (most of it was) ....rotomolded this and blow moulded that......and to keep them in business they would market their new equipment every year ....telling the punter that they needed the latest gear to be cool....windsurfing became an equipment circus .... big companies producing crap

trouble was that the top windsurfers were riding custom equipment that was way better than what was selling at the shop.... the 'pros' showed up, started doing incredible things or the good gear, made money, made it seem glamerous..... and they put very little back into the sport to regenerate it and make it exciting for the up and comers....the same guy won because he had better equipment year after year......

the equipment took a long, long time to improve to the point where it is now - that the gear that is available now in the shops is close to as good as what is available anywhere ..... but most people had lost interest by then....it was too late.... the companies that took so much out, didn't put enough back in....in the right ways...

basically it was the fastest growing sport in the world in the 80's and the fastest shrinking sport in the world by the late 90's ....

and then kiting started!

Windsurfing is still fun, though more of a 'solo' sport than it was back in 'peak hour'

Hausey is on the money - welcome to the way 99% of business work, especially anything "mass" marketed... sigh...

im a noobie youngin at 14 who windsurfs and the reason no one else my age does is because they want to do the sports that they reckon get them chicks, we need more adds like like robby naish to make windsurfing look cool, if you want to get people into the sport, but i have to say its good to be able to free ride on everones old thrown out second hand gear and not buy any

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wintonhuck said...

im a noobie youngin at 14 who windsurfs and the reason no one else my age does is because they want to do the sports that they reckon get them chicks, we need more adds like like robby naish to make windsurfing look cool, if you want to get people into the sport, but i have to say its good to be able to free ride on everones old thrown out second hand gear and not buy any

winton

guaranteed that if you windsurf every day, in a few years you'll be picking up more chicks than your mates playing with balls

the only thing cooler than windsurfing is surfing or maybe kiteboarding?

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Jamesy said...

while flicking through some old sailing mag's I found some really cool windsurfing ads from the 80's. sorry that one of them is on the side but it still prety funny!!!

It is prety interisting to see how windsurfing technolegy has changed in the past 20 years and what their max speed was, 27 knots!!!!!! that must have been really pushing it for them, but i sailed faster than that on the weekend!! lol

Hausey's pretty much on the money as far as why windsurfing dropped off, IMHO.

Modern gear's great in many ways. But while 27 knots isn't fast, a lot of the gear sold back then would have been faster, on the average weekend, than 95% of the gear sold today.

A couple of years ago, 229 sailors entered the "Freeride fleet" for the Poms' biggest windsurfing event. An original Windsurfer got second, behind a Raceboard.

Look over to the right to see the fleet coming to the finish of one heat....227 shiny modern monofilm sails behind one old bit of dacron.

In how many sports would the first design ever be able to beat 227 other competitors on modern gear?

Some windsurfers are pretty self-satisfied about the way our gear has evolved. The interesting thing to see is that in the late '70s, the first Windsurfer was rated at about the same speed around the typical racetrack as a Moth dinghy. Since then, the backyard gurus of the Moth fleet have developed their boat so that it's still about as fast as a modern board. In terms of speed around a course, we haven't improved any more than the most developed opf the boats.

What we have done, to our great loss, is to kill off most of the old designs. In boats, it's simple old designs that still make up a huge proportion of the fleets, because while they aren't fast they are tough, cheap, and simple. We've ignored that and cut our throats.

> "because they want to do the sports that they reckon get them chicks"

OK, I bite: so wintonhuck, what sport do they into to get thems chicks ?

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WOD said...

Jamesy said...

while flicking through some old sailing mag's I found some really cool windsurfing ads from the 80's. sorry that one of them is on the side but it still prety funny!!!

It is prety interisting to see how windsurfing technolegy has changed in the past 20 years and what their max speed was, 27 knots!!!!!! that must have been really pushing it for them, but i sailed faster than that on the weekend!! lol

Hausey's pretty much on the money as far as why windsurfing dropped off, IMHO.

Modern gear's great in many ways. But while 27 knots isn't fast, a lot of the gear sold back then would have been faster, on the average weekend, than 95% of the gear sold today.

A couple of years ago, 229 sailors entered the "Freeride fleet" for the Poms' biggest windsurfing event. An original Windsurfer got second, behind a Raceboard.

Look over to the right to see the fleet coming to the finish of one heat....227 shiny modern monofilm sails behind one old bit of dacron.

In how many sports would the first design ever be able to beat 227 other competitors on modern gear?

Some windsurfers are pretty self-satisfied about the way our gear has evolved. The interesting thing to see is that in the late '70s, the first Windsurfer was rated at about the same speed around the typical racetrack as a Moth dinghy. Since then, the backyard gurus of the Moth fleet have developed their boat so that it's still about as fast as a modern board. In terms of speed around a course, we haven't improved any more than the most developed opf the boats.

What we have done, to our great loss, is to kill off most of the old designs. In boats, it's simple old designs that still make up a huge proportion of the fleets, because while they aren't fast they are tough, cheap, and simple. We've ignored that and cut our throats.

Classic photo - the old Wally beating all the new wallies!

To ice the cake he could have put it up on the rail and then rail rided up the beach and stepped of onto almost dry sand....while all the big finned wals got off in waist deep muddy water!

That said if there was a few more knots of wind - the modern board and their riders would have been running circles around the old Wal... and feeling much better too!

I was there for the 1984 Windsurfer Worlds in Perth - it was a huge event and a lot of fun. People from all over the world came. It was right at the point when equipment of all sorts was developing eg At the same time Fred Haywood came over and beat the world speed record doing about 25-28knots or something with a 10m sail! At the same time I had just bought a wave board of the pro Scott O'Connor - it was 8'2" Terry Fitz Hot Buttered...

So after those wally worlds that was it for me - wave sailing was far more exciting, and way cooler I thought....

But thinking about the amount of time and energy that went into the sport - and basically there is still nothing better than the original Windsurfer in light winds. It could have done with a slightly better upgrade when it did - though it should have stayed the Olympic board and the sport would have remained stronger.

Back in WA for the 97 Worlds when there were all sorts of classes and divisions.... it had killed the sport, hardly anyone turned up. To many rules and classes and vested interests.

In my opinion, and with hindsight it is easy.... though they should have had kept the one design thing happening. Though all these companies could sense a dollar and pretty much undermined the sport. Most of the time the wind is light, and putting around on a wally was as much fun socially as fun on the water. That is what was taken away I think?

Windsurfer one design still race big fleet in nsw states . the windsurfer One design is still the biggest windsurf class in australia . But the formula class still gets all the press formula killed racing .

> utting around on a wally was as much fun socially as fun on the water.
> That is what was taken away I think?

Yep, this is what's gone from the 'sport' now.

I too much much prefer waves and 105 liter freestyle. But under say 14-15 knots, absolutely nothing beats an old floater and no harness to practice moves, general shape and for social. I got my planing inside the boom and fast tacking (fast for me) from practicing on longboards first.

Ironic that guys with more equipment spend less time on water...

Hausey - your reads are interesting. As a very old windsurfer - both in age and duration windsurfing, I've come back to the sport in the last 4-5years.

I couldn't be happier - boards are light and strong, sails are easy to handle, gear is cheapish.

Windsurfers do though get hung up on what sail you must use with what board etc. That IMO is crap. Who says you can't put a 5.5 on a formula board?? Granted you probably won't win a state titles but you will still have fun and get out there. Likewise - sailors love to own a dtl wave board - but realistically how many times do we really get those perfect conditions. It is ok to own this equipment, but not at the detriment of simply having some general run of the mill gear to get out on in most of your local conditions.

One thing I see from reading these posts is that windsurfers do care about their sport and are interested in promoting and fostering it.

Windsurfing has slowed down in terms of numbers from the heady days of the 80's although there are still pockets of people all over who simply love getting out there in what-ever their local conditions offer.

Gee I miss high cut female swimmers from the 80s. What is not to love about something that makes women's legs look longer. I don't mean to be sexist but am I right!?

What is with these things that barely make it over the top of the thigh.

Giddy up

I'm not 100% sure you can really blame all the developments in equipment for "killing" it. In retrospect that may seem like the obvious explanation, but maybe the manufacturers were actually trying to diversify windsurfing and maintain public interest in the sport as it reached and passed the peak of it's popularity. If they (the manufacturers) had stuck with just the original windsurfer type of boards and sails, the masses would surely have gotten tired of it just as soon, and the hardcore would've been getting a little bored too if there were no new challenges.

The developments from the mid-80s onward have led us to the cool kind of gear we have today, and anyway they must've been market driven; why would manufacturers have put out all that different stuff unless there was a demand for it? The new small boards were hard to use; sales would've tanked unless people wanted the challenge and excitement of taking windsurfing to that next level.



Everything has it's peak. It's called Fashion. I rememeber when everyone had skateboards (this fad came and went at least twice), bmx bikes, rollerblades...or was doing karate, or meditation, or breakdancing. The crowd picks up on things for a few years then move onto the next fad, without even realising they are following the herd.

Nothing maintains the public interest at peak level forever; better get over it, windsurfing has had it's heyday. Now it's a great sport and it could do with a few more participants, but let's not lose any sleep over it!

It would be an unusual alternate reality with Windsurfers still the main craft and windsurfing companies not creating and promoting kitesurfing as a new sport, Hoyle would be one happy camper in that universe.

I think of my first windsurfer and it had this super light super bendy rig that was just perfect for learning and for teaching girls to sail. The simple deck uncluttered by footstraps, maybe a little heavy but basically unsurpassed as a light wind craft. In some ways it was the advent of funboards, multiple footstraps heavy powerful race rigs that first made the sport less accessible, but more colourful exciting and diverse.

Al

Hausey,

I think you have written the longest posts I have ever seen...

Are the plants not growing up north, or do you long for a sailboard?

I am 33, and started windsurfing with I was 11. - I competed in slalom, course races, wave sailing competitions, was across all disciplines. - But my interest changed when I hit 25. - Got married had kids, etc.

Nearly all the competitors i was sailing against were 15-20 years my senior, which would push most of them at closer to 50. I started through my Dad, whom was an old surfer, and wanted a change from surfing as was frustrated from lack of swell and alot of wind on the nsw south coast. This seemed to be the same with most of the people we were sailing against.
I think that windsurfing is generally not a sport that the younger kids would get into, at the start. Mum and dad carrying around 1 surfboard vs a quiver of sails / boards booms etc. The start up cost isn't cheap. So surfing is the avenue for most kids. Don't really blame them either. I know when my kids get old enough, i don't want a garage full of their gear and that i have to ferry them to the beach with a trailer in tow.

That is why i now kitesurf. - Windsurfing gear in garage now collecting dust. (Though went out just after christmas).

Goodluck on raising the profile again. I remember that Robby Naish ad well. Bring back Tyronsea.

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Wet Willy said...


I'm not 100% sure you can really blame all the developments in equipment for "killing" it. In retrospect that may seem like the obvious explanation, but maybe the manufacturers were actually trying to diversify windsurfing and maintain public interest in the sport as it reached and passed the peak of it's popularity.

No one's blaming all the developments; it's just that some of us feel that concentrating too much on some developments may have hurt the sport.

Most of the figures I've seen indicates that the sport had NOT passed its peak of popularity when the manufacturers started pushing high-wind gear harder. It was after they started pushing high-wind gear harder that the sport started to drop. That's the info from checking figures in my old mags, which includes stuff like breakdowns of German and UK sales figures.

If they (the manufacturers) had stuck with just the original windsurfer type of boards and sails, the masses would surely have gotten tired of it just as soon, and the hardcore would've been getting a little bored too if there were no new challenges.

Maybe. But there are many ways to develop, and maybe the sport lost out when it concentrated almost entirely on one way - the high-wind way.

There were other ways to develop. Good kid's gear was almost unknown. Racing classes that allowed measured (rather than runaway) development were almost unknown. Gear for cruising (like the gozillions of sea kayaks etc we see know) is and was basically unknown. Gear designed with less emphasis on speed and more on being user friendly across the range was (arguably) never developed. Long waveboards were never really developed. Boards that you could paddle, fish from, etc were never developed. The ideal club racing board was never developed (IMHO). Lighter but equally tough gear was never developed. The idea of a board as a piece of timber craftmanship was never really pushed.

There are probably things a windsurfer could do brilliantly that we have never even thought of, yet almost all the sport concentrated on one or two aspects of the wide spectrum. And rigs, for a start, were crap and improvements in all-wind sails were possible.

And you could look at kayaking, bikes or dinghy sailing. There's lots of hard-core guys on flatwater K1 kayaks, road bikes or slow Laser dinghies. Hard core doesn't have to be extreme.





The developments from the mid-80s onward have led us to the cool kind of gear we have today, and anyway they must've been market driven; why would manufacturers have put out all that different stuff unless there was a demand for it?

Maybe it's just that manufacturers don't always get it right?

Remember Lehmann Brothers? Alco? FAI Insurance? the P76? Waterworld, Heaven's Gate, Reckless Kelly and other box office bombs? That really ugly Falcon? The British motor industry? The US motor industry? Beta videos? Fridges with internet connections? New Coke? The smokeless cigarette? The Laser 28 (the yacht that killed the first incarnation of the world's biggest sailboat builder)? Microsoft WebTV? Windows Vista? Apple Newton?

Even in windsurfing, the manufacturers have got it wrong. In the early years, they sponsored Division 2 boards heavily. Then they got into the skinny dedicated slalom boards that some people hate (and many love).




The new small boards were hard to use; sales would've tanked unless people wanted the challenge and excitement of taking windsurfing to that next level.

But, according to most numbers I can find, sales HAVE tanked.

Everything has it's peak. It's called Fashion. I rememeber when everyone had skateboards (this fad came and went at least twice), bmx bikes, rollerblades...or was doing karate, or meditation, or breakdancing. The crowd picks up on things for a few years then move onto the next fad, without even realising they are following the herd.

Nothing maintains the public interest at peak level forever; better get over it, windsurfing has had it's heyday. Now it's a great sport and it could do with a few more participants, but let's not lose any sleep over it!

Sure, fads and fashion come and go. But (according to a quote from Svein Rasmussen and one from the New York Times) windsurfing crashed much, much harder than most similar sports or pastimes. And it can't always have depended on the cool factor for its allure, because for many years BEFORE it was cool, windsurfing grew quickly. It wasn't cool in 1978, but it was growing very quickly.

So maybe, if we are interested in the future of our sport, we shouldn't just assume that it was just a passing fad?

None of this is saying that high wind sailing isn't fantastic - but maybe the sport could be a lot stronger if it was more diverse.

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Gee I miss high cut female swimmers from the 80s. What is not to love about something that makes women's legs look longer. I don't mean to be sexist but am I right!?

Can someone please tell me what is sexist about going completely gaga over a woman's body. Please. It is more than a compliment.

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What is with these things that barely make it over the top of the thigh.

There may be a god after all. Looks like board-shorts are out, brazilian bikinis (string on side) are in, finally. Sorry girls, board-shorts make you look like a man.

---

There must be a reason we aren't out on original windsurfers anymore. That said I miss learning to sail in 10-15 summer breeze on a longboard, sailing a large upwind/downwind course and just enjoying the tranquility of it all. It's a bit tiring on the arms holding up the rig for hours though.

---

What Wet Willy said.

Two comments:

First, windsurfing on new gear is not cheap. I just killed my JP wave board on Monday with one too many belly flops. It cost me $1100 in 2003 secondhand. I reckon I have used it 100 times. Thats $10 a session for the board alone.

Second, the malaise of our modern society is creating a desire for things that are virtually unattainable for the masses. No wonder so many are depressed. The marketing department don't care - they'd love you to fantasise that you are Robby Naish.

As a returnee to the sport in the last five years, and still mentally stuck in the 1980s, I aimed for down the line sideshore wave sailing in 22 knots plus (and bought gear to suit). However, my reality is usually more like 10 to 20 knots in ocean chop. Being the dough head I am, I only recently worked out that I need different gear, and different ideas about whether what I am doing is fun. I don't need to get bored with with broad reaches on confused seas, because I love it, and because there are still many challenges. But in terms of progressing, I am now looking for a more slalom style set up, with a bigger wind range. And maybe a GPS and some speed gear for the lighter end of things. I wonder if the marketing department can promote that?

On a final note, I am careful not to desire too much. I still meditate occasionally.

ask formula guys why no one races any more where things went a bit strange was when starboard come along they took over windsurf australia and killed racing

> the malaise of our modern society is creating a desire for things that
> are virtually unattainable for the masses. The marketing department
> (...) love you to fantasise that you are Robby Naish.

Yep - everything in the mags and fora point to sailors thinking/hoping they can just buy the fantasy with brand new, ever better gear. (BTW, ditto the Tupperware party on ski slopes and fancy $1000 road bikes for weekenders...)

> No wonder so many are depressed.

IMO reality sinks in after a number of years and countless $$$ that it is hard and repeated work that leads to good jibes and other forms of improvement.

Ah well, I'm looking for a new used freestyle board around 100L, so I get some 'cheap' never-freestyled freestyle gear on the market...

sounds to me that the only ones depressed about windsurfing are the guys continuously pushing the one design.

to be honest guys, and please no offence. do you have anything positive to say.

i love one designs, but you guys bagging all htings not one design has turned me off them a little.

Gestalt, you're right to point out that negative marketing isn't good. Sorry if some remarks have turned you off.

But to be fair, I think you may be reading more into some comments than was meant. None of us are depressed about windsurfing; surely it's optimistic to say that it's great, but it could be even better.

No one from "our side" is saying high-wind sailing is bad, just that it's not the only part of windsurfing. And to be honest, there's a lot of negative marketing that comes the other way (have you had anyone call your board "****" to your face lately? I had it a while ago) and sometimes we do react to that.

Oh....yes, some of the comments may be too negative but (just like negative comments from 'the other side') they don't represent the normal attitude.

Good sailing.