Put adventure back into sailing

DanWeiss · Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 2296 Location: Connecticut, USA

Nevin Sayre presented at the 2014 US Sailing Symposium. Today's Sailing Scuttlebutt reached into the wayback machine to again feature this topic. Of course, windsurfing plays a large part of successful junior sailing programs in many clubs, sailing centers and camps. Check it out!

www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2017/03/21/putting-adventure-back-into-sailing

The question is, how can each of us encourage kids to incorporate windsurfing into a broader sailing regime?

GURGLETROUSERS · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643

It's the old and obvious problem. Windsurfing is totally dependent on wind conditions which can't be to order on the specific day, and specific place a youngster may be able to be.

I ran a school kayaking club, taking the same group from start to reasonably competent, every wednesday evening throughout the summer term. We used either the sea (smallish surf conditions, or flat around the cliffs) or the river (easy rapids) if the sea was too rough.

The relevant point is that we could never be 'skunked' whatever wind or weather conditions. There would always be somewhere safe for them to be out on the water. In other words, I could run the club to a fixed in advanced timetable, with guaranteed access.

It is a good idea to introduce younger ones to sailing (windsurfing) at some learning centre, just to sow the seed, so to speak, but the problem comes at that awkward impatient stage, in the teens. Nothing will sap their enthusiasm and patience for windsurfing more than arriving there full of expectation, only to be greeted by next to no chance of 'getting on with it'! And that is all too often when a person is hindered by running to a fixed day.

So I think that, after the initial trial when younger (sowing that seed) it is more sensible for teens without a job or transport of their own (dependent on parents etc to swap to kayaking (any time parents provide help) or surfing if near the coast (youngsters here carry their boards to the beach already in their wetsuits) or even mountain biking for real lack of dependency on others. Then, when more settled, back to that ultra frustrating but magical business of really getting hooked on windsurfing.

After all, most of us were no longer Spring chickens when we started that 'voyage'!

NOVAAN · Joined: 28 Sep 1994 Posts: 1551

Well put. No matter if your young or old its always best to have a no wind option when heading to your local spot or on a windsurfing vacation. SUP, fishing, kayak, golf, just to name a few. That said there is no reason not to hit the water even if the wind is lite. Have lite wind races or work on sail and board tricks that will enhance your skills for when the wind does blow...

GURGLETROUSERS · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643

If I can give an example of the problem of trying to encourage and satisfy teens. A friends 15 year old son who was in full time education , was keen to take up windsurfing at our then crowded (early 1990's) windsurfing beach, and 'mix it' with bunch, His father bought him a mid-sized 'do it all' type Hi-Fli board and medium sized rig.

I advised against doing so (he wasn't a windsurfer) but he insisted a general mid sized 'do it all' board, as then advertised, would give his son a wider range of use, insteard of one geared to a special purpose. (i.e. a proper racing longboard.)

The inevitable happened. The lad soon found himself left for dead in lighter winds, by the racing boards, and again, left wanting in stronger winds when all were on smaller boards. I felt sorry for him, and his expression said it all! His enthusiasm naturally took a hit, and he gravitated to a different sport.

Yet people still insist, even nowadays when it has all become so specialised, that a simple 'do it all' board and rig is an answer to 'stoking' enthusiasm for the teens. NO IT IS NOT! The one thing most teens want is for whatever sport they take up, to live up to the promise, and be exciting. They exoect, perhaps unreasonably, excellence. (In mountain biking terms for example, 'go big, or go home'.

That's where ordinary board surfing scores, and why it is rapidly growing among the young. Give them a board, however second hand and beaten up, and a wetsuit, and they will soon be there, mixing it with anybody. (It amazes me how quickly some of them now learn what took us oldies years to do.)

And no, I don't see an obvious answer to the 'specialisation' of our sport. None of us would settle for a simplified do it all type board and rig over the best gear for the conditions. You only need check the forum arguments about it all, and what is best for this or that, to see the reality!

boardsurfr · Joined: 23 Aug 2001 Posts: 1266

GURGLETROUSERS · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643

Yes, for driven teens in particular, access to the right board and gear for the place and conditions, outside of sailing clubs (i.e. at own expense) is the very stumbling block Boardsurf. (Along with the time and means to transport it.)

Few self respecting teens (the image factor) will nowadays willingly settle for anything but the best. They've seen the videos and the advertising and magazine propaganda (the life style, and all that) and expect they can slot in and be a part of it all.

Fine, if money and time and travel is really no object, but a big problem over here (not so well off, and live away from the coast) if otherwise.

NOVAAN · Joined: 28 Sep 1994 Posts: 1551

The Kona one will allow people to learn in lite wind and as they progress, feel the speed of higher wind sailing. It may not be the one board do it all package, but is as good as it gets. Heck after 35 years doing this I'm thinking of getting one. If anyone asks me I try to steer them that way. You almost never one for sale used..

GURGLETROUSERS · Joined: 30 Dec 2009 Posts: 2643

Agreed Novaan. The Kona has been my go to cruising/planing/non planing/fun longboard since it first came out. It took over duty from the older Bic Bamba, which had a mild nervous breakdown, (but seems to have recovered somewhat, though I don't risk it too far out to sea nowadays).

Hope you can afford the Carbon version if you do buy. Everyone really rates it!

DanWeiss · Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 2296 Location: Connecticut, USA

The Kona One is a great all 'round board because it's very easy to use in light winds and always presents a tantalizing hint of what it really can do in higher winds. Kona One is capable of speeds many recreational windsurfers will find difficult to match and feels very nice in that range.

My post addressed how no particular board or boat provides an answer to keeping younger sailors engaged. The key is and always has been social interaction where the kids engage each other with adult guidance.

BoomBra · Joined: 22 May 2010 Posts: 16 Location: Galveston

A while back my eldest son wanted to try windsurfing, but he never got hooked. Now I have all this equipment that I'm saving for my youngest son.

Now, I plan on getting my eldest a wind SUP since he likes to paddle and SUP surf (he's currently using my non-wind SUP boards). When its windy, I will bring along a small sail, maybe a 4.x and try to convince him to try it out. I'm hoping that him sailing on a 10mph day in clean surf, will get him back into windsurfing. If not, then its OK, because he will still use the board.