From what I've seen in the past month, it looks like there's a new boat on the block (or at the dock?) that has the power to both challenge and reinforce sailing knowledge as we know it.
For those of you that attended the Instructor Workshops, you may have seen a few windsurf boards lying around the lawns. Well, there's more to those plastic boards and colorful sails than meets the eye. Let me begin to tell you why you should take a second look at them:
1. ISAF, the hosts of the Youth Worlds Regatta, have an entire race course dedicated to Boys' and Girls' windsurfing. There are 45 participants who qualified worldwide who will be racing on their Neil Pryde RSX boards with 8.5m sail rig, alongside the Laser and 29er race courses. Some people are even referring to windsurfing (and skiff sailing) as the X-Game events of sailing ... and we know how popular (Tony Hawk, Sean White, et al) the land X-Games are. So even though it's not traditional sailing, if they're good enough for the International Sailing Federation, they should be good enough for JSA!
2. ISAF alsojust announced today that after a number of bids for the equipment selection of the 2010 Junior Olympicsin Singapore, the Bic Techno 293 windsurfer was chosen. These boards are what we're used to in JSA and it really represents a modern, affordable, and readily available model. For those of you who enjoy beating up their boats, it will be a bit harder to crunch this board. They're great for beginners and are very durable.
3.A bit more locally than Singapore and Arhus is the East Coast Windsurf Champs in Martha's Vineyard. I know for a fact that this one is gonna be beastly. It's a US Sailing Junior Olympic event and they've got people coming in from the West coast, down south, and a bunch of Long Island windsurfers too (including my brother and his LI rat pack)! The regatta is welcoming junior sailors of all ages, and even better: all skill levels. More to come on this regatta in the near future!
I tried the Bic Techno last year and loved it. Windsurfer racing must be a blast ... other than the JO event in MV, are there are windsurf regattas in our region, seems like it would be worth checking out.
BTW, great blog.
Posted by: Lee Ward | June 26, 2008 at 22:53