NSW Wavesailing

The NSWWA was fortunate enough to have seven juniors competing in the season just gone, including four new juniors (myself included). Now this may seem great on the exterior, but when you compare these numbers to 18 in the masters, it is quite apparent that the number of young people coming into the sport has declined significantly from previous generations.

It is unspeakably important to target younger people when trying to expand a sport, in this case windsurfing.

Young people have a large influence over social trends (including of other demographics) and their friends. If windsurfing is seen as ‘cool’ and ‘popular’ in the eyes of young people, it’s numbers would increase rapidly. In terms of the public perception of the sport, as mentioned before what young people do creates an image of what is ‘cool’ and ‘trendy’. An example of this would be that upcoming waterman Kai Lenny has around 14 thousand likes on facebook opposed to the six thousand likes the much more established Jason Polakow has.

Also the challenge of improving their wavesailing will keep young people in the sport if they have people their age to sail with. Furthermore, competitors in the juniors category have potential to improve and show better performances in the future in contrast to the (no offence intended!)  masters who are starting to take a little longer to recover from wipeouts and day long sailing sessions!

There are great obstacles newcomers must face when getting into this great sports, so it is up to those already in the sport to get juniors they know, namely their children, friends or siblings, into the sport..

All of the juniors currently in the association have a parent who windsurfs. This indicates that the only young people getting into the sport are those who have the privilege of being taught by a parent.

Due to the equipment requirements of windsurfing, (cost and transport) Most young people require the assistance of others who can provide them with the financial means to purchase their gear and take them and their gear to sailing locations.

So let’s share this great sport with the next generation and allow them to experience the excitement and enjoyment we have gotten to experience.

Spots for juniors to learn before hitting the waves (in South of Sydney)

• Darook Park – A great spot in SE to SW winds, with a shallow depth across the whole spot. Can sometimes be sailed in Ne and westerly winds. On occasions there can be waves next to this area known as the bay surf which offers, fatter softer waves for wavesailing newbies.
• Kyeemagh – Ideal in NE winds, but sailable in easterly, SE and even southerly winds. The spot is perfect for developing windsurfers, offering a protected, shallow area in close, but also higher wind area further for windsurfers who have developed some more advanced skills

Hope to see you on the water.

Zac Coleman

AUS-1291

On the 27th and 28th of January, event 4 in the NSW Wavesailing Association  calendar was held in Gerroa. Generously supported by Remi from the www.thewindsurfingshed.com.au, some great prizes from Maui sails, XO sails and Exocet were up for grabs. As the forecast  was for light winds the judges decided to put the event on hold for the day. With some sunshine predicted late in the afternoon competitors were ask to stick around in case the wind kicked in. Sure enough, the topographical wonder that is Gerroa worked its magic and late in the afternoon the nor’easter wind had enough strength for the judges to run the firsts heats of the weekend. In the tricky wave conditions all divisions achieved a first round result. Wave selection was quite crucial and the best competitors of the day had the patience to find the bigger set waves.

A BBQ was held late Saturday night and a shiny new XO Shark wave sail was won by Adam Lobwein. Competitors also enjoyed some sweet windsurf DVDs and with a few beers and of course the Fisho’s saw the usual action.

The second day was more promising in terms of wind. The small swell had a little more in it as well. The afternoon high tide was also a good sign that the waves would improve.  With a good 20 knots competition resumed to run the final heats of the weekend. The juniors probably had the best of the conditions and their standard has significantly improved. Give them a couple of years  and they will be kicking some butts in the senior divisions. Experience of the masters made that category interesting to watch as they were finding waves nobody else would find. Two banks were offering up a small wave which the occasional bigger set linking through the flats in the middle of the contest zone. Competitors were getting as much as they could closing off their wave score by popping a small aerial right onto the sand.  The Pros final saw an aggressive battle between all four sailors trying to pull out the best of the conditions with Tim Knowles clearly dominating.

With all the results achieved, the ranking and pictures will be published soon thanks to Jason, so stay in contact  with Website.

Once again we would like to thanks www.thewindsurfingshed.com.au who donated such great prizes and for their support as well as Neil Pryde as series sponsor.

See you all on the 18th and 19th of February for the last event of the season at Gerroa or Windang.

Notice to competitors.

Due to the current forecast (very light ENE and storms) we have cancelled todays competition.

Next comp is the 28th/29th January at Gerroa – this is the Australia Day “Long Weekend” so book accommodation early!

See you on the water.

Congratulations to the NSWWA sailors who took a clean sweep of the podium positions in the open womens, masters and junior divisions, a fantastic effort all round!

Open Womens

Juniors

Grand Masters

Here is an other video from the competition week end, action, different angle, enjoy…

thanks to Peto