FM – Where is the best place you have been for a family windsurfing holiday?
CG – We have been fortunate to visit so many places, I would say the ideal spot is still Mauritius, where everything is rigged in front of your hotel room, buffet twice a day, no cars for weeks on end, SUP if there is no wind. I really enjoy those types of trips vs. Cape Town, which can be quite stressy with all the driving, but you also then have other attractions. But I try not to compare locations, we have been to Lake Garda for the last 3 summer holidays and had a great time too, it´s like a second home to us being so close.
FM – With windsurfing being both your work and play, do you ever feel a need to switch off from it?
CG – I´m into a few other sports like snowboarding, road cycling and SUP, so sometimes it´s fun to just do something else. But as we are based in Munich, when I am here I am working, so when I go on a trip for windsurfing, I am more than eager to get back onto the water, even after 38 years of windsurfing.
FM – What do we need to do to make windsurfing bigger?
CG – Windsurfing schools are generally still very well booked nowadays, the figures from the VDWS and I believe also the RYA show growth every year for a number of years now, so the sport is interesting enough for people to want to learn it. The equipment nowadays is leaps and bounds better than in the 70s and 80s. What I think is a problem is that some schools / centres are far too focused on teaching the basics in windsurfing as quickly as possible and with as many students as possible, to maximize their efficiency. So most schools teach with quite large boards / small sails and generally avoid sending students out when it´s windy, as that means more boats, smaller classes, i.e. less efficiency / profits. This means that most people doing a basic windsurfing course will probably never ever experience planing windsurfing in their first session. My first windsurfing experience in 1982 was in a gusty 5-20 knot day, where I got catapulted every 50 metres shortly after planing, but that feeling of planing is what drove me to near madness to keep on trying to master the sport. This is missing in many lessons you´ll see today for beginners, which is a major reason why 95% of people who take a beginners course do not continue the sport.
Another reason is that 30-40 years ago, a lot of people learnt windsurfing by trying their friend’s gear, or shops were closely associated with centres, creating an atmosphere where each new student was potentially also a new long term client. Some shops nowadays have their own centres, so they are motivated to run beginner classes and benefit financially long term with those customers. But many centres are unfortunately far too focused on just getting as many beginners through their door, with no regard to whether they continue the sport, as there is no financial gain for them? Obviously this is a very general statement and there are many schools who do a great job on promoting the sport and keeping people involved, so hopefully others will follow their example!
All the excuses about being too expensive, complicated etc., all of that would be less of a barrier if these beginners would have felt that planing / excitement experience. Kitesurfing is exactly the opposite, it´s exactly the danger / radical image which attracts people, and generally you can experience this (often negatively) right from the moment the kite drags you up the beach / through the water or car park etc. – you do a kite course and generally they give you equipment which allows you to plane within the first few days of the course. Despite the many dangers of the courses, a much higher % of people who learn kiting, stick with it afterwards, regardless of similar costs to windsurfing, time needed, potential injuries etc. etc. So I would really recommend schooling that is focused on getting people planing as quickly as possible, even if it means falling off here and there.
Another thing is, why is everyone always pushing the brands to show less radical images and focus on the beginners / freeride imagery. Do you really think that attracts people to a sport? Dan Kaseler (designer of Avanti Sails) was recently reported as saying something similar. We need to compete with snowboarding, mountain biking, skateboarding and a ton of other action sports. Kiting is the perfect example, it´s a dangerous sport, they mainly promote the most radical part of the sport and this attracts people in droves who want to learn. They want to learn because it´s edgy, new, radical. Not because it´s “easy to learn”. Yes we need those beginner and freeride images and products, yes we already have them and use them extensively. But many of today´s potential windsurfers are looking for action, excitement, adventure; they need the ‘extreme’ imagery to motivate them to try our sport.