Plans this year? Any events on the calendar? If so, which ones? The main competitions I’ m focusing on will be the BSA events. I may try and get down to Italy and Switzerland for a holiday and swing by Silvaplana to enter the Swiss Championships. The Swiss put on some awesome events, plus I really like it there.
What do you think of the windsurfing race scene in the UK currently? How would you like to see it improved? I really enjoy the racing in the UK. The people are awesome and they all put so much effort into the events and I speak for everyone. We are all very grateful for their input and the sacrifices they make to ensure each and every event happens.
In terms of improvements, personally I feel like marketing is absolutely key for the sport. I’ d really like more engagement with wider audiences outside of windsurfing, which is where real non-industry sponsorship can be generated from. A great start would creating and publishing high quality videos and pictures regularly on all relevant social media platforms. It’ s never been easier to get free exposure right from a mobile phone, so it would be great to see that happen.
From the perspective of developing events: I’ m still adamant that a light wind alternative needs to come in below the wind minimum for slalom to fill the gap between 6-12 knots for example. So there’ s more chance of doing something on the water at events. This is crucial for attracting spectators and sponsorship in the future. After all, what organisation or company are going to sponsor events when everyone’ s sitting on the beach doing nothing!? Foiling is a really interesting option for a light wind gap filler for slalom events, but we are realistically a couple of years at least away from racers being skilled enough to safely race around a course. Right now there’ s only a handful of guys that can competently sail foils. The concept is still new but has great potential for a credible discipline. Who knows, it may even make it as an Olympic class?
We also need to give a better understanding of what’ s happening on the water to spectators on the beach. To get people interacting with what’ s going on, commentary is essential for this, together with music to give a great vibe at each event. This will help appeal to the right demographic to make the sport look cooler and bring in new blood from outside.
And what about windsurfing in general? Opinions on that? Windsurfing is amazing. At competition level there needs to be change to really grow and there’ s still room for improvement, especially with the RYA. The RYA are brilliant at getting people into the sport at grass roots level, but it’ s frustrating when a lot of talented windsurfers that don’ t get chosen for the British Team, fall by the wayside and in a lot of instances come away from it. I feel many are disillusioned by the Olympic dream, when actually, only one girl and one boy get to attend.
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