Is it just me or are the weeds really bad this year?

Another kind missive in our mailbag:

Dear wsatl.org,
With all the tempest in a teacup of windsurfing being dropped from the Olympics to make way for more synchronized divers, there's been an undercurrent of hostility expressed towards the kiting community.
Maybe the last three windsurfers in the world should lighten up before Medicare no longer covers your meds.
Peace on, bro.

Dear Sir Lipton,

Ignoring the kiting community's "Windsurfing has been Cancelled" campaign, kiters and windsurfers have gotten along well. Many of kiting's founding members were and are windsurfers (Naish, Cabrinha, etc.). Personally, I've benefited financially from kiting as many windsurfers turned kiters sold their equipment at fire-sale prices.

If there is any real annoyance windsurfers feel is that some windsurfers-turned-kiters begin to proselytize with the enthusiasm only converts seem to have.

Hello, sir. We'd like to talk to you about the prophecies of St. Milvus

Kitesurfing has an undeniable appeal as an extreme sport, hanging upside down twenty feet above the waves, that windsurfing has difficulty matching.

Moroccan Boujmaa Guilloul doing some extreme sport upside down

Actually, I've begun to realize that kitesurfing may end up having the same relationship to windsurfing that mountain bikes have to the Silver Comet Trail. One of our more acerbic correspondents has alluded to how mountain bikes supplanted road bikes only to see that reversed in recent years. Today, you see mountain bikes on the backs of cars and you see road bikes on the backs of cars. Some cars are headed to Chicopee Woods to ride the trails and others to the Silver Comet Trail for a relaxing ride.

I might add that both mountain biking and road cycling are in the Olympics along with triathlon and track racing. I see plenty of room for both the sports of windsurfing and kitesurfing to co-exist.

Dana Miller showing the spirit of peaceful coexistence

I think the Olympics selection debacle will actually bring us together. Otherwise, both sports will be out of the Olympics while we watch this:

Oops. This is from Cirque de Soleil. Let's try again.