Olympic Kiting Windsurfing

Before ISAF Reversal: Kiter discusses Rio Olympics with Gene. Photo: Alan Sloman

Recently, winners and losers have been in the news. Since most of us are at work trying to make amends for skipping out the week of Sandy, this may be a good time to recap. I'm not going to assume that you are actually working while at work but doing the usual, usual - managing your fantasy league team (speaking of losing... ahem).

As reported elsewhere, the ISAF reversed its decision to exclude windsurfing from the Rio 2016 Olympics. The Spanish representative, tired of having to explain his previous vote to the Spanish gal who won gold in London, was among those who voted to keep windsurfing in.

The Olympic sailing classes represent some of the most athletic and modern sailing classes - as they should. Think if the cycling competition was still done on the bicycles circa 1920. Think if track was done like it was in 350 BC - wait, other than being clothed, that hasn't changed that much. Um... sailing, where were we? Oh, the classes include the athletic and ubiquitous Laser, the high performance carnage of the 49er and outright speed of the NACRA 17 cat, catamarans having been restored as well. As well, the classes are evenly split between men and women.

Almost.

The decision to include windsurfing meant that kiters, after lording over windsurfers how they represented the new and exciting branch of sailing, were sent back to the beach. Yet, the men maintain one additional single hand dinghy class - the Finn. Admittedly, the Finn has been part of the Olympics since 1952. It has a long history. One of its attractions is that it favors a heavier sailor. And, the rig has been updated from wood and dacron to carbon and kevlar. That's like putting low profile tires on your Edsel. We've said it before, having the Finn in sailing is like having a separate basketball medal for those under six feet (we would call it the 182cm class) or gymnastics or cycling for those over 200 lbs (90kg).

If there were an abundance of medal slots available to sailing, I'd love to see the Finn, as well as the Star, Soling, Tornado and other classic sailing classes (Discontinued Classes). And, we think as Olympic level athletic endeavors go, we much prefer racing the Finn over dressage and men's synchronized diving.

Kiting, on the other hand, is more accessible, affordable and represents a separate skill set. Its cosmetic charms far outweigh most sailing classes - windsurfing is still pretty darn cool and the 49ers have that NASCAR appeal in heavy air - not that you want anyone to crash but it's pretty damn interesting when someone does.

We've written about cats and VW Vans and their oblique connection to windsurfing. Some might assert that we weren't that kind to either; although, hairballs and oil leaks really never appealed to us.

First, VW Vans. We saw a neat Philip Köster video - use the closed caption (CC) for a translation.

And that video led to this advert Köster did for Volkswagen. Yes, he's that big in Germany.
Trust us. If that many bikini-clad girls wanted to ride in our VW Van, we'd still own it.

The following clip, taken by a security camera, shows a vehicle that looks remarkably like the one that pulls our windsurfing trailer. Remarkably similar. The camera angle doesn't show the back so we don't know for sure. Either way, whether a training run or the real thing, it looks like kitty is leaving more than paw prints on the windshield.

Bullseye!

According Bill O'Reilly, people of color and other minorities enjoyed a victory last week. As the spokesperson of the 50+ white guys (my demographic) succinctly put it:

He went on to say something about minorities feeling entitled and wanting things and taking things which, frankly confused us. It didn't seem like the right time to talk about small groups of Europeans, like the Conquistadors, and their attitude and actions towards Native Americans.

We don't wish to digress into politics but rather make the observation that people of color aren't seen that often windsurfing or sailing here in the U.S. Of course, many black Africans experienced that sailing thing in the early 1800s, and we can see how they might be culturally aghast at the thought of, ever again, stepping on a sailing vessel.

Brian Talma windsurfs in Australia. He's from Barbados so he doesn't want stuff. Source

How we imagine Brian, back home, sailing in Barbados.

People of color do windsurf elsewhere in the world: the Caribbean, South America, Asia. If windsurfing is going to enjoy a renaissance rather than putt around as a minor diversion, like golf and tennis, you'll know it is happening when the beach is more diverse.

Neat song if you are into indie music.