Is windsurfing exciting?

[Maker]

Might have been even more exciting for him if he knew what was happening right behind him, that was close!

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I thought so too. In Tenerife you see the slalom trainers concentrating so much on their technique they forget to look around too, but so do i sometimes

[Graemef]

I would counsel everyone to have a go at speed sailing at least once in your sailing lifetime, and go to something like Weymouth Speed week, you simply will not find a friendler or more helpful group of 'competitors' and the rush, at one time I reckoned nothing about windsurfing could scare me, balls of steel me, but I have to say, I ended up easing the sheet arm on more than one occasion going through that 500 mtr course. It took me until I was sixty something, but I did break that record Fred Hayward set all those years ago, but then so did everyone else and by about double, but it's all about personal goals, just another facet of probably the best watersport ever invented. (Until kiting came along obviously ;-) )

[phil_in_poole]

I thought so too. In Tenerife you see the slalom trainers concentrating so much on their technique they forget to look around too, but so do i sometimes

In this case they were gybing around a bouy in a race. It was more of a case that the sailor behind tried to gybe inside of the other sailor as he had gone a bit too wide/late into the gybe.

[Silicon Beach]

It was a rhetorical question.

It might be a rhetorical question Ronnie, but I would answer it in the negative - re the video you posted. Yes, he's wooping away like he's Lewis Hamilton taking a corner maxed out, so he obviously thinks it's exciting (but then I do a lot of wooping on the shoulder high waves we get here, it's just enthusiasm :-) ... but for me, nope, I'm afraid that our French friend charging along in a straight line is not particularly exciting ... and I seriously doubt if any non windsurfers would find it exciting either ... compared to, for instance, the Red Bull Storm Chase, or Finn Mullen's exploits at the foot of the Cliffs of Moher (to give a couple of examples of genuinely exciting windsurfing).

Re speed sailing, I do remember that video of Dave White's massive wipeouts doing 40 knots at Sotovento being quite exciting - if anyone can find it.

[boards_ronnie]

It might be a rhetorical question Ronnie, but I would answer it in the negative - re the video you posted. Yes, he's wooping away like he's Lewis Hamilton taking a corner maxed out, so he obviously thinks it's exciting (but then I do a lot of wooping on the shoulder high waves we get here, it's just enthusiasm :-) ... but for me, nope, I'm afraid that our French friend charging along in a straight line is not particularly exciting ... and I seriously doubt if any non windsurfers would find it exciting either ... compared to, for instance, the Red Bull Storm Chase, or Finn Mullen's exploits at the foot of the Cliffs of Moher (to give a couple of examples of genuinely exciting windsurfing).

Re speed sailing, I do remember that video of Dave White's massive wipeouts doing 40 knots at Sotovento being quite exciting - if anyone can find it.

There's a bit of speed sailing in this.

[Silicon Beach]

Yeah, that's more like it :-) That's perfection, that is - almost too perfect to be exciting in fact (or perhaps the laid back music just makes it seem like that?). The aerial shot that starts at 02:55 and ends around 03:30 is so beautiful.