I think both are pretty cool, but I respect your choice. But when you stopped windsurfing, you stopped paying attention to what's going on in windsurfing: there are nearly 400 kids under the age of 16 competing this week in Holland at their Techno World Championships. This sounds like a very healthy sport to me!



Absolutely! And it makes all the sense in the world to keep windsurfing in there as well

I agree both are cool, but windsurfing has been dying for fifteen years or more, be truthful with yourself and others here.
Nobody specifically wants it to die, it just is.
The vast majority of windsurfers who have learned to kiteboard, have quit windsurfing altogether.... Robby and Pete are famous examples.
There are lots of reasons why kiteboarding is more appealing to most.
The kiting gear fits in your trunk, it rigs ten or twenty times faster, it is easier to surf waves with a surfboard and a kite and the experience is far closer to regular surfing. You can go out in very light wind and heavy wind. You have options of many styles in kiteboarding, so the range of activity is more varied. Kiters jump way higher and it is way easier to jump high with a kite.
The learning curve to become intermediate or better, is much quicker.
The list goes on, but let's leave it at that.
I'm glad windsurfing still has some kids being recruited for it.
But kiteboarding is naturally attractive for young people because of the perceived similarity to wakeboarding, skating, snowboarding and surfing.
Kids are not on YouTube looking at windsurfing and saying...ooooooh I want to do that!
A teen sees a video of a kiter boosting big or doing wake tricks and they're all over it.
.
But I do agree that it would be cool to leave windsurfing in as well.
Or to have windsurfers and kiters race together.

I'm not so sure of that. Do you have statistics?

At any rate, you're making many good points about why kiteboarding is attractive for young people. Although it's course racing that got a spot at the Olympics, not freestyle, and course racing is nowhere near as cool for the youngsters... and it's more expensive too.



Yes



That one I'm not too sure. It's so dependent on the course setup. And in light wind (Rio), I can't picture how we would get past a solid line of windsurfers blocking every inch on the start line...

This I actually welcome, why not let everyone race together? Especially in light wind... Really you think a line of windsurfers will stop a Kiter from getting through the blockade? Not likely. We are way more maneuverable even with a big fat floaty board. Simply compare how a windsurfer jibs and how a Kiter jibs... Enough said. I don't think they stand a chance.
Just my humble opinion...

I don't know, man. You've seen some of those light wind Olympic windsurfing races (not talking about formula or slalom)? They're elbow to elbow on the start line all the way across. If there's enough wind to do a planing start, sure, but in low wind, they'll simply be in the way...

I would give attention to you if you joined 2008, or 2009, but since you are a 2012 kiter, I would say you know not what you are talking about.

No offense, but how can you not be sure? Don't really need to do a lot of research to answer that question. Ask all your windsurfing friends if they hang out at the windsurfing shop anymore.
The answer is no, the owner retired, died or went out of business.
The local windsurfing shop is mostly gone, been going that way for years.
Maybe some sailboat shops are authorized dealers for windsurfing gear, so they can get the stuff for the occasional holdout that comes in looking for it.
Or the windsurfing shop owner took up kiteboarding, stocks kiteboarding gear, has created an online kiteboarding presence and maybe was able to keep the bills paid.
Where are you located?...in one of the last hotbeds of windsurfing?
I agree that wakestyle kiting is the most attractive to the yoots.
Because that part of the sport is related to wakeboarding, which copied snowboarding which copied skateboarding which was invented to emulate surfing!! And the circle goes around.
After young people get excited about kiteboarding, they might just get stoked just to see a kite and board on the water in an Olympic event, even if it is course racing.
At this point, kiteboard course racing is very close to sailboat racing and windsurf racing.
Kiteboard course racing will likely be perceived as an updated version of what windsurfers were doing, I would think.
Some of the guys winning kiteboard course racing have been sailboat racers their whole lives, just a few pews over in the same church.

Wrong example
Robby still windsurfs...... and a lot
I saw him in Maui last summer

By the way, a lot more windsurfers in Maui than kiters, and not only old ones
When I go to Maui, I windsurf more than I kite
But where I live, with more ordinary winds, I kite

So it depends where you look

I know Robby windsurfs, ....but he started a kiteboarding company!
He is a famous example of what happens when a windsurfer gets a kite.
I understand people that do both, windsurf when it's nuking, and it nukes a lot on Maui.
So I agree, there are a few spots on the planet that still have a good number of windsurfers.
Doesn't change the fact that windsurfing has been declining in popularity for a long time.
Kiting is being done in the snow, up and down the packed sand on the beach, in open grassy fields and in every little puddle of water.
I'm not criticizing windsurfing, but kiteboarding has passed it by, and will continue to do so, unless somebody comes up with a "parabolic ski" to save windsurfing, and I don't think the super wide boards that came a while back are the answer.
In my opinion.

This is actually funny: you're addressing a message to me to tell me that you're not paying attention to me! Thanks, way to make one feel welcome