Old School Wave Slalom - Lets Bring it BACK!

There's been rumours... and lots of talking!! But 'Wave Slalom' needs to happen again. Foil racing is great and is the easiest for organisers to get a result. But Wave slalom needs to happen.. cheers to Maarten Van Ochten for the video and motivation)

Much more exciting for spectators and exactly what happens with my friends and me at our local beaches!

Bring it back!!!!

It doesn’t get much better than this- LOVE IT! also motivated me. It’s epic… more please!

We fin guys would certainly love it, and we welcome the foil guys to join too!

It's heart braking to see current number of pro riders on the main events. More sponsers, more crowd and riders in competition!

Love it. What an era for windsurfing

thats real windsurfing not foil

Those were the good times, nothing to compare witg actual foiling!

As a 20 yo windsurfer, I find this 1000x more unjoyable to watch than current PWA format. I really try to get into watching competition but in my opinion, it is just not good enought at the moment. I am completely aware that it is not simple with lack of money etc, but pacasmayo stream quality was poor and it was hard to watch ... Windsurfing competition needs to be rethink if we want to make it as great as it was, so it can touch other people than windsurfers ( i feel like even a lot of windsurfers don't watch competition anymore so it would be a good starts ) I am currently watching a lot of old competition and i even feel nostalgic for an era where i wasnt even born.
However, As always, great video Ben and thanks for being one of the guys that a doing their best to push our passion, the best sport in the world, no doubt !

Wave slalom or super cross, we need this back again 👌🤙

This is the original pure windsurfing.

These were the days, equipment was so fragile, back to basic, Le Mans start and race the track!!!

Bring it back!!!

Aren't they doing that in Sylt every year? And Pozo this year? And most people still go on foils...

Yes please. lets make it exciting again

so geil!!!

Yes 🎉 let foilracing be a thing of it’s own. Bring back vawe slalom !

Yes

Bring it on, Ben!!! ❤

This was real radical windsurfing!!!!! Brings me to ma early days!!!!
I have lot of events like this recorded on VHS!!!

This on the Olympics plz - instead of pumping

Anyone would love to see racing like this! But it's mainly a matter of venue choice. Don't forget they used to slalom race in Ho'okipa back in the day. Places like Vianna do Castello, Brighton, Scheveningen, Japan could offer exciting conditions

The best! Bring it back!

Sure !! 🤩
Pwa need something new with more slalom adrenaline

100% wave slalom windsurf!!! That was the golden era of windsurfing, during the nineties. Almost nobody named our sport as windsurf when you sail a sub three meter board. Everybody known that was named as fun. And that was not a coincidence. The fun was really funny!! The only thing you needed, was strong wind, at least F3/4. Boards and sails designs were increasingly faster and faster, and also narrower. That resulted a slower learnig curve for people who started windsurfing from zero. But for those who learned, funboarding was The Best. But one day, kite appeared on the scene (I must say, I don't like kitesurfing). It had 3 advantages over funboarding. Requires less wind, faster learning curve and easier kits transportation. And that was the fun's death sentence. Many people choiced the kite and windsurf started to seems less attractive. So boards designs were getting wider, searching early planning in marginal winds, forgeting mistakes to the rookies, etc. To compete closer against kite. Many years later we have a weak and poorly define windsurfing, that mixed with concept and development like foil, wings and who knows what else in the early planning search and lost its essence: be a extreme sport, not necessarily easy one, for rough wind and water conditions.

Epic!!! Reminds me of being on Brighton beach with thousands of spectators watching Nik Baker beat Dunkerbeck and Bringdal. Good times!!

100 % more Action than today! Sorry. Le mans start and 5 m high jumps with Slalom gear. Nnniiiice

Bring it back

This is real WINDSURFING ! ❤ most of the gear in this video is still here in my garage, clean and ready to sail right now

Bring back the spirit

Who doesn’t like or wouldn’t watch a dirt bike racing. This is the same. Absolutely needs to happen.

Yes yes. This would be awesome. We need a Events that are exciting for spectators to watch.

So much yes!!! Bring back wave slalom 🤙🏼

Oh Scott Fenton…!!! ❤

Bring it back

Absolutely YES! We want to see this happen again, I’ll never forget he 80’s wave slalom in France, Japan,Sylt, Holland, Maui! Epic slalom at it’s BEST!
Tough on the organizers to set the course, but oh soooooooo dramatic! Love it!
Great video too, nicely edited! 👍👍

Bring it BACK!

Yes! add some Wave-Slalom events PWA! To simplify rules in those events: e.g >18 knots beach starts and inside bouys are mandatory, below that outside buoys and countdown starts are allowed, to ensure event completions. Those events and equipment restriction (eg.max 2 foil sets registered for whole season) would bring fin back to PWA. I love foil racing but fin also!

F1 of windsurfing! Exciting, fast, spectacular on FIN. Let’s do it 🤙

I'm already feeling inspired. Bring it back!

Bring it!😀

Yes Ben bring it back. This is what got me into windsurfing too. That speed and balls of steel to hit those waves on slalom gear 🤪🤘🤘

I'd love to see wave slalom make a comeback, but let's be real here.
1) We need to separate our nostalgia from what is practical.
2) The slalom could only happen at venues where wind is guaranteed, and traditionally those venues are not at places where sponsorship for an event is readily available. Maybe live-streaming has changed that, bringing the audience to a distant event.
3) Note that we just had slalom events re-worked on Gran Canaria and at Sotavento on Fuerte, and the foils won. So maybe we first need to separate fin and foil racing. (And we definitely need to do that anyway.)
4) The elephant in the room, is then the gear used. We won't go back to narrow and long boards, as used in this video, but the current slalom gear is wide and short, and not at all suited to wave slalom. So the gear made for modern wave-slalom events would have to change. The rigs would also need to be less top end-orientated and more geared up to waves, jumps and turns.
5) So I doubt this will happen any time soon, unless the sailors and manufacturers want it to happen.

This is excatly why I felt in love with Windsurfing.

Awesome, if only I had 10% of the skills of these guys.

bloody brilliant :)

Bring it back bring it back..............🤙👏💨🌊

I was at Brighton for the shorebreak mayhem. And Omezaki totally was the most exciting event ever. I liked the stickers that the guys had on their sails to show their place coming into each event. Definitely bring back wave slalom. May work an advantage for the fins over the foils!

Bring. It. On!! This is what we do and what we like! 🤙🏼