NeilPryde Spices Up the 2012 RS:X Worlds with US$45,000 in Prize Money
NeilPryde Windsurfing announces sponsorship of a prize fund of US$45,000 to be awarded to the top 10 men and top 10 women in the final results of the 2012 RS:X World Windsurfing Championships, which will take place between March 20th and 29th 2012 in Cadiz, Spain.
These are a surprising news and it´s definitely good to see that there is still money in the windsurfing industry. It´s the year of the Olympics and this is definitely a big step to give this discipline more value. The competitors in this class have incredible high skills and train very hard day by day. They of course deserve this support.
We for sure would have wished to see such a support for a wave event on the PWA worldtour as we can remember that JP-Australia or Severnesails made the Aloha Classic possible in the past.
The RS:X Class, the Olympic "windsurfing" class (Pic: NeilPryde).
“This is an important first step in our ambitions to ensure that prize money becomes the norm at major Olympic Windsurfing events in the future.” said Mike Dempsey
With nine Olympic qualification places still to be allocated, the 2012 RS:X World Windsurfing Championships represents the last chance for nations to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic sailing regatta, which will be held at the waters of Weymouth Bay, South coast of England July 29 th till August 11th 2012. Now there promises to be a battle royal amongst the top guns for a place in the medal races and a share of the prize money.
Mr. Neil Pryde commented: “I have been amazed and tremendously impressed by the level of dedication that RS:X sailors have shown in their preparation and training for competitions and I felt that in today’s world of professional sport, we should recognise the sacrifice made and open up the possibility for athletes to be rewarded with prize money in their quest for Gold at the London Olympics.”
The NeilPryde RS:X one-design windsurfing equipment was selected by ISAF in 2004 as the result of evaluation trials to replace the Mistral one-design for use at the 2008 Olympic Games in China. It was then re-selected in 2008 for use in London 2012.
This tightly controlled one-design hybrid represents the modern style of windsurf course racing equipment and competes in wind speeds between 4 and 30 knots thanks to its moveable centreboard. More than 65 nations on six continents compete in Olympic windsurfing. At the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, that took place in Perth, Australia last December, more nations participated in the RS:X Men’s event than in any other event raced there.
The question is: How much WINDSURFING is the RS:X class? While the Olympic Games RS:X competes with other sailing disciplines like Laser, Star, Finn, etc.
Overall are ten classes at the Olympics and 2 of them are “Windsurfing” sailing classes: RS:X men and RS:X women. Sure they are sailing with a hybrid board with footstraps, they use a rig, a harness and can compete in the lightest breeze. BUT the big names in modern racing are not there!
Wouldn´t it be great to see Antoine Albeau, Björn Dunkerbeck, Steve Allen, Micah Buzianis, Ross Williams or Sarah-Quita Offringa at the Olympic Games? Isn´t windsurfing a fun sport, which should transport this fun on funboards to the public? Isn´t it a wrong picture people get of our sport? What´s your opinion on this topic?
© Continentseven 2012
Come on guys! Olympic Games are for athlets and as much as I admire Albeau or Bjorn, they are no athlets! They are 40 year old fat alchohol drinkers that are outstanding windsurfers, but no more than that. RS:X Sailors when they jump on a Formula, they win everything. Just by that you can recon that they are in another level. To be one brand the only able to sell olympic equippment is very bad, but not like road bikes os skis, an open class on windsurfing in the olympic would never work. It would cost a fortune to have… Read more »
Sailings propably the one and only sport in the olympics with this strict one class approach. Anyone seen one design classes in Alpine Skiing, Cross Country, Snowboard, BMX, Road Cycling … and they all compete at the Olympics. Windsurfing one design classes are all nice but for the top end of the sport what the olympics should be? Whats wrong about having different brands competing at the olympics under a given box rule (e.g. only production boards, lenght restrictions, sail number limitation…). Windsurfing would still be much more inexpensive than any of the other traditional sail boats that are mentionend… Read more »
I think formula-equipment would be a better choice because it represents modern windsurfing. fast races without pumping are far more interesting to watch. I think albeau would like to compete on an olympic formula one design.
by the way: what about kitesurfing as an olympic sport? i thought the olympic committee wanted to replace windsurfing…
Yes, that´s a good argument Lars. Out of our view the Formula Windsurfing discipline could fit well as a fresh new Olympic discipline. Would give many top pros to qualify for the Olympics. Formula is a young discipline still.
Let´s see, if Kitesurfing will b ein in 2016.
Chris
Prize money is definitely great thing! I am happy for the guys who put so much effort into competing in RSX class.
As for the top names – one design class, unfortunately, does not take into account the riders weight, which, as every windsurfer know, is important part in your gear selection and tuning decisions. Naturally, if you are competing in slalom and weigh well above the RSX racers average (which in my knowledge is around 75 kg), you have no chance to be competitive. Especially in lighter winds.
Karolis LTU1001
But Olympic windsurfing IS fun! OK, maybe at a professional level it takes such a great deal of commitment that you surely lose some of the fun, but at amateur-national level it is a hell of a lot of fun, regardless the kit that has been used at different times. The fact that you’re winning on the same kit as everyone else makes it very very rewarding