Fun, Inclusive Atmosphere For Both Beginners and Seasoned Windsurfers
Are you looking to do something different and exciting in 2019? You’re in luck because this is the inaugural year for the Annapolis Windsurfing Festival (AWF) Memorial Weekend, May 25-26 at Severn Sailing Association. The festival combines a multi-class windsurfing regatta with other on-shore and near-shore activities related to windsurfing. It aims to provide a fun, inclusive atmosphere for the beginner to seasoned windsurfer while raising awareness of innovative gear improvements that make learning and advancing easier.
The festival is meant to draw people in that have windsurfed in the past but left the sport. Even more so, it is meant to attract newcomers of all ages and raise awareness of other associated disciplines in board sports that promote an active and healthy lifestyle.
How has windsurfing gear improved? Boards and rigs are now lighter and offer much more range in use, so less equipment can cover a larger range in wind strength. Designs have vastly improved, with the adoption of new materials and construction methods allowing the trend toward shorter, much wider boards. New designs offer greater stability and earlier planing without compromising speed potential. There is a renewed emphasis on less technical beginner equipment that allows new windsurfers less physically demanding platforms to get going quickly and with greater margin for error. Windsurfing is now being viewed as a sub-set of board sports in general, with some offering cross-over potential between windsurfing, SUP, and foil disciplines.
Among the classes you will find at the festival are the new Windsurfer LT, which is lighter and more stable than the previous version and can also be used as a SUP; the Kona One, an established one-design longboard, with different sail sizes to equalize performance based on sailor weight; the Bic Techno (sailed by youth windsurfers all over Europe); the RSX (the current Olympic class); the Raceboard class, a highly technical longboard; and (perhaps) foilboards for demos and informal slalom racing if the wind pipes up.
If there’s enough interest, charter boards will be made available by US importers of the Kona and Windsurfer LT. Contact regatta chairman, Jesse Falsone ([email protected]) for information. If you have an eligible windsurfer (or you know where to get one), pull it out of the mothballs and come to the event, or loan it to someone who is interested. Find more on Facebook (Annapolis Windsurfing Festival) or severnsailing.org.
