I Stand By Bouchard: Leader of the Genie Army, Ready to Rise and Conquer the World!

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Wolffje

New User
Bisquick said:
Windsurfing came and went in the 80’s - it was the cool thing n then it wasn’t.
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I am a windsurfer myself, but i don't think you can compare the pickleball hype to the windsurfing hype, let me try to explain...

I learned the basics of windsurfing (basically boardsailing at that time) as a kid, because we lived at walking distance from a lake. We then moved to the city, so i stopped windsurfing. Then my 2 years older brother turned 18 (got his driving license) and thought it might be fun to pick up windsurfing again. So we went out and purchased a (lot smaller then what i learned it on) windsurfing kit. It was significantly more difficult than on the larger kit, leading to my brother giving up on learning how to do it after a short while. I was more persistent and kept on trying and improving. Then after "getting on the plane" for the first time, you are basically hooked, so i kept on learning and improving. Got my own car and newer (smaller/lighter/more expensive) windsurfing gear until i had 3 boards and 5 sails to surf in almost all conditions above 10knots windspeed. It was a 45 minute drive for me to the nearest water and i was a student at that time, so whenever there was wind predicted, my colleges would magically be cancelled and i would have time to go surfing. But even then, there were countless days where the predictions fell short and i was spending the day waiting for wind (while having fun with my fellow addicts that came to the shore). Then i started working and got into tennis and did not have time to spend at least half a day to go surfing. I (and most of my windsurfing friends) started windsurfing again when there was a bit more free time, but still it takes a lot of planning to go and a lot of luck for the conditions to be good.

Which leads to the comparison with pickleball.....I think it is better to compare pickleball to kitesurfing (and wing (foil)surfing maybe). Kitesurfing took off big time and surpassed windsurfing for a number of reasons. It is a lot easier to learn (you can be surfing back and forth in a few lessons), where you are "planing" from the start. You can go kitesurfing in far less wind than you need for windsurfing. Your kitesurfing kit takes up a lot less space then your windsurfing kit, making it easier to store and to travel with it.

Comparing pickleball to tennis is sort of the same. With tennis, you spend the first months mainly picking up balls that you missed or hit off court. It takes some time to be able to play some rallies and even more time to get good at playing matches (where the serve also comes into play). I never played pickleball (i am from The Netherlands, we have padel here), but if you compare it to padel, it too is a lot easier to get into. The court is smaller (even has surrounding walls when playing padel) so you don't have to chase your balls that far. The technique involved to be able to play a match is a lot less easier than tennis. It is also more of a social activity as you are closer together and playing more doubles, so you can chitchat more.

When i go windsurfing now in my late 40's, i am one of the younger guys at my spot. A lot of older guys, retired or close to retirement, and some youngsters (mainly the kids of the windsurfers willing to give it a try).

When i look at my tennisclub, i see it is more mixed, but also a lot of older people and their children starting tennis. All the "new" people who want to start with racketsports mainly start to play padel.
 
robyrolfo

robyrolfo

Hall of Fame
Wolffje said:
I am a windsurfer myself, but i don't think you can compare the pickleball hype to the windsurfing hype, let me try to explain...

Comparing pickleball to tennis is sort of the same. With tennis, you spend the first months mainly picking up balls that you missed or hit off court. It takes some time to be able to play some rallies and even more time to get good at playing matches (where the serve also comes into play). I never played pickleball (i am from The Netherlands, we have padel here), but if you compare it to padel, it too is a lot easier to get into. The court is smaller (even has surrounding walls when playing padel) so you don't have to chase your balls that far. The technique involved to be able to play a match is a lot less easier than tennis. It is also more of a social activity as you are closer together and playing more doubles, so you can chitchat more.

When i go windsurfing now in my late 40's, i am one of the younger guys at my spot. A lot of older guys, retired or close to retirement, and some youngsters (mainly the kids of the windsurfers willing to give it a try).

When i look at my tennisclub, i see it is more mixed, but also a lot of older people and their children starting tennis. All the "new" people who want to start with racketsports mainly start to play padel.
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First off, kudos to you for keeping up with the windsurfing. It always struck me as a cool sport, and somehow more elegant than kitesurfing.

I also agree that comparing pickleball to windsurfing isn't that instructive, but mainly because there is this focus on making pickleball a major sports league here in the USA, with the expectation that people will want to watch it on television, and in large numbers. And maybe there was an expectation of that for windsurfing as well, at some point, but I don't remember it (maybe I'm a little too young).

So in terms of a major sporting league with considerable interest from the public, I just don't see it at all. It's a terrible watch on TV (and I've tried to watch it several times. I subscribe to TC plus, so there is always some pickleball event being replayed, and I'll check it out when there is no good tennis on. The inevitable result is first some laughing, and then a lot of head shaking. Never lasted more than 10 minutes).

As for it becoming a major recreational sport, yes, it definitely has a lower barrier to entry than tennis. But so does another existing racquet sport, one which I find very fun to play myself, and which can be played on/in anyone's front lawn, back lawn, garden... and that sport is Badminton. And yet badminton isn't that popular in the US and Europe, so I really don't know how far pickleball is going to go even recreationally.
 
W

Wolffje

New User
robyrolfo said:
First off, kudos to you for keeping up with the windsurfing. It always struck me as a cool sport, and somehow more elegant than kitesurfing.

I also agree that comparing pickleball to windsurfing isn't that instructive, but mainly because there is this focus on making pickleball a major sports league here in the USA, with the expectation that people will want to watch it on television, and in large numbers. And maybe there was an expectation of that for windsurfing as well, at some point, but I don't remember it (maybe I'm a little too young).

So in terms of a major sporting league with considerable interest from the public, I just don't see it at all. It's a terrible watch on TV (and I've tried to watch it several times. I subscribe to TC plus, so there is always some pickleball event being replayed, and I'll check it out when there is no good tennis on. The inevitable result is first some laughing, and then a lot of head shaking. Never lasted more than 10 minutes).

As for it becoming a major recreational sport, yes, it definitely has a lower barrier to entry than tennis. But so does another existing racquet sport, one which I find very fun to play myself, and which can be played on/in anyone's front lawn, back lawn, garden... and that sport is Badminton. And yet badminton isn't that popular in the US and Europe, so I really don't know how far pickleball is going to go even recreationally.
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Windsurfing was "big" in the 80's and 90's. Eurosport had weekly windsurfing coverage of the PWA tour events (Professional Windsurfing Association). The sport evolved fast and was spectaculair to watch. The downside of this was the PWA rules for starting a race had a lower limit of around 15 knots windspeed if i recall correctly for slalom events. Unfortunately, they had to take the tour to more and more countries, even countries that did not have a consistent wind and/or wave opportunity. So a lot of events ended up with 3 days waiting for wind and maybe 1 "fun race" for the crowds. This all let to the downfall of the popularity commercial-wise, even though they tried to come up with other events: indoor windsurfing (Paris Bercy was famous for it), a series of events with only 1 board and 2 sails which was a cross between a slalom race with jumping over obstacles on the course. Unfortunately it all did not save windsurfing. And then came kitesurfing and windfoiling which have a lower windlimit for events to have races (10 knots maybe?), so sponsors would rather see these events. Only the olympics still had a windsurfing discipline until last year. They switched to windfoiling too.

Badminton is lacking the "ball" part for me, and the abscence of bouncing. I guess this makes it less appealing to people who want to play a ball/racketsport. Also you cannot play if there is any wind (outdoors that is).
 
Ronaldo

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Purestriker said:
The blonde bombshells.
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o9rssp0a5x451.jpg
 
TTMR

TTMR

Hall of Fame
optic yellow said:
Playing tennis in a bikini bottom for a social media picture while acting super innocent is the most Canadian thing one could do.
Click to expand...

Not really. Playing in denim pants, denim jacket and trucker hat might be, or a flannel parka and one of those warm hats with the floppy ears.
 
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