A colleague just walked past and said 'I see it's windy today I suppose you'll be leaving early to go sailboarding'
To which I replied "yes"
But then I thought, I'm not a sailboarder I'm a windsurfer.
Windsurfing damn it!
I'm a Windsurfer who is going Windsurfing, I called as he walked away.
But am I?
What's the difference?
When does sailboarding become windsurfing?
Can I only windsurf in the surf?
Is sailboarding done by begginers on longboards and windsurfing performed on shortboards?
If I can't jibe can I still be a windsurfer?
I've been critical in the past of kiteboarders calling them themselves kitesurfers when they're not surfing. Should I say sorry?
Not that I care what its called ... but wasn't there some dispute back in the dark ages about "windsurfer" being a brand, so you weren't allowed to use it as a generic term, hence the reference to sailboarding, sailboarder etc.
sailboarding sounds slow or on top of a big board with triangular sails something from resort ads and windsurfing sounds more alive and zippy
it's much the same as rollerblade vs in line skate.
windsurfer is a brand, sailboard is the name of the sport, however most just call it windsurfing after the most well known brand of the early days (same as rollerbladeing)
Geez I even remember people saying they are going to hoover the carpet
Windsurfing is something you do with wind and waves - sailboarding is something you do with just wind -
Sailboarding is what we seem to be doing with overwhelming regularity around the mid coast of late as there just isn't any waves locally
What we have been doing lately should be called bored sailing - or sail boredom.
C'mon huey send us some swell - I can actually say I am sick of chasing wind and getting nothing but flat water sailing - wednesday - I came out of the water and said - I am sick of sailboarding - time to lock up the gear and see if the sparkle comes back - hell I've never done that before.
Help!
Yeah, it was sailboarding (or even "boardsailing") when "windsurfer" was a brand, but I think everyone's over that so it's just windsurfing now isn't it?
Hell, in Europe "surfing" is something you do down a mountain on a nasty steel-edged thing with your feet in bindings!
"sailboarding" is a term I reckon, that prats use. Like "bicycling" and "lashings of ginger beer", and "gosh".
Windsurfing, surfing the wind, just sounds cooler and so is more in line with the character of the person who windsurfs.
"Wavesailing" was a term we used to use when there were wind and waves at the same time and we'd windsurf in it.
I always say i'm going sailing, windsurfer was a brand, so we are all sailboarders i think, most non sailboarders call it windsurfing. i've heard a few good one, like windboarding always makes me laugh, you don't call every car a ford because it was the first one to make a car, or if you go for a mountain bike ride you don't say i'm going mongoosing..
This topic is very interesting but I'll have to pick it up tomorrow as now I'm going out for a Wally.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsurfing
www.dictionary.com/browse/windsurfing
You can call windsurfing anything you want but the fact is you do not need waves to windsurf. That was the whole point of Schweitzer and Drake's invention. A gadget to go surfing when there were no waves.
I think it also is a location thing. WA historically has lots of good wave sailors (Scotty etc) the term "windsurf" fitted the image in the mind of most when referring to the sport as practiced in WA.
Having seen sailors glide around lakes in Switzerland and the UK in ~2-5 knots on longish boards the terms sailboard and boardsailing seemed more appropriate though ironically the Euros used the term "le Surf" which just seemed weird to an Aussie... where was the surf?
But with Kiteboarding winning out (over Kitesurfing) I can see a return to the term Sailboarding to differentiate the 2 in the mind of the general community. "Do you Kiteboard or Sailboard?" etc
The gps thing will also encourage this shift as it is associated with "sail speed records" not "windspeed records" or windsurf speed records.
Sailboard has been the generic term for the equipment and boardsailing is the sports official name under the olympic committeee.
If you delve deeper into the trademark thing or were part of the battle back in the 80's you will see that the imortant part of the patent was the universal joint which at the time on windsurfer brand was the mechanical type! Some smart people came up with using a rubber engine mount as a Uni to break the patent and the rest is history
I think that if 'sitting on your fat ass jabbing at a keyboard with your fingers, with your eyes fixed in a blank stare at the monitor' can be called "Surfing the net!" (groan. I cringe every time I hear it 
) then flogging across the water at 20 knots hanging from a mast and boom by a bit of rope, has every right to be called "windsurfing".
But if they reassess 'sitting on your fat ass jabbing at a keyboard with your fingers, with your eyes fixed in a blank stare at the monitor' and rename it ''sitting on your fat ass jabbing at a keyboard with your fingers, with your eyes fixed in a blank stare at the monitor",..... then I will say I go sailboarding!
Sailboard is more descriptive.
Windsurfer... are you talking about the sailor or the board? It could be either.
Sailboard = the board
Sailboarder = the rider of the sailboard.
Just stirring here... I'm off to go windsurfing (on the flattest water I can find).
) then flogging across the water at 20 knots hanging from a mast and boom by a bit of rope, has every right to be called "windsurfing".
We all harness the wind so i suppose you could call it "windharnessing"
As in "I'm gunna drop in on a 50 foot wave at jaws on my wind-harnesser"
How about "waterboarding", which the US Congress looks set to ban everywhere, not just Maui!!!
