Go for longboards in my case ONE design Kona ONE.

Here in Sweden the Kona ONE have been accepted in lot´s of sailingclub att they starts to bye the Kona ONE for the school and starts local regattas, get the former surfers back and get the kids to the arena and they surf toghter on same boards, the invest are very low. We organise the first ever Junior Championship for Juniors... the 20 of september and I think we will be arround 30 juniors...

Next year we go in to the program with dingny events and arrange the Kona Worlds 2009 13-16 Of August in middle of Sweden in a lake called vättern, be ther only people from other country can rent equipments, this will be the biggest event in windsurfing the last 15 years in Sweden.

I think longboard is back and take the sport back to the people..

All Winds Are Kona Winds
Joachim Larsson
http://www.konanordic.com

That's great news, Joachim.

What size rigs are they using, and how old are the kids?

Down here in Australia we've got kids learning and sailing on Windsurfer One Designs with small rigs; anything from 1.5m for 8-9 year olds, moving up to 4.5m sails and then onto the standard 6m sail.

We tried the Techno 293, but for our clubs in NSW they didn't work very well.

We have use the orginal Kona ONE rig 3:5, 4:2 and 5:0 after they have go to school there we use the Kona crusingsail dacron 2:6, 3:5 and 4:5 with shoter mast and taler bom.
We use the Kona ONE to learn them and 80% of the go for traing and racing. The clas we have devol are -15 years and max 55 kg (use Kona ONE 3:5,4:2 and 5:0) the kid ho are really good starts to use the Kona ONE 5:8 from arround 50 kg and the they go in to the bigger class who are 15-19 years old (like diggny).

When we the kid sailing we let them to start 4 minutes before the "normal class and 15-19 years class" and we let only sail one turn (upwind, downwind and in to the goal we put tha start and goal 150 meter from the downwind mark)

We have get afleet with all the sailors toghter and they feeling of be a winner.

All Winds Are Kona Winds!
Joachim

That sounds great.

We tend to have a separate event for kids in the morning, around a short course just before the adults race. The better kids can then race with the adults, using either a small 4.5m sail or the standard 6m.

The kids' class is for those under 15, with a separate class for those under 13 and use smaller sails (3.5 or less).

The Techno class is obviously doing very well for the kids who want to follow the high-wind and pumping route, but in the future there's sure to be room for international racing for longboard kids.

We find there are four big advantages to the longboard. One is that we use existing Windsurfer One Designs or similar boards, so there are cheap (or free) secondhand boards around.

Secondly, the longboards go upwind and in light winds so much better, which is really important since many clubs here are built in smallere sheltered areas of water.

Thirdly, the kids can use their parent's board so it's a lot cheaper to get them involved.

Fourthly, since the better kids are able to sail with the adults in a class with pumping restrictions, in the right conditions they can not just be best kid, but finish right up with ex-Olympic sailors. It gives them a real thrill to race with and beat the adults and they can learn a lot from it.

Check this Video from Junior Championship i Sweden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDsyM7hLKE

BR
Joachim more here http://www.konanordic.com/News.aspx?nId ... 6385&nPi=0