Do you want active sailing...or active racing...or both? I can tell you how many active racers we have in our area, but the number "sailing longboards" for recreation only is far more difficult to estimate.

Lysakerfjorden Brettseilerklubb,Norway. 220 members,30 raceboard sailors,mostly regatta sailors.The old models (MOD,Equipe,F2 lightning,Cat ec.) are most popular,they outbeat the new hybride models in racing. We use 7,5 m sails an are racing every week in spring,summer and autumn.(In winter it is to cold in Norway)

The above post from Lysakerfjorden Brettseilerklubb is great. Thanks.

Here's some rough overall figures or all types of boards doing course (and some other) races.

British national circuit - Techno 293 (junior hybrid) =145 entries
Formula Windsurfer =84 entries
Raceboard = 80 entries
RSX hybrid =59 entries
Kona One = 11 entries (new class)

British Team 15 (for kids 15 years and under -requires centreboard for zone racing, aims to develop kids to sail Techno hybrid) = about 80 clubs. Each team can put up to 15 kids into a zone-level race. That's something like 800 kids on boards with centreboards.

US Nationals 08 -
17 FW entries
2 FE entries
Raceboards 25 entries
Hybrid 5 entries
Sports Fleet (longboards/hybrids) 12 entries.

US ranking list 07 -
FW 85
Open (inc. raceboard, Kona, etc) 80
Kona One Design 48
Hybrid 29
FE 24.

Australian national titles, average fleet last 2 seasons

Windsurfer One Design 32
Raceboard - 31.5
FW - 25
RSX= 6?
Junior One NSW titles (biggest kid's titles) = 15.
Note FW is usually bigger, and Windsurfer One Design had a small fleet this year as there was an official health warning about being on the water at the site due to an algal bloom.

French national ranking lists:

Techno 293 - 525 boys, 168 girls
Raceboard - 206 men, 82 women
Funboard - 108 men, 18 women
Formula - 106 men, 11 women.
Kona One - 401 (I think a lot of these people just borrowed a Kona for a regatta)

German windsurfing association rankings

Raceboard (longboard) = 130 sailors
Junior Longboard = 95 sailors
DWC Slalom/Formula/wave/freestyle = 70 sailors including 8 under 20 years.
Kona One = 64
Techno 293 OD = 25 sailors (growing)
RSX = 25 sailors
IMCO = 15 sailors
Mistral Junior = 5 to 10 sailors

JUNIOR WORLDS ENTRIES

2007 Techno 293 OD hybrid worlds (under 17)= 166 entries (I think that the entries were restricted due to demand exceeding the available spots).
2007 FE Junior Worlds = 10 entries.
2007 FW Junior Worlds = 12 entries

YOUTH WORLDS

2007 FE Youth worlds = 5 entries.
2007 FW Youth Worlds = 48 entries.
2007 RSX Youth Worlds = 65 entries
2007 Raceboard Youth Euros = 34 entries. (no Youth worlds as the Worlds were in South America)

Obviously South America, Asia and much of Europe are not included.

It's interesting to see the classes that people are actually racing, rather than the classes that get hyped. Roughly totalling the above, we see;

1029 junior hybrid sailors (Techno 293)
625 junior Longboard sailors (assuming 500 T-15 sailors on longboards)
556 Kona One/Windsurfer One Design (Australia) sailors (as noted, many probably borrowed boards).
405 FW sailors (an underestimate, one assumes, although the class does not list more than 100 sailors in any country)
320 adult Raceboard sailors (not counting the French as they may be RSX sailors, but assuming 50% of all US Open sailors are raceboarders)
195 adult hybrid sailors (not counting the French RSX/Raceboard sailors)
100 Youth Hybrid sailors (an underestimate as the national rankings are not broken down)
68 FW Youth/Junior
41 FE Youth/Junior (assuming all US FE sailors are Juniors or Youth)

In total - 1300 hybrids, not counting RSX or junior T15 classes - but the hybrids are mainly kids.
- about 800 longboards, not counting T15, which seems to be hundreds more.
- about 500 Formula (FW and FE) sailors.
- hundreds of slalom sailors and speed sailors, not doing course racing.

It's funny that the IWA says that racers prefer Formula, which attracts about 20% of course racers.




Considering that FE was being pushed by the FW class, Starboard and Bic, US Windsurfing and others, its numbers are tiny. Imagine what all that energy and support could have done with a realistic product like a longboard or kid's hybrid.

I don't personally like the Techno 293, but it's very impressive in Europe.

That was a lot of data, Guest. Please put in a user name or signature on the bottom of your post. Thanks for the great post. :~) Cheers.

Sweden
110 Kona ONE sailors 2007
More this year arround 200 sailors...
Formula 20 sailors
Bic293 2
RSX 1
Slalom 20 sailors
Speed 40 sailors
Raceboard 0 sailors

Not exact...

Joachim

Thanks Joachim.

BTW the post with the worldwide stats above was mine. I'll do another worldwide summary later.

0 raceboards in Sweden! Interesting.

hopefully soon, you will NOT be asking ..."how many in your club.." to gain your numbers


hopefully it will get like the days before clubs...people just cruizing on them because they can..

sometimes I think there is too much emphasis on club racing...for longboards

In some ways this can scare off newcomers to longboards....believe it or not!

but I guess you gotta start counting somewhere....eh...hee hee.

[yes I do realise non club people will be ni on impossible to estimate...but making another point]

Hi, we are 30 windsurfers racing national events in Argentina, in raceboard class.