Freediving Reloaded
Posted By Paul Kotik on 16 May 2005
Hello. My name is Paul Kotik. I’m a novice freediver, a beginner.
In fact, I’m still in the wannabe stage: I haven’t actually tried any open-water freediving yet, but I hope to before the summer is over.
Well, that’s not literally true, but it is virtually true ( hat tip to A., my patent attorney for suggesting the phrasing ) and it seems to me to provide a unique opportunity for Deeper Blue and its readers of all levels, from wannabe’s to world champions.
Since we want our wonderful sport to grow and flourish, we must pay attention to the intake valve, the recruiting tent, the marketing department or whatever it is we should call the process of stimulating interest in, and easing the way of newcomers to our world.
The short, bittersweet history of windsurfing provides an abject lesson in the evils of neglecting the front door. Let’s talk about that for a minute, agree on what the moral of that sad story is, and then I’ll relieve your bewilderment and tell you what the hell’s going on.
Invented in the mid-1970’s, windsurfing began to draw in serious sponsorship money about ten years after that, with gear manufacturers fiercely competing for the top sailors and publicized victories on a well-organized, media-backed Pro World Tour. A little perspective – this was not football, but the top athletes were definitely earning over a million $US annually from sponsorship, endorsements, and all the other little things a working pro does to bring home the bacon.
The media, in their turn, focused on the exotic competition venues, like Hawai’i, Aruba, the Canary Islands and so on. As with strange foods, postmodern arts, and Jerry Lewis, windsurfing enjoyed the distinction of being “much more popular in Europe” than Stateside. Top stars were mobbed by fans on the streets of European capitals, whereas their bodyguards got vacations when the tour passed through the USA, where they were and are unknown to the general public.
But windsurfing was definitely on a roll.
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