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Für mich hat die Entscheidung pro IQ für die Damen einen sehr üblen Beigeschmack.
Ich muss mir das nochmal in Ruhe durchlesen...
Dear Members of the Windsurfing Industry
There is no need for us to try and explain that this has been an incredibly unusual year. The COVID-19 pandemic has touched everyone without fail, but with the key contingents of the PWA World Tour involving travel and large-scale public gatherings, we have felt the impact quite strongly.
Regardless of the challenges, we have continued to work our way through the year and to administer the association in order to maintain a maximum state of readiness, ensuring that we continue to deliver as much coverage and value for the sport as circumstances allow. Our social media reach has continued to grow, despite the lack of events, and we will build on that as we move forwards.
Despite almost all events being forced to cancel or postpone for the 2020 season, every effort is going into preparations for 2021. The majority of events cancelled for 2020 are already in planning for 2021, and there are few new possibilities being worked on too, so the outlook is positive for a strong return to competition for next year, virus developments permitting of course.
Although the industry as a whole has obviously been hit hard by the circumstances we found ourselves in at the start of 2020, initial feedback from some of the brands in encouraging in that as people have come out of lock down, they have had even greater motivation to participate in sports and demand for equipment has grown quite significantly since the depths of the lock down.
Events
The cancellation of most events this year has been unavoidable, but we have strived to maximise the benefit from the few that have survived.
The Croatia slalom event went well, despite being a comparatively low budget contest, and the reception from the online audience was fantastic. Social media reach was on a scale we would expect for a much bigger event and, overall, the event provided a very positive injection of energy into the sport at a high level. This is an event that we expect to continue to grow during 2021.
The Youth and Junior event at Klitmoller provided a fantastic opportunity for our next generation to have a positive outlet and opportunity to demonstrate their ability. As always, Klitmoller proved a great host for the event, and there were some excellent performances in all divisions.
We had held out hope that the Marignane World Cup would go ahead, and everything was in place for it to do so during its revised dates in October, including a full World Championship slalom contest, with enhanced media production, and what we hoped was going to be the first show, in the first regular TV series to be made from the PWA Tour in some years. Unfortunately, the virus intervened once more, and with COVID-19 cases on the rise across large parts of Europe, including in the Marseille area, it was felt that it would be socially irresponsible to continue with the contest.
Equipment
As communicated earlier in the year, there will be no changes to the equipment rules for boards and sails in slalom and course racing for 2021 and, due to the lack of competition and further evaluation in 2020, combined with the need for stability and good lead times for production, there will be no changes for 2022. We gave some consideration to further reductions in certain areas, but based on the limited feedback received, it was felt that the benefits of keeping development stable far outweighed any gains from small reductions in equipment limits. This will also mean that brands who do not wish to develop new equipment for the coming seasons will not be forced to.
The only general change moving into 2021 and onwards will be with foils. Currently competitors can only register 2 front wings and 2 rear wings, but for 2021 this will change to allow competitors to register an extra front wing, taking the total foil equipment permitted to 1 mast, 2 fuselage, 3 front wings and 2 back wings. This will allow competitors a greater range of options to ensure they have the right wings for the conditions, enhancing safety and control, without hugely increasing costs.
Decisions regarding equipment for 2023 will be made mid-season 2021 after we have had enough events at which to evaluate the situation in more detail.
iQFOil Board
In order to encourage greater participation in the women’s division of the slalom tour, the iQFOil board will be permitted for use in women’s foil slalom. This will allow female Olympic sailors who wish to participate at PWA events, to do so without having to obtain additional equipment. The women’s slalom fleet has grown steadily in recent years and is now at an all time high of the last 20 years, both in terms of numbers, and standard of sailing, which is something we want to encourage.
Registration Deadlines
We will be sending out information and forms for slalom equipment registration soon. Registration deadlines for the 2021 season will be as per normal years, as follows:
Sails: 31st October 2020
Boards: 15th December 2020
Foils: 15th December 2020
Constructors Ranking
In the PWA Constructors Championship, the way in which points are allocated will change for the 2021 season. From now on, the top 16 ranked riders in the men’s division, and the top 16 ranked riders in the women’s division at each event will receive equal points. The ranking will then be calculated based on the 2 highest points scorers per team, whether they be men or women. The new system will ensure equal value for men and women in the constructors ranking at each event, leaving it purely up to each brand to decide how its organises its team.
Industry Membership Fees
As you are all undoubtedly aware, we have not invoiced for any 2020 membership fees so far. We did not want to add to any stresses at the start of the year in the uncertainty of the various European lockdowns, difficulties with supply from China and the inability to know with any confidence which events would go ahead. We have managed to minimise running costs at the PWA and all staff have been operating on significantly reduced income, but that has not stopped us continuing to work to deliver the maximum possible from this season, and ensure we are as prepared as possible for a return to full operations next year… hopefully!
However, despite cost cutting measures, it still takes some resources to run the association, maintain social media output and work on next years tour, and so far we have operated on zero income in 2020, so we will soon be sending out invoices for a heavily reduced membership fee for 2020, set at 25% of the fees that each brand usually pays, to ensure that the association can continue to operate, but without too heavy a burden on the brands
.
That’s all for now, but we will continue to update you with any new developments as they arise and we hope to see you all on the water soon.
Kind regards
The PWA.
