by John Chao

If you think gearing up every year to spend six weeks in Maui and testing new windsurfing equipment is all fun, well...let me tell you something.

You’re absolutely right!

But then, let me also tell you that you can’t have too much fun without paying a price. You either pay before, or you pay afterwards. (Sometimes, you pay before, during, and afterwards, but that’s another story.) In this context, then, the making of Test2000 was probably one of our more expensive ticket items of the last millennium. Was it worth the price? You bet! What incredible fun we had!
What made it so much fun?

A combination of factors played into the equation. Perfect Wind+Warm Weather+Great Gear+Our Excellent Team of Testers=Superlative Windsurfing For All! (And, as Albert Einstein once said, “An equation is for eternity!”) The price of creating that equation, however, was relatively high, especially when you take into account factors like variables, resistance, and risk.

Let’s look at some of the variables. The biggest variable of all is setting standards and metrics for measuring success. How can you know whether a board, sail, mast, or fin is performing well, when the methods of testing windsurfing equipment can and will never be completely accurate or objective? What criteria can we use to measure qualities like excellence or mediocrity when wind and water conditions are constantly in flux, and no two sailors are identical? When you sit down to think about it, one thing becomes clear: There are just too many variables that are constantly changing!

The manufacturers largely view the tests as marketing opportunities to sell equipment. We view them as opportunities to help thesport grow, by making it more pleasurable. Guiding consumers to the best equipment for them will do that." (Sam Moses, our contracted Editor, wrote an excellent piece for our virtual on-line report called “The Paradoxical Nature of the Beast”. It is on http://www.americanwindsurfer.com/subonlygate/test2000/102299.html.)
We concluded a few years ago, that while equipment testing can never be the authoritative voice for the industry, it is a necessary evil, an illusive question mark (?) that feeds our flames of editorial folly and your perfectly reasonable quest for knowledge. No matter how blemished or imperfect equipment tests may be, those with the desire to consume want recommendations.

For instance, how many times have you walked down the beach and asked that guy with a brand new board for his “opinion”? No matter how good a sailor he is, his opinion reflects his own windsurfing needs, not yours. What works for him may not work for you. Taking this into account led us to realize that no matter how flawed our system might be, equipment reviews are ultimately more worthwhile than asking someone on the beach, no matter how hot a sailor he or she appears to be. But when every sailor’s skills, perceptions, and preferences are different, establishing a methodology and venue for effective equipment testing can take on Einsteinian proportions. This is Relativity in action! One wrong maneuver, and we could be sucked into that nefarious realm of physics that the late Carl Sagan called a “black hole.”

When fear and trepidation is overcome by curiosity and the spirit of exploration, even the risk of getting drawn into a “black hole” is not an obstacle. After all, how many times did we fall into the water, when we were learning how to windsurf? Didn’t that pay off, in the end? Keeping that in mind, even the worst-case scenario—an equipment test “black hole”—could lead to the kind of shift in thinking that would springboard our sport into a refreshing new beginning. And, in keeping with the spirit of this new millennium, what could be better than that?

So, let me tell you about our shift in thinking and what it has led to, in Maui, as well as how the fun began, in the making of Test2000.

It all started after Ken Winner, our Technical Editor, decided to take a sabbatical from the windsurfing world and pursue a career in kitesailing. Imagine the challenge, when our guru decided to change religion. (This may not have seemed like an opportunity, just then. But the challenge and adversity were clear.) How can you possibly persuade a skeptical and starving industry to do “something new” when the Pied Piper has just lost its flute?

The situation was critical. If the magazine stayed with the flock, it would would die, in a process called attrition. If it ventured out, from the protective pack, it risked death from exposure. Some new ideas were badly needed, and with five months to go, before the tests in October, there was no time to waste.
Decisions had to be made. Risks had to be managed. The first decision was to continue with the test. Since you’re damned if you do and you’re damned, even more, if you don’t, we decided to be damned for doing it!
Quickly, we formed a new team, headed by the legendary journalist Sam Moses. Moses has been a Contributing Editor to American Windsurfer since the early years, having come to windsurfing after years in the auto industry and the world of “Sports Illustrated”. His strength: A well-celebrated ability to report technical information. A stickler for accurate details, his writing style is inevitably entertaining. The risk: Relatively unknown in the windsurfing world, Moses is really, just a recreational sailor.
It was a gamble to give Moses this assignment. But it was a gamble that was necessary to help change the course of windsurfing for the future. If the sport was going to grow, the tone of the magazine had to shift out of the elitist level and become far more user-friendly.

Taking that risk put us face-to-face with another wave of resistance. No manufacturer in his right mind would agree to allow his equipment to be evaluated by a bunch of amateurs. We had to think fast and come up with a better mouse trap.

Fortunately, two powerful allies came into play that would fortify the outcome of the test, the internet and the Professional Windsurfing Association (PWA). Since putting the 1999 equipment reviews on our website, on June 30, 1999, www.americanwindsurfer.com had gotten more than 1.5 million hits! This was revolutionary! Then the organizers of the PWA and their video production company, Chilli Videos, agreed to develop and document, for the first-time ever, a video about Test2000.

With these two added values under our belt, we set out to persuade the various manufacturers to follow our lead and create a totally new environment for equipment testing. Never before had so much attention been focused on the product. Talk about hype and marketing schemes! (We’ve carried it to the max, with Sam Moses’ daily progress reports from the test site and the latest results on our website.) To enhance the making of an internationally distributed video about Test2000, we tried another “first,” inviting ten of the top dealers to come to Maui as guest testers.

I’ll spare you on how much “fun” we had selling the package to manufacturers, and the amazing stories of resistance that we encountered, even in light of such promising exposure. Instead, let me spend the rest of my space telling you about the real fun we had for the price we paid. The fact that you are reading this article, means that we achieved our goals—I might add—beyond our expectations.

Imagine for a moment, a Windsurfing Woodstock, a magical place and time where like–minded people—windsurfers of all levels, from all over the globe—gather to experience, experiment, and express themselves while sharing their common passion and pleasure. Imagine a meeting of manufacturers, consumers, designers, and legends of the sport, all coming together for one common goal, the celebration of windsurfing. Imagine giving a party where four hundred windsurfers show up, carrying the “Aloha” spirit. And finally, imagine the party ending up in the pool!

This was Test2000 and the Millennium Party in Maui. It was also the fun and hard work of building an equation and making it work.

This is windsurfing!