I have always said that this min 5 knot speed rule for total distance is nonsence. It should have been scrapped years ago. And it should be reviewed and changed now.
Who can say that drifting along or sailing on a raceboard at 1-4 knots is not windsurfing? That is just nonsense.
Walking to the water and from the water is a very small part of windsurfing, but it is a very real and essential part of it. Walking back along the beach, or swiming in from the water is also a very real and essential part of windsurfing. Of course, we would go further and faster if we could 'sail', so where is the advantage? What is the problem? It is all part of the session. and the windsurfing experience. And it is almost always just a small % of the total distance, but sometimes, in very light winds, it is still significant.
The WGPSSRC 24 hour distance rules include sub 5 knots sailing distance in the record distance for 24 hrs, and include incidental small amounts of walking (at the discresion of the committee) as we recognise that it is part of the session and part of windsurfing. In fact, during Craig Hollins recent record attempt at Lake George in South Australia, the wind dropped, and he spent an hour or two sailing on his Mistral Longboard at around and under 5 knots. Of course this was accepted as part of the record distance, but when this session was posted to GPS-Speedsurfing, he was robbed of hours of slow sailing. And for what!
I wrote to the GPS-SS team to point out that the distances in the GPS-SS 24 distance ranking were inconsistent. That previous sessions and records which were uploaded manually, include this sub 5 knots distance. I pointed out that to be consistent, the newer session distances, like that of Craig Hollins, should also include the sower parts of the sailing session. I am yet to recieve a logical answer and explanation.
In the GPSteamchallenge rules there is no such arbitrary minimum speed set. In the WGPSSRC records there is not such arbitrary and unfair minimum speed set. Why would the leading GPS windsurfing rankings do it in another illogical way, and then be inconsistent and unfair in their rankings about it?
It is easy enough to fix it. Just change the min speed value in the GPS-Results website upload analysis engine to 0 knots. Done!
GPSAR-Pro sets no minimum speed by default for the distance of the session. RealSpeed sets no minimum speed by default for the distance of the session. KA72 speedlocker online calculator sets no minimum speed by default for the distance of the session. GPSteamchallege sets no minimum speed by default for the distance of the session. It is very strange that GPS-SS is out of step and inconsistent with no logical explanation.
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