Dear NWF Community,
Well, the 10th Anniversary on NWF on Hayling was an epic one and I hope you all had a fantastic time. The wind arrived for our 10th Anniversary wind which was brilliant for our windsurfers, albeit a little testing for our SUP community!
After 10 wonderful years, I am now closing the curtain on the NWF at Hayling Island, and preparing to start a brand new chapter of NWF. It has been a great decade at Hayling, and we really ended our 10th anniversary on a high. Looking forward, the watersports industry has changed, and we must change too.
Whilst Hayling is a fantastic venue to windsurf and sup recreationally, it presents us with an every increasing list of challenges especially when managing our NWF land footprint. Increasing legislation presents organising an event on this scale now almost impossible.
So I am proud to announce that the NWF 2017 will take place at Rutland Water on the 3rd and 4th of June.
I am excited by the new chapter of the NWF at Rutland and I’m thrilled to hear that many people have already pledged their support to the new chapter of NWF. The watersports industry have already given their full support to the concept and were in agreement with the website poll results which were to move the event to June ready for the summer season. The Rutland venue is less intimidating for some of the recreational windsurfers and paddlers, plus an excellent playground for youth development and tasters, something that I am keen to develop further in the new model and grow our NWF community even further.
My primary aims for this new chapter are:
- to involve more families, clubs and youth participation in both windsurf and sup.
- to encourage disabled participation
- to combine NWF and NWF Junior
- to receive greater support and participation from the RYA
There are some very successful European windsurfing and sup events which are hosted at freshwater venues.
Rutland Water has a plethora of reasons to be the host of NWF in the future. It offers:
– it is the second largest reservoir in Europe.
– onsite watersports facilities including on water safety
– a central UK location enabling NWF to be more accessible
– an inland location which will be safe and accessible for both windsurfers and SUP at any level and ability
– onsite camping for 6000 people
– private land without council restrictions
– additional family friendly activities including an aqua park, zoo, cycle trails, climbing facilities
– room to expand and develop the NWF model
It just leaves me now to thank you for your continued support over the last 10 years and welcome you to our new exciting chapter of NWF, so please put it in your diary – 3rd and 4th June 2017.
Kind Regards
Al Cross
http://nationalwatersportsfestival.com