From: Josh Stone
Reason: My plans for the Year 2002 and the PWA Tour

Aloha to Everyone,

Recently I have been bombarded by emails concerning an article in the German
SURF Magazine that said I would be stopping the PWA world tour in 2002. Those
e-mails made me reconsider my personal future. I basically owe everything I
have to windsurfing and I’ve always wanted to give back as much as possible.
After many discussions with friends and my family I made the following decisions:

– I will do the Freestyle Tour 2002 – I want that title back!!! YEEEHAAA!
– I will go on an adventure tour to the most exotic down the line wave riding
spots instead of doing the PWA Wave Tour.

After coming 2nd this year in the PWA Freestyle Tour, I realized that I am
somewhat dependent on competition, and I really want to regain the title in
2002. I need that thrill, which only a competition is able to give you. I am
very happy with the way the freestyle discipline has grown and I want to continue
my support of it, and hopefully I have some time while the young
guns gain more experience. When we started the Freestyle discipline we wanted
to bring the sport closer to the average windsurfer and we wanted to bring new
personalities in. It is amazing how fast this happened and how many new kids
we have on tour now and how hard they rip. I will face their challenge because
I love it. For these reasons I have decided to compete on the PWA Freestyle
Tour next year for sure.

The wave tour is a different matter in my mind. I envision that the freestyle
discipline and formula racing are the "reality" aspects of our professional
sport. They are the disciplines that bring windsurfing back to where the majority
of our windsurfing population windsurf, and are also disciplines that a windsurfer
can become good at regardless of their location.

Wave sailing on the other hand should be the "dream" aspect of professional
windsurfing, the absolute pinnacle and the most radical face of our sport. It
should take place in the most radical and exotic locations. Freestyle and formula
take care of the reality, social, and public aspect, while wave sailing should
provide the dream for all windsurfers to aspire to.

Unfortunately our present PWA Wave Tour does not offer any REAL down the line
wave sailing location.

For this reason I have decided that the best thing I can do for the sport and
myself, besides pushing the limits of Freestyle further, is to start promoting
the most radical aspects of wave sailing again. I have decided it ‘s time to
get back to my roots, which lie deeply in surfing and beautiful waves. I miss
adventure and I too dream of that epic, empty wave spot with
perfect conditions, just waiting to be ripped apart! Instead of competing on
the wave tour next year, I am going with my good friend Brian Talma on an experience
around the world looking for the perfect wave, killer adventures, and good times.
The IMPORTANT things in life! We will be taking a film crew with us every where
we go, with the hope that eventually we can get
enough media to interest sponsors back into down the line wave sailing so that
we can get the PWA Wave Tour back to real wave sailing destinations. Then I
will gladly compete on the tour again.

The ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) went through a very similar
problem as the PWA in the late 80’s early 90’s. They were competing in unbelievably
shitty locations and 1 foot surf sometimes. Of course the surfers hated it and
the media basically ignored it. Eventually the surf clothing industry decided
that it was too much. They started making invitational events in the most radical
surfing locations in the world such as G-land and Tavarua. The response from
the media was phenomenal, and
eventually huge sponsors started to pour into the surfing world, and now almost
ALL of the major events at the highest level are in super radical locations,
with tons of support and interest. This is what needs to happen to save professional
windsurfing. The DREAM must come back.

How? I can only think that the best way for this to happen is that the leading
images in our sport get out there and start promoting what they love to do most!!!
WINDSURFING IN BIG DOWN THE LINE CONDITIONS!!!

That’s what I am going to do next year along with going after the freestyle
title, so to all those people who sent emails I want to say MAHALO (Thanks in
Hawaiian), and no worries. Next year is going to ROCK!

Rip it up & Mahalo,

Josh