Windsurfing - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport

Surface water sports

The following is a list of surface water sports; these are sports which are performed atop a body of water.-Discing:Discing consists of standing on a circular wooden disc and being towed behind the boat. The disc supports the rider by means of spreading the weight out evenly across the water...

that combines elements of surfing

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

and sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a mast, wishbone boom and sail. The sail area ranges from less than 3.0 m² to more than 12 m² depending on the conditions, the skill of the sailor and the type of windsurfing being undertaken.

The history of windsurfing began in 1948 on the Susquehanna River

Susquehanna River

The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, USA when Newman Darby

Newman Darby

Newman Darby is an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.-Biography:He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and began building boats when he was 12...

invented the sailboard which incidentally, he did not patent. In 1964, Darby began selling his sailboards.

Windsurfing can be said to straddle both the laid-back culture of surf sports and the more rules-based environment of sailing. Although it might be considered a minimalistic version of a sailboat

Sailboat

A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...

, a windsurfer offers experiences that are outside the scope of any other sailing craft design. Windsurfers can perform jumps, inverted loops, spinning maneuvers, and other "freestyle" moves that cannot be matched by any sailboat. Windsurfers were the first to ride the world's largest waves, such as Jaws

Jaws (beach)

"Jaws" is the name given to a big wave surfing reef break on the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is located on the northern side of the island between mile markers 13 and 14 on the Hana highway and sits at the base of rolling sugar cane field hills.The surf break, a deep water...

on the island of Maui

Maui

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...

, and, with very few exceptions, it was not until the advent of tow-in surfing

Tow-in surfing

Tow-in surfing is a surfing technique which uses artificial assistance to allow the surfer to catch faster moving waves than was traditionally possible when paddling by hand.-History:...

that waves of that size became accessible to surfers on more traditional surfboards. Extreme waves aside, many expert windsurfers will ride the same waves as wavesurfers do (wind permitting) and are themselves usually very accomplished without a rig on a conventional surfboard.

At one time referred to as "surfing's ginger haired cousin" by the sport's legendary champion, Robby Naish

Robby Naish

Robert Staunton Naish is one of the first athletes to have gained long-lasting international fame in the sport of windsurfing. At a young age, his father, competitive surfer and surfboard shaper Rick Naish, moved the family from California to Kailua, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu...

, windsurfing has long struggled to present a coherent image of the sport to outsiders. Indeed, participants will regularly use different names to describe the sport, including sailboarding and boardsailing. Despite the term "Windsurfing" becoming the accepted name for the sport, participants are still called "sailors" or "board heads" and not "surfers"

Windsurfing is predominately undertaken on a non-competitive basis. Organised competition does take place at all levels across the world and typical formats for competitive windsurfing include Formula Windsurfing, speed sailing, slalom, course racing, wave sailing, superX, and freestyle. These events are exciting to watch as sailors push the limits both physically and creatively with moves that look as impossible as thinking them up in the first place.

The boom of the 1980s led windsurfing to be recognized as an Olympic sport in 1984. However, windsurfing's popularity saw a sharp decline in the mid-1990s, thanks to licensing battles, and equipment becoming more specialized and requiring more expertise to sail. Now the sport is experiencing a modest revival, as new beginner-friendly designs are becoming available.

History

Windsurfing, as a sport

Sport

A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

and recreational activity, did not emerge until the later half of the 20th century. But before this, there have been sailing boats of various designs that have used wind as the driving force for millennia, and Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

ns have been riding waves for many of them, undertaking day trips over oceans standing upright on a solid board with a vertical sail.

In 1948, 20-year old Newman Darby

Newman Darby

Newman Darby is an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.-Biography:He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and began building boats when he was 12...

was the first to conceive the idea of using a handheld sail and rig mounted on a universal joint

Universal joint

A universal joint, universal coupling, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint or coupling in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...

so that he could control his small catamaran

Catamaran

A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...

-- the first rudderless sailboard ever built that allowed a person to steer by shifting his or her weight in order to tilt the sail fore

Bow (ship)

The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...

and aft

Aft

Aft, in naval terminology, is an adjective or adverb meaning, towards the stern of the ship, when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?"...

. Darby did not file a patent for the sailboard. However, he is widely recognized as its inventor as well as the first to conceive, design, and build a sailboard with a universal joint. In his own words, Darby experimented throughout much of the 1950s and 1960s and it wasn't until 1963 that an improved sailboard with a conventional stayed sloop rig sail arrangement made it more stable than the one built in 1948. In 1964, Darby began selling his sailboards.

12-year old Peter Chilvers

Peter Chilvers

Peter Chilvers is an inventor, engineer and promoter of sailing and windsurfing. He is credited with an early version of a sail powered surfboard.-Life:Chilvers has been an engineer for Lotus and has founded a sailing and windsurfing centre in London...

is often cited for inventing a sailboard in 1958. In the 1960s, Jim Drake

Jim Drake (engineer)

Jim Drake , is an American aeronautics engineer, who is credited as the inventor of windsurfing. Although after later patent disputes and court cases, there were discovered earlier design by Englishman Peter Chilvers and American Newman Darby, and even Drake is accepts he is at best third in...

was the first to solve many problems of getting the board to sail while Hoyle Schweitzer was the first to be successful in marketing the sailboard.

In 1964, over a discussion on water sports over a brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

at his home in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, RAND Corporation aeronautical engineer Jim Drake

Jim Drake (engineer)

and his former Rockwell

Rockwell International

Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate in the latter half of the 20th century, involved in aircraft, the space industry, both defense-oriented and commercial electronics, automotive and truck components, printing presses, valves and meters, and industrial automation....

boss and now good friend Fred Payne

Fred Payne (disambiguation)

Fred Payne may refer to:*Fred Payne, Major League Baseball player for the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox*Frederick Payne of the Payne Brothers pantomime act*Frederick G. Payne, U.S. politician*Fred Payne , Australian rules footballer...

, who worked at The Pentagon

The Pentagon

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...

, discussed options for creating a wind-powered water-ski which would allow Payne to travel on the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

. That night they developed the idea of a kite

Kite

A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...

powered surfboard. On later reflection, Drake didn't like the integrity of the idea and dismissed it. There were already a number of sailboard designs available, and Drake also was concerned about the integrity of a design needing taut wire close to a human body to keep the sail upright.

Still developing the idea, Drake's wife met the pregnant Diana Schweitzer, and the two families became good friends through their children. Drake mentioned the idea to surfer

Surfing

Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

Hoyle Schweitzer who wanted to develop it, but Drake was still unsure of how to control and steer what he envisaged in a design concept as a surfboard with upright sail design, whereby the sailor stood upright on the board holding the sail.

The technical problem was that most boats steer by varying the angle of attack in the water between the centre board and the rudder, and Drake's question came down to simple operation of how a standing person could control both the power of the sail as well as the direction of the craft.

In 1967, while driving between his home and a contract at the Norton Air Force Base

Norton Air Force Base

Norton Air Force Base is a former front-line United States Air Force facility located east of downtown San Bernardino, California in San Bernardino County.-Overview:...

in San Bernardino

San Bernardino

San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...

, Drake had time to reflect on early 17th century based sail ship control. Rudders then were weak and ineffective, mostly used for trimming course. Hence with multi-masted boats, the sailors would trim the upper sails on the forward and rearwards masts to steer the ship.

Dismissing the idea of a design with two upright sails, Drake decided to move the sail by rotation, as moving it linearly would require a mechanical system. Experimenting with a rotational design which became the concept for the universal joint

Universal joint

, whereby the angle of attack of the sail to the board could be varied to allow control of both power and craft direction. Drake finished the design by using an earlier but for them failed invention of East Coast racing sail, and added a wishbone boom

Wishbone boom

thumb|right|300pxThe wishbone boom on sailing craft is most commonly seen on windsurfing boards .The wishbone boom on larger sailing craft is a double-sided boom set at an angle to the mast and typically supported by line stays from the leading edge of the mast to each side of the boom...

Windsurfing International

In 1968, Drake and Hoyle together as individuals filed the very first windsurfing patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

, which was granted by the USPTO in 1970. There is no evidence that they had knowledge of any prior inventions similar to theirs, but Drake accepts in retrospect that although he can be credited with invention, he was "probably no better than third," behind mid-west based Newman Darby

Newman Darby

Newman Darby is an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.-Biography:He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and began building boats when he was 12...

and Englishman

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

Peter Chilvers

.

The early windsurfing boards were made of foam in the garages of Drake and Hoyle, with the booms, tees and daggerboards hand crafted in teak

Teak

Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...

. Hoyle sub-contracted the manufacture of the teak items to boat builder Ennals Ives in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, but the quality and costs of transportation brought other issues. One of the early customers was Bert Salisbury, and the first international shipment of a container of boards went to Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Early customers also included Lufthansa

Lufthansa

Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fourth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating...

pilots who had read about the board, who simply included one as personal luggage on their return journey from Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...

.

To ensure the quality of the product and handle marketing, in 1968 Hoyle and Diana Schweitzer founded the company Windsurfing International in Southern California to manufacture, promote and license a windsurfer design. The jointly owned patent was wholly licensed by Drake and Hoyle to Windsurfing International. Working in a factory unit in Torrance, California

Torrance, California

Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...

, Hoyle, who had previously built personal surf boards in his garage, was unhappy with the durability of the early "Baja Board." He therefore developed a new mould, based on an old Malibu surfboard design that Matt Kivlin had developed, which the company sub-contracted for mass manufacture to Elmer Good.

The company registered the term "windsurfer" as a trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

at the United States Patent and Trademark Office

United States Patent and Trademark Office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...

in 1973, launching the craft as a one-design

One-design

One-Design is a racing method where all vehicles or boats have identical or very similar designs or models. It is also known as Spec series. It is heavily used in sailboat racing. All competitors in a race are then judged based on a single start time...

class. Going one-design

One-design

was influenced by the success of the Laser

Laser (dinghy)

The International Laser Class sailboat, also called Laser Standard and the Laser One is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy. According the Laser Class Rules the boat may be sailed by either one or two people, though it is rarely sailed by two. The design, by Bruce Kirby, emphasizes...

and Hobie Cat

Hobie cat

A Hobie Cat is a small sailing catamaran manufactured by the Hobie Cat Company. Begun as a manufacturer of surf boards in the late 1950s, Hobie began manufacturing catamaran sailboats in the late 1960s and has become the largest manufacturer of small catamarans in the world...

classes. Each Windsurfer had an identical computer-cut sail, a technology new at that time and pioneered by Ian Bruce

Ian Bruce

-Early life:He attended Chelmsford Technical High School. He studied Electronics at the University of Bradford, then an HNC in Electronics at Mid-Essex Technical College. He was a student apprentice at Marconi in Chelmsford from 1965-8. From 1968-9, he was a Work Study Engineer. From 1969-70, he...

and the Laser class.

In 1968, Hoyle's computer business collapsed, and he and Diane moved to Newport Beach; at the same time Drake accepted a two year secondment to The Pentagon, and moved to Washington DC. Immediately, Hoyle offered Drake to buy out his half of the patent, and it was only when Hoyle pointed out ownership of the company that the relationship between the pair began to fall apart. Having returned to California, in 1973 Drake sold his half of the patent to Windsurfing International for the sum of $36,000.

Patent disputes

Through the seventies, Schweitzer aggressively promoted and licensed the Windsurfing International design and licensed the patent to manufacturers worldwide, mainly through competition and the publication of a magazine. As a result, the sport underwent very rapid growth, particularly in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

after the sale of a sub-license sold to Ten Cate in Holland.

At the same time, Schweitzer also sought to defend his patent rights vigorously against unauthorized manufacturers. This led to a host of predating windsurfer-like devices being presented to courts around the world by companies disputing Windsurfing International's rights to the invention.

In 1979, Schweitzer licensed Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

-based company Dufour Wing, which was later merged with Tabur Marine - the precursor of Bic Sport. Europe was now the largest growing market for windsurfers, and the sub-licensed companies - Tabur, F2, Mistral - wanted to find a way to remove or reduce their royalty payments to Windsurfing International.

Tabur lawyers found prior art, in a local English

England

newspaper which had published a story with a picture about Peter Chilvers

Peter Chilvers

, who as a young boy on Hayling Island

Hayling Island

-Leisure activities:Although largely residential, Hayling is also a holiday, windsurfing and sailing centre, the site where windsurfing was invented....

on the south coast of England, assembled his first board combined with a sail, in 1958. This board used a universal joint, one of key parts of the Windsurfing International's patent. They also found stories published about the 1948 invention of the sailboard by Newman Darby

Newman Darby

Newman Darby is an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.-Biography:He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and began building boats when he was 12...

and his wife Naomi in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...

.

In Windsurfing International Inc. v Tabur Marine (GB) Ltd. 1985 RPC 59, with Tabur backed financially by French sailing fan Baron Marcel Bich, British courts recognized the prior art of Peter Chilvers. It did not incorporate the curved wishbone booms of the modern windsurfer, but rather a "straight boom" that became curved in use. The courts found that the Schweitzer windsurfer boom was "merely an obvious extension". It is worthy of note that this court case set a significant precedent for patent law in the United Kingdom, in terms of inventive step and non-obviousness

Inventive step and non-obviousness

The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive — i.e., non-obvious — in order to be patented....

; the court upheld the defendant's claim that the Schweitzer patent was invalid, based on film footage of Chilvers. Schweitzer then sued the company in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, where the opposition team again financially backed by Bic included Chilvers and Jim Drake, and Schweitzer lost again. After the cases, no longer obliged to pay Windsurfing International any royalty payments, the now renamed Bic Sport became the world’s largest producer of windsurfing equipment, with an annual production of 15,000 boards.

In 1983, Schweitzer sued Swiss board manufacturer Mistral and lost. Mistral's defense hinged on the work of US inventor Newman Darby

Newman Darby

Newman Darby is an American inventor best known as the inventor of the sailboard.-Biography:He grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and began building boats when he was 12...

, who in 1948 conceived the "sailboard": a hand-held square rigged "kite" sail on a floating platform for recreational use.

Eventually US courts recognized the Schweitzer windsurfer as an obvious step from Darby's prior art. Schweitzer had to reapply for a patent under severely limited terms, and finally it expired in 1987. Shortly thereafter, having lost its license royalty income, Windsurfing International ceased operations.

In 1983, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n courts reported a patent case in "Intellectual Property Reports" 3 IPR 449, attributed the first legally accepted use of a split boom to an Australian boy, Richard Eastaugh. Between the ages of ten and thirteen, from 1946 to 1949, aided by his younger brothers, he built around 20 galvanized iron canoes and hill trolleys which he equipped with sails with split bamboo booms. He sailed these in a sitting position and not as a windsurfer standing up, near his home on the Swan River

Swan River (Western Australia)

The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....

in Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

.

It is acknowledged in the courts that the separate Darby and Chilvers inventions pre-dated the Drake and Schweitzer patent.

Boards and gear

In the 1970s and 1980s, windsurfers were classified as either shortboards or longboards. Longboards were usually longer than 3 meters, with a retractable daggerboard

Daggerboard

A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, countering the leeward push of the...

, and were optimized for lighter winds or course racing. Shortboards were less than 3 meters long and were designed for planing

Planing (sailing)

Planing is the mode of operation for a waterborne craft in which its weight is predominantly supported by hydrodynamic lift, rather than hydrostatic lift .-History:...

conditions. However, this classification by length has become obsolete, as new techniques, designs, and materials have taken the sport in new directions.

Most modern windsurfers (1990s and later) are derived from the shortboard design, and are intended to be used primarily in planing

Planing (sailing)

Planing is the mode of operation for a waterborne craft in which its weight is predominantly supported by hydrodynamic lift, rather than hydrostatic lift .-History:...

mode, where the board is mostly skipping over the surface of the water, rather than cutting through, and displacing the water. Planing is faster and gives more maneuverability, but requires a different technique from the displacement mode (which is also referred to as slogging or schlogging). Generally, smaller (i.e., lower volume, shorter length, narrower width) boards and smaller area sails are used as the wind increases.

While windsurfing is possible under a wide range of wind conditions, most recreational windsurfers prefer to sail in conditions that allow for consistent planing with multi-purpose, not overly specialized, free-ride equipment. Larger (100 to 140 liters) free-ride boards are capable of planing at wind speeds as low as 12 knots if rigged with an adequate, well-tuned sail in the six to eight square meter range. The pursuit of planing in lower and lower winds has driven the development and spread of wider and shorter boards, with which planing is possible in wind speeds as low as 8 knots, if sails in the 10 to 12 square meter range are used.

Modern windsurfing boards can be classified into these categories:

Freeride: Boards meant for comfortable recreational cruising (mostly straight-line sailing and occasional turning) at planing speed (aka blasting), mainly in flat waters or in light to moderate swell. They typically fall into the volume range of 90 to 170 liters. The so-called freeride sailing movement diverged from course racing as more recreational sailors chose to sail freely without being constrained to sailing on courses around buoys.
Formula Windsurfing
Formula Windsurfing
'Formula windsurfing' is the high performance competitive course racing format of the windsurfing world. These boards have a massive wind range that enables racing in very light winds from 7 knots up to 25 knots and are capable of reaching speeds of over 30 knots....

Class: Shorter boards up to one meter in width, for use in Formula Windsurfing races. See below for a more detailed description.
Wave boards: Smaller, lighter, more maneuverable boards for use in breaking waves. Characteristically, sailors on wave boards perform high jumps while sailing against waves, and they ride the face of a wave performing narrow linked turns (bottom turns, cutbacks, and top-turns) in a similar way to surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...

. Wave boards usually have a volume between 65 and 90 liters, with a length between 230 and 260 centimeters, and 50 to 60 centimeters in width. A general rule is for a sailor to use a wave board whose volume in liters is about the same as the sailor's weight in kilograms - more volume providing additional flotation for sailing in light winds, and less for high winds, where less volume is needed to achieve planing. In recent years, the average width of wave boards has increased slightly, as the length has shrunk, while the range of volume has been maintained the same more or less—according to board designers this makes wave boards easier to use under a wider range of conditions by sailors of differing abilities. The most common sizes of sails used with wave boards are in the range of 4.0 to 6.0 square meters, depending on the wind speed and the weight of the sailor.
Freestyle boards: Related to wave boards in terms of maneuverability, these are wider, higher volume boards geared specifically at performing acrobatic tricks (jumps, rotations, slides, flips and loops) on flat water. Usually 80 to 110 liters in volume, and about 240 to 250 centimeters in length, with widths frequently in excess of 60 centimeters. Freestyle boards began to diverge more noticeably in design from wave boards in the early part of the 2000 decade, as aerial tricks (the Vulcan, Spock, Grubby, Flaka, and related New School maneuvers, almost all involving a jump-and-spin component) became the predominant part of the freestyle repertoire, superseding Old School moves, in which the board did not leave contact with the water.
Slalom boards: Shortboards aimed at top speed, rather than maneuverability or ease of use.
Beginner boards: (sometimes called funboards) these often have a daggerboard
Daggerboard
A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, countering the leeward push of the...

, are almost as wide as Formula boards, and have plenty of volume, hence stability.
Racing longboards: Mistral One Design, or the Olympic RS:X class race boards.

There are many attempts to bridge a gap between two of these categories, such as freerace, freestyle-wave, freeformula, and so on.

The original Windsurfer board had a body made out of polyethylene

Polyethylene

Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...

filled with PVC

Polyvinyl chloride

Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...

foam. Later, hollow glass-reinforced epoxy

Glass-reinforced plastic

Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....

designs were used. Most boards produced today have an expanded polystyrene foam core reinforced with a composite sandwich shell, that can include carbon fiber

Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...

, kevlar

Kevlar

Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

, or fiberglass

Fiberglass

Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...

in a matrix of epoxy

Epoxy

Epoxy, also known as polyepoxide, is a thermosetting polymer formed from reaction of an epoxide "resin" with polyamine "hardener". Epoxy has a wide range of applications, including fiber-reinforced plastic materials and general purpose adhesives....

and sometimes plywood

Plywood

Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

and thermoplastic

Thermoplastic

Thermoplastic, also known as a thermosoftening plastic, is a polymer that turns to a liquid when heated and freezes to a very glassy state when cooled sufficiently...

s. Racing and wave boards are usually very light (5 to 7 kg), and are made out of carbon sandwich. Such boards are very brittle, and veneer is sometimes used to make them more shock-resistant. Boards aimed at the beginners are heavier (8 to 15 kg) and more robust, containing more fiberglass.

Sails

A windsurfing sail

Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...

is made of monofilm (clear polyester film), dacron (woven polyester

Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...

) and mylar. Sensitive parts are reinforced with kevlar

Kevlar

mesh.

Two designs of a sail are predominant: camber

Camber (aerodynamics)

Camber, in aeronautics and aeronautical engineering, is the asymmetry between the top and the bottom surfaces of an aerofoil. An aerofoil that is not cambered is called a symmetric aerofoil...

induced and rotational. Cambered sails have 1-5 camber inducers, plastic devices at the ends of batten

Batten

A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...

s which cup against the mast. They help to hold a rigid aerofoil shape in the sail, better for speed and stability, but at the cost of maneuverability and generally how light and easy to use the sail feels. The trend is that racier sails have camber inducers while wave sails and most recreational sails do not. The rigidity of the sail is also determined by a number of batten

Batten

s.

Beginners' sails often do not have battens, so they are lighter and easier to use in light winds. However, as the sailor improves, a battened sail will provide greater stability in stronger winds.

Rotational sails have battens which protrude beyond the back aspect of the mast. They have to flip to the other side of the mast when tacking or jibing, hence the rotation in the name. Rotational sails have aerofoil shape on the leeward side only when filled with wind. They can be absolutely flat and depowered when sheeted out.

In comparison with cambered sails, rotational designs offer less power and stability when sailing straight, but are easier to handle when maneuvering. Also, rotational sails are much easier to rig.

The leading edge of a sail is called the luff. The mast is in the luff tube. The rear edge is called the leech. The front bottom corner of the sail, where the mast foot protrudes, is called the tack

Tack (sailing)

Tack is a term used in sailing that has different meanings in different contexts, variously a part of a sail, and an alignment with the wind. When using the latter sense, the maneuver of turning between starboard and port tack is either tacking or jibing....

, and the rear corner, to which the boom

Boom (windsurfing)

A boom ,in the context of windsurfing, is a piece of equipment that attaches to the mast, providing structural support for the sail. Early booms were tied on to the mast, using rope, but most newer booms use a clamp mechanism for attachment. Booms are commonly made from aluminum, or carbon fibre,...

is attached, is called the clew. The bottom edge, between the clew and the tack, is called the foot.

A windsurfing sail is tensioned at two points: at the tack (by downhaul), and at the clew (by outhaul). There is a set of pulley

Pulley

A pulley, also called a sheave or a drum, is a mechanism composed of a wheel on an axle or shaft that may have a groove between two flanges around its circumference. A rope, cable, belt, or chain usually runs over the wheel and inside the groove, if present...

s for downhauling at the tack and there's a grommet

Grommet

thumb|right|250px|Some rubber grommets.A grommet is a ring inserted into a hole through thin material, such as fabric. Grommets are generally flared or collared on each side to keep them in place, and are often made of metal, plastic, or rubber. They may be used to prevent tearing or abrasion of...

at the clew. Most shape is given to the sail by a very strong downhaul, bending the mast in the luff tube. The outhaul tension is relatively weak, mostly to provide leverage for controlling the sail's angle of attack.

The sail is tuned by adjusting the downhaul and the outhaul. Generally, the sail has to be trimmed more for stronger winds. More downhaul tension loosens the upper part of the leech, "spilling" the wind at the gusts and shifting the center of effort of the sail down. Releasing the downhaul tension shifts the center of effort up. More outhaul lowers the camber/draft, making the sail flatter and easier to control, but less powerful, and less outhaul brings more overall depth to the sail, more low-end power, shifts the center of effort upward and to the front, and may limit speed by increasing aerodynamic resistance.

The disciplines of windsurfing (wave, freestyle, freeride) require different sails. Wave sails are reinforced to survive the surf, and are flat when depowered to allow riding the waves like surfers do. Freestyle sails are also flat when depowered, and have high low-end power to allow quick acceleration. Freeride sails are all-rounders that are comfortable to use and are meant for recreational windsurfing. Racing sails provide speed at the expense of qualities like comfort or maneuverability.

The size of the sail is measured in square meters and can be from 3 m² to 5.5 m² for wave sails and from 6 m² to 15 m² for racing sails, with ranges for freestyle and freeride sails spanning somewhere between these extremes. Learning sails for children can be as small as 0.7 m² and racing sails being up to 15 m² large.

Technique

A sailboard will move, depending on wind conditions and the skill or intentions of the rider, in two entirely different manners, with two different displacement

Displacement

-Physics:*Displacement , the difference between the path of the initial and final position covered by a moving object**Particle displacement, a measurement of distance of the movement of a particle in a medium as it transmits a wave...

s; it will either sail or hydroplane (referred to as "planing

Planing (sailing)

Planing is the mode of operation for a waterborne craft in which its weight is predominantly supported by hydrodynamic lift, rather than hydrostatic lift .-History:...

").

The former takes place in light winds (up to 10 knots) and involves the hull moving through the water using (typically) a centreboard

Centreboard

A centreboard or centerboard is a retractable keel which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a centreboard trunk or centerboard case...

and fin

Fin

A fin is a surface used for stability and/or to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media, . The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices...

or skeg

Skeg

A skeg is a sternward extension of the keel of boats and ships which have a rudder mounted on the centre line. The term also applies to the lowest point on an outboard motor or the outdrive of an inboard/outboard...

for stability and lateral resistance. Directional control is achieved via the rig and weighting one or other side the board, or sinking the tail.

When the wind gets above 8-10 knots (typically 15 knots+ for recreational equipment) the board ceases to move through the water and instead planes on top of the water, skimming over the surface at much higher speeds. To make the most of planing conditions, the board needs to be smaller and can dispense with the centreboard as sufficient lift and lateral resistance are provided by the fin (or combination of fins). When planing, jibing is achieved via shifting the rig and engaging one of the rails (edges) of the board which is referred to as carving. Windsurf boards can also tack like a sail boat. Though windsurfing is possible in winds from near 0 to 50 knots, the ideal planing conditions for most recreational riders is 15-25 knots.

Control also changes when transitioning from sailing to planing; when sailing the board is primarily steered by bringing the mast either forward or backward. When planing these controls still apply, but to a much lesser extent. The larger part of control is applied by putting pressure on / engaging either the left or the right sides of the board, transferring rider's mass to the inside of the turn.

Windsurfers will often express the success of a day out on the water, or for that matter, a whole windsurfing trip, as the amount of "strap time" they enjoyed, because a (proficient) rider can and will only use the foot straps at the back of a sail board when it is planing, and it is planing what constitutes the fun element in windsurfing to most windsurfers.

Learning

For the novice it takes a relatively long time to reach the sport's 'fun' level (i.d. planing, carve jibing etc.) when compared to other so-called "extreme" sports, like snowboarding

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...

, freeride

Freeride

Freeride is a discipline of mountain biking closely related to downhill cycling and dirt jumping focused on tricks, style, and technical trail features. It is now recognized as one of the most popular disciplines within mountain biking....

Mountain Biking

Mountain biking

Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...

or kitesurfing

Kitesurfing

Kitesurfing or Kiteboarding is an adventure surface water sport that has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. Kitesurfing harnesses the power of the wind to propel a rider across the water on a small surfboard or a...

. Beginners, starting off on a large board with a tiny triangular sail in less than 5 knots of wind on a shallow lake, often struggle to see the similarity between what they are doing and the images they see in magazines of advanced riders using a 2.25 m board to ride waves in 20-30 knots of wind. Learning to windsurf used to present the biggest barrier to the sport's growth, but with the development of new 'wide-style' beginner boards the transition time from beginner to intermediate has been reduced. Learning to windsurf can be compared to chess in that there are many pieces moving in different directions which must be kept track of. After a few goes most finally catch on.

Beginners must develop their balance and core stability, acquire a basic understanding of sailing theory, and learn a few techniques before they can progress from sailing to planing.

Initial lessons can be taken with a windsurfing school, which exist in reasonable numbers in most countries. With coaching and favorable conditions, the basic skills of sailing, steering, and turning can be learned within a few hours. Competence in the sport and mastery of more advanced maneuvers such as planing, carve gybing (turning downwind at speed), water starting, jumping, and more advanced moves can require more practice. Training DVDs exist which are useful in a sport where it is difficult for a coach to be close to a pupil particularly when learning the more advanced maneuvers.

Nevertheless, windsurfing is a sport which, once mastered, can be enjoyed, even at an advanced level, well into retirement and then at a more sedate level for considerably longer still. This is partly due to the fact that windsurfing crashes tend to cause less injury than those sports which take place on harder surfaces (although being reckless whilst windsurfing in advanced conditions can still cause serious injury or death due to the speeds and altitudes involved).

Indoor windsurfing

Indoor windsurfing competitions are also held, especially in Europe during winter.

One of the more well-known, the PWA/UKWA World Indoor Windsurfing Championships are held during the annual London Boat Show

London Boat Show

The London Boat Show is held each January at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London, just opposite the O2 and the centre of London's business and entertainment centre. It is a very large event, now in its 54th year, which uses ExCeL's two 32,500 square metre halls...

at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre

ExCeL Exhibition Centre

ExCeL London is an exhibitions and conference centre in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located on a site on the northern quay of the Royal Victoria Dock in London Docklands, between Canary Wharf and London City Airport.- History :The centre was built by Sir Robert McAlpine, opened...

in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

in January. Each year a massive indoor pool is constructed and housed in a marquee. Powerful fans propel the boards along the pool. The competitions held include slalom style races, jumping competitions and more.

Additional equipment

Harness
Windsurfing harness
The harness is a trapeze used in the sports of windsurfing and kitesurfing to connect the rider to the rig by a line attached to the boom or kitesurfing bar. It consists of a girdle-like contraption that is worn around the body, with a hook for attachment. Hooking-in the harness is done by pulling...
Harness lines
Joint
Universal joint
A universal joint, universal coupling, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint or coupling in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...
Wet suit/Dry suit
Dry suit
A dry suit or drysuit provides thermal insulation or passive thermal protection to the wearer while immersed in water, and is worn by divers, boaters, water sports enthusiasts, and others who work or play in or near cold water. A dry suit normally protects the whole body except the head, hands, and...
Footwear
Wetsuit boot
In water sports a bootee, bootie, or wetsuit boot is a thick sock-like garment made of wetsuit material. They serve the dual purpose of protecting the diver's feet when walking out of water, with or without a wetsuit, and keeping their feet warm underwater.-Thermal skin:In many water sports such as...
Helmet
Helmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries.Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes used. The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900BC, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from...
Personal flotation device
Personal flotation device
A personal flotation device is a device designed to assist a wearer, either conscious or unconscious, to keep afloat.Devices designed and approved by authorities for use by...
Fin
Fin
A fin is a surface used for stability and/or to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media, . The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices...

/Skeg
Travel Gear - Sail Bags, Board Bags, Car Racks

Competitions

In windsurfing competitions, there are the following disciplines:

Olympic Windsurfing Class
Formula Windsurfing Class
Raceboard Class
Slalom
Super X
Speed Racing
Freestyle
Wavesailing

Freestyle and Wave are judged competitions, the sailor with best technique and diversity wins. Olympic Boardsailing, Formula windsurfing, Slalom and SuperX are races where many sailors compete on a course, and Speed Racing is a race where sailors compete on a straight 500 m course in turns.

Early scoring programs on portable computers

Windsurfing led to the development of scoring programs on early portable computers. Because windsurfing regattas were drawing a large number of competitors at remote locations, Windsurfing International sponsored the development of software running on portable computers to score regattas, starting with the 1976 World Championships in the Bahamas. The software, named OSCOR, was developed for the HP9825 (then a $20,000 computer) and later ported to the TRS-80. The OSCOR software was eventually donated to the United States Yacht Racing Union.

Olympic class

Sailboarding has been one of the Olympic sailing events at the Summer Olympics since 1984 for men and 1992 for women. Olympic Windsurfing uses 'One Design' boards, with all sailors using the same boards, daggerboard

Daggerboard

s, fins and sails. The equipment is chosen to allow racing in a wide range of sailing conditions. This is important for the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

, as events have to take place regardless of whether there is enough wind for planing. The current Olympic class, the Neil Pryde RS:X was used for the first time in the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

Formula class

Formula windsurfing

Formula Windsurfing

'Formula windsurfing' is the high performance competitive course racing format of the windsurfing world. These boards have a massive wind range that enables racing in very light winds from 7 knots up to 25 knots and are capable of reaching speeds of over 30 knots....

has developed over the last 15 years in order to facilitate high performance competition in light and moderate winds. Formula is now a class of windsurfing boards controlled by the International Sailing Federation

International Sailing Federation

The International Sailing Federation is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the world governing body for the sport of sailing....

that have the principal characteristic of a maximum 1m width. They have a single fin

Fin

of maximum length 70 cm and carry sails up to 12.5 m². Class rules allow sailors to choose boards produced by multiple manufacturers, as long as they are certified as Formula boards and registered with ISAF, and use fins and sails of different sizes. With the sail, fin and board choices, the equipment is able to be tailored to suit sailors of all body shapes and formula windsurfing presents one of the fastest course-racing sailing craft on the water. Formula Windsurfing is popular in many locations around the globe with predominantly light winds and flat water.

Large sails in combination with the 'wide-style' design allow planing in very low wind conditions as well as control and usability in high winds and bigger sea conditions. Non-planing sailing is very difficult with this design and racing is only conducted with a strict 7 knot wind minimum in place. Formula boards are used on "flat water" as opposed to coastal surf; but racing is still held in windy conditions involving swell and chop. In 2008, a Formula Windsurfing Grand-Prix World Tour began, with events in Europe and South America complementing the single-event World Championships as a professional tour for the Formula class.

Formula boards have excellent upwind and downwind ability, but are not as comfortable on a beam reach unless fin sizes are reduced. This explains why the course is usually a box with longer upwind and downwind legs, or just a simple upwind-downwind return course.

Raceboard Class

Raceboards are longer windsurf boards with a daggerboard and movable mast rail allowing the sailor to be efficient on all points of sail. Excellent upwind ability is combined with good reaching and even downwind ability typically sailed in an olympic triangle course. Whilst in decline in manufacture since the advent of shortboard course racing (which evolved into Formula) there remains some models in production and most notably the IMCO

Mistral One Design Class

The Mistral One Design Class was chosen by the International Sailing Federation , the governing body of sailing, as the windsurfing equipment for use at the Olympic Regatta in Savannah 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. No other windsurfing class has been selected for three Olympic Regattas in...

One Design remains popular amongst amateur racing clubs.

Slalom

Slalom is a high speed race. Typically there are two sorts of slalom courses.

Figure of eight: All of the course should on a beam reach with two floating marks that have to be jibe
Jibe
A jibe or gybe is a sailing maneuver where a sailing vessel turns its stern through the wind, such that the wind direction changes from one side of the boat to the other...

d around.
Downwind: More than two marks are laid and sailors sail a downwind course - gybing around each mark only once.

Slalom boards are small and narrow, and require high winds. Funboard class racing rules require the wind of 9-35 knots for the slalom event to take place.

Super X

This is a new discipline in windsurfing competitions, a cross between freestyle and slalom. The competing sailors are racing on a short downwind slalom course, have to use duck jibes on all turns, and are required to perform several tricks along the way, such as jump over an obstacle, spock or even front loop

Front loop

Front loop is the name given to a trick performed by a windsurfer whereby the rider performs a jump from a wave face and forces the sail, board and rider to perform a forward somersault in one motion. In its basic form, the rider's hands maintain their position on the boom and the rider's feet...

. The competitors are required to wear protective equipment.

Speedsurfing

Speedsurfing takes place in several forms. The ISWC (International Speed Windsurfing Class) organizes (under the umbrella of the ISAF) competitions in various locations around the world known for conditions suitable for good speeds. The events are made up of heats sailed on a 500m course. The average of each sailor's best 2 speeds on the 500m course, which is typically open for 2 hours per heat, is their speed for that heat. As such it is possible for the sailor with the outright fastest time not to win the heat if his second best time pulls his average down. Points are given for the placings in the heats and the overall event winner is the sailor with the best point score (again not necessarily the fastest sailor). Likewise points are given for places in the events and at the last event a World Speedsurfing Champion is crowned.

On record attempts controlled by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC) competitors complete timed runs on a 500m or 1 nautical mile (1,852m) course. The current 500m record (for Windsurfers) is held by French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

windsurfer Antoine Albeau

Antoine Albeau

Antoine Albeau is a French windsurfer who holds eleven Windsurfing World Championships in different disciplines since 1994.Born on June 17, 1972 in La Rochelle, France, Albeau set a new all–category world windpowered sailing speed record on March 5, 2008 with 49.09 knots on a 500 meter course at...

, ratified at 49.09 knots (90.91 km/h - 56.49 mph) on the Saintes Maries de la Mer Canal

The Canal

The Saintes Maries de la Mer Speed Canal, known to windsurfers as The Canal, is a man-made trench near the French Mediterranean coastal town Saintes Maries de la Mer, built especially for speed record breaking sailing by windsurfers....

in March 2008. The Women's 500m Record is held By Karin Jaggi also on the Saintes Maries de la Mer Canal

The Canal

. The Men's nautical mile record is held by Bjorn Dunkerbeck

Björn Dunkerbeck

Björn Dunkerbeck is a professional windsurfer who has won Professional Windsurfers Association Overall World Championships a record twelve times....

and the women's mile record is held by Zara Davis

Zara Davis

Zara Davis is an English windsurfer. She holds the World Women’s Nautical Mile speed record for a sailing vessel...

both set in Walvis Bay Namibia

With the advent of cheap and small GPS units and the website www.gps-speedsurfing.com, speedsurfers have been able to organise impromptu competitions amongst themselves as well as more formal competitions such as the European Speed Meetings and Speedweeks/fortnights in Australia. With over 5000 sailors registered it is possible for windsurfers all over the world to compare speeds.

Freestyle

Freestyle is a timed event which is judged. The competitor who has the greatest repertoire, or manages to complete most stunts, wins. Freestyle is about show and competitors are judged on their creativity. Both the difficulty and the number of tricks make up the final score. Sailors who perform tricks on both tacks (port and starboard), and perform the tricks fully planing score higher marks. High scoring moves include: Shaka, Burner (funnel ponch), Double Forward Loops, the Funnell (invented by freestyle champion Ricardo Campello in memory of Andy Funnell), the Chachoo and the Clew First Puneta (switch stance Spock), Eslider, Flaka. The latest freestyle windsurfing has been well documented in the film Four Dimensions.

For novice windsurfers, low-wind freestyle tricks are an appropriate start, such as sailing backwards with the fin out of the water, or transitioning from a sailing stance to sitting on the board while continuing to sail.

Wave

Wave sailing is commonly held to be the pinnacle of windsurfing with those windsurfers capable of riding the biggest waves being seen as the leading figures in the sport.

Bearing some similarities to freestyle, wave sailing has been part of the sport for much longer (indeed, modern freestyle started off, in essence, as wave sailing without waves). Wave sailing took off during the rapid development of windsurfing on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Maui. It can be seen as comprising two distinct (but related) parts, wave riding and wave jumping.

Wave jumping, as with freestyle, involves stunts of varying levels of difficulty which are performed after the rider has jumped from the peak of an unbroken wave (having sailed towards the wave, thus using it as a ramp). These are commonly referred to as aerial moves and include both clockwise (forward loop, cheese roll) and anti-clockwise. The rider and his equipment rotate, doing single & double rotations and jumps where the sailor contorts his or her body and equipment (table top and crazy pete, etc.).

Recent innovations have included combining moves whilst airborn (i.e. the pushy-forward - a push loop followed by a forward loop) and one professional sailor, Ricardo Campello, has made attempts at a triple (three complete rotations) forward loop during a 2008 PWA competition.

Wave riding, by contrast, is much closer to surfing in style, and involves the rider performing a series of top turns and cutbacks whilst riding an unbroken wave back to the shore. Unlike surfing, the rider does not utilise any sections of the wave that have started to barrel - although top wave sailors are able to incorporate aerial moves into their wave riding and will use overhanging lips to launch themselves out in front of the wave as part of this.

These days most top wave sailors spend very little time competing as the type of conditions required (massive swells producing clean, well-spaced waves and strong winds blowing cross-offshore) are very hard to guarantee months in advance (when planning an event). Thus, aside from the annual event in Cape Verde (which boasts an impressive track record in recent years), true world-class wave sailing can only really be seen in non-competitive freeriding sessions around the world.

Competition wave sailors thus have to be very adept at performing in sub-optimal conditions (often small, messy waves and onshore winds). A typical wave contest will score two jumps going out and two wave rides coming in. A good heat would consist of a clean forward rotating jump, a backward rotating jump, a long slashy wave ride and a trick on the face of the waves such as a goiter or wave 360.

The lack of a guarantee of top class action is often cited as a reason why wave sailing events fail to attract the same level of TV coverage (and accompanying corporate activity) as other extreme sports despite the stunning visual spectacle and obvious aspirational appeal to key demographics. Recently it was divulged that the first prize for winning a PWA wave event in Grand Canaria was a mere £5,500.

International stars

Robby Naish
Robby Naish
Robert Staunton Naish is one of the first athletes to have gained long-lasting international fame in the sport of windsurfing. At a young age, his father, competitive surfer and surfboard shaper Rick Naish, moved the family from California to Kailua, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu...

: one of the first windsurfing champions to gain international fame, he dominated the early years of competition in the 1970s and 1980s. Pre-PWA World Champion from 1976 to 1979, PWA Overall World Champion from 1983 to 1987, and PWA Wave World Champion in 1988, 1989, and 1991.
Bjorn Dunkerbeck
Björn Dunkerbeck
Björn Dunkerbeck is a professional windsurfer who has won Professional Windsurfers Association Overall World Championships a record twelve times....

: the successor to Naish, he dominated competition for many years in the late 1980s and 1990s. Twelve time PWA Overall World Champion.
Stephan van den Berg
Stephan van den Berg
Stephan van den Berg represented The Netherlands at the Olympic Games of 1984 and 1992. He was the first winner of Olympic Gold in Windsurfing.-External links: - References :...

, World Champion 1980-1983, winner first Olympic windsurfing contest in 1984.
Antoine Albeau
Antoine Albeau
Antoine Albeau is a French windsurfer who holds eleven Windsurfing World Championships in different disciplines since 1994.Born on June 17, 1972 in La Rochelle, France, Albeau set a new all–category world windpowered sailing speed record on March 5, 2008 with 49.09 knots on a 500 meter course at...

: 13 times World Champion in various disciplines : Formula windsurfing, Super X, Freestyle, Slalom, Race, Speed, Overall. Holder of the windsurf speed record (49.09 knots)-(about 55 mph)
Guy Cribb
Guy Cribb
Guy Cribb is a windsurfer and windsurfing trainer.-About:Guy is a former British racing coach and creator of the INtuition brand of technique coaching. His INtuition technique of instruction is very well regarded...

: 4 time world championships runner up in 1990's. 13 UK champion titles.
Josh Stone: freestyle pioneer, inventor of spock, PWA Freestyle World Champion in 1999, 2000
Ricardo Campello: a freestyle innovator, he created many difficult moves, PWA Freestyle World Champion in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
Kauli Seadi: pioneered freestyle maneuvers in wave competition. Ranked first in PWA Wave competition in 2005, 2007, 2008.
Tonky Frans: One of the best freestylers in recent years. Ranked third freestyle at end of 2009. Won Midwinters Merit Island Freestyle Competition in 2001.
Karin Jaggi: multiple PWA World Champion in freestyle, wave, speed competition, 1990s and 2000s.
Lisa Penfield: Freestyle World Champion 1985, multiple Championships from 1981- 1986.
Natalie Lelievre: overall World Champion, 1984, 1985.
Daida Moreno: PWA Wave World Champion, 2000–2005, Freestyle World Champion 2003-2006.
Iballa Moreno: PWA Wave World Champion, 2006. Twin sister of Daida Moreno.
Jason Polakow: PWA Wave World Champion, 1997, 1998.
Kevin Pritchard: PWA Wave World Champion, 2006, PWA 1st overall ranking, 2000.
Nik Baker: Three-time PWA Wave World 2nd Place, six-time Indoor World Champion.
Gollito Estredo: PWA Freestyle World Champion 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, innovator of new tricks.

Youth windsurfing

Windsurfing is suitable for children as young as 5, with several board and sail brands producing "Kids Rigs" to accommodate these short and light weight windsurfers. In some countries, organisations exist to provide entry into the sport in a semi-formal or club-style environment (i.e. The RYA's Team 15 scheme). If children want to get more involved in racing, they can go to trials for the RYA 'zone squad'.

Indeed, several teenagers have enjoyed success at professional level in both wave and freestyle disciplines. Marcilio "Brawzinho" Browne
and Jose "Gollito" Estredo
are two windsurfers which both won PWA Champions before reaching the age of 18. Whereas most recently, Philip Köster has become one of the dominant sailors at the annual PWA Pozo "wave" event. He is widely regarded as one of the sport's leading exponents of the double forward loop.

In Maui

Maui

, there is a growing band of young wave sailors, led by Kai Lenny Gustav Häggström (sweden), who are beginning to gain access into the most extreme wave sailing spots, including the legendary Jaws

Jaws (beach)

break on the Island's North Shore.

Some more established riders, including Nik Baker and Levi Siver believe "this new generation is set to push windsurfing to levels never before seen."

Similar sports

Land sailing
Land sailing
Land sailing, also known as sand yachting or land yachting, is the act of moving across land in a wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail. The term comes from analogy with sailing. Historically, land sailing was used as a mode of transportation or recreation...
Land windsurfing
Land windsurfing
Land windsurfing is similar to windsurfing but performed on land. Boards with wheels and a mast base attachment are used. It is often called land boarding , streetsailing or dirt windsurfing....
Surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
Wakeboarding
Wakeboarding
Wakeboarding is a surface water sport which involves riding a wakeboard over the surface of a body of water. It was developed from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques....
Water skiing
Water skiing
thumb|right|A slalom skier making a turn on a slalom waterski.Waterskiing is a sport where an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation on a body of water, skimming the surface.-History:...
Kite surfing

External links

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