Robby Naish

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Robby Naish at Windsurf World Cup Sylt 2006

Robert Staunton Naish (born April 23, 1963 in La Jolla, San Diego, California) 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. It was there, at the age of 11, that Robby took up the fledgling new sport of windsurfing. Shortly thereafter, in 1976, he won his first overall World Championship title, at the age of 13, beating many adult competitors whose experience and maturity were no match for his exceptional talent.

Competing as an amateur, he went on to win successive World Championship titles from 1977 to 1979. After the emergence of the Professional Boardsailors' Association (PBA) — later to become the Professional Windsurfing Association (PWA) — Naish won the Overall World Champion title from 1983 to 1987, and the Wave World Champion title in 1988, 1989, and 1991.

In the nineties, branching out into new pursuits, Naish became a noted competitor in the emerging sport of kitesurfing. In 1998, he won the kiteboarding slalom world title. In 1999, he won kiteboarding world titles in both slalom and jumping.

As an international sports celebrity, Naish has been featured in numerous films, videos, news reports, and articles. As of 2006, thirty years after his first World Champion title, popular lines of sailboards, sails, and kitesurfing equipment are marketed world-wide under the Naish name.