Windsurfing

A windsurfer tilts the rig and carves the board to perform a planing (or carve) jibe (downwind turn) close to shore at Maui, Hawaii
Olympic gold medalist, Gal Fridman

Windsurfing is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually 2.5 to 3 meters long, with displacements typically between 60 and 250 litres, powered by wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and consists of a mast, boom and sail. The sail area generally ranges from 2.5 m2 to 12 m2 depending on the conditions, the skill of the sailor, the type of windsurfing being undertaken and the weight of the person windsurfing.

Some credits S. Newman Darby with the origination of windsurfing by 1964[1] on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, USA when he invented the "sailboard", which, incidentally, he did not patent.[2][3][4][5][6] In 1964, Darby began selling his sailboards.[4] A promotional article by Darby was published in the August 1965 edition of Popular Science magazine.[7]

While Darby's "sailboard" incorporated a pivoting rig, it was "square rigged" and suffered all the associated limitations. The sailboard was operated with the sailor's back to the lee side of a kite-shaped sail. Darby's article boasted that "...you can learn to master a type of manoeuvering that's been dead since the age of the picturesque square riggers"

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, windsurfing offers experiences that are outside the scope of other sailing craft designs. 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 on the island of Maui, and, with very few exceptions, it was not until the advent of tow-in surfing 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 surfers do (wind permitting).

At one time referred to as "surfing's ginger haired cousin" by the sport's legendary champion, Robby Naish,[8] windsurfing has long struggled to present a coherent image of the sport to outsiders. As a result of attempts to claim the word "windsurfer" as a trademark, participants have been encouraged to use different names to describe the sport, including "sailboarding" and "boardsailing". The term "windsurfing" has persisted as the accepted name for the sport, and the word "windsurfer" persists for both participants and equipment.

Windsurfing is predominately undertaken on a non-competitive basis. Organised competition does take place at all levels across the world, including in the Olympics. Typical formats for competitive windsurfing include Formula Windsurfing, speed sailing, slalom, course racing, wave sailing, superX, and freestyle.

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. The sport experienced a modest revival, as new beginner-friendly designs became available. Further pressure came as a proportion of avid windsurfers took up the similar sport of kitesurfing.

History

Illustration from US Patent 3,487,800, filed by inventors Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer on March 27, 1968

Windsurfing, as a sport and recreational activity, did not emerge until the latter 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 Polynesians have been riding waves for many of them, undertaking day trips over oceans standing upright on a solid board with a vertical sail.[9]

In 1948, 20-year-old Newman Darby was the first to conceive the idea of using a handheld sail and rig mounted on a universal joint so that he could control his small catamaran—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 and aft.[10] 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.[3] 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.[11] In 1964, Darby began selling his sailboards.[4]

Twelve-year-old Peter Chilvers is often cited for inventing a sailboard in 1958.[12] In the 1960s, Jim Drake 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.[12]

In 1964, during a discussion on water sports over a brandy at his home in Southern California, RAND Corporation aeronautical engineer Jim Drake and his former Rockwell boss and good friend Fred Payne, who worked at The Pentagon, discussed options for creating a wind-powered water-ski which would allow Payne to travel on the Potomac River.[13] That night they developed the idea of a kite-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.[13]

Still developing the idea, Drake's wife met the pregnant Diana Schweitzer, and the two families became good friends through their children.[13] Drake mentioned the idea to surfer 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.[13]

The technical problem was that most boats steer by varying the angle of attack in the water between the centreboard 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.[13]

Darby sailboard, Popular Science, 1965

In 1967, while driving between his home and a contract at the Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, 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.[13]

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, whereby the angle of attack of the sail to the board could be varied to allow control of both power and direction. Drake finished the design by using an earlier but for them failed invention of East Coast racing sail, and added a wishbone boom.[13]

Windsurfing International

On March 27, 1968, Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake filed the very first windsurfing patent, which was granted by the USPTO in 1970.[14] There is no evidence that they had knowledge of any prior inventions similar to theirs, but Drake accepted in retrospect that although he can be credited with invention, he was "probably no better than third," behind mid-west based Newman Darby and Englishman Peter Chilvers.[13]

The early windsurfing boards were made of foam in the garages of Schweitzer and Drake, with the booms, tees and daggerboards handcrafted in teak. Hoyle sub-contracted the manufacture of the teak items to boat builder Ennals Ives in Taiwan, but the quality and costs of transportation brought other issues.[15] One of the early customers was Bert Salisbury, and the first international shipment of a container of boards went to Sweden.[15] Early customers also included Lufthansa pilots who had read about the board, who simply included one as personal luggage on their return journey from Los Angeles International Airport.[15]

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 to Windsurfing International.[13] Working in a factory unit in Torrance, California, Hoyle, who had previously built personal surfboards 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.[15]

The company registered the term "windsurfer" as a trademark at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1973, launching the craft as a one-design class. Going one-design was influenced by the success of the Laser and Hobie Cat classes. Each Windsurfer had an identical computer-cut sail, a technology new at that time and pioneered by Ian Bruce 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 assignment 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.[13]

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.[15] As a result, the sport underwent very rapid growth, particularly in Europe after the sale of a sub-license sold to Ten Cate in the Netherlands.[13]

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, France-based company Dufour Wing, which was later merged with Tabur Marine – the precursor of Bic Sport.[16] 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 newspaper which had published a story with a picture about Peter Chilvers, who as a young boy on Hayling Island on the south coast of England, assembled his first board combined with a sail, in 1958. This board used a universal joint, one of the key parts of the Windsurfing International's patent. They also found stories published about the 1948 invention of the sailboard by Newman Darby and his wife Naomi in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.[4]

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; 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, 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.[16]

In 1983, Schweitzer sued Swiss board manufacturer Mistral and lost. Mistral's defense hinged on the work of US inventor Newman Darby, who by 1965 conceived the "sailboard": a hand-held square rigged "kite" sail on a floating platform for recreational use.[4]

Eventually US courts recognized the Schweitzer windsurfer as an obvious step from Darby's prior art.[17] 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.[15]

In 1984, Australian courts determined a patent case: Windsurfing International Inc & Anor -v- Petit & Anor (also part reported in 3 IPR 449 or [1984] 2 NSWLR 196), which 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 in Perth. The judge noted that, "Mr Eastaugh greatly exaggerated the capacity of his galvanised iron canoes to sail to windward" and that, "There is no corroboration of Mr Eastaugh's experiences by any other witness. Neither of his brothers or his father was called".[18]

It is acknowledged in the courts that the separate Eastaugh (1946–1949), Darby (1965) and Chilvers (1958) inventions pre-dated the Schweitzer/Drake patent (1968).[13]

Trademark disputes

Windsurfing International claimed trademark rights with respect to the word "windsurfer". While this was registered in the United States for some years, it was not accepted for registration in many jurisdictions as the word was considered too descriptive. Registration was ultimately lost in the United States for the same reason.

The Schweitzers initially chose the word for its descriptive quality. Unfortunately they immediately set out diminishing its value by naming their company "Windsurfing International" and even referring to themselves and their own children as "windsurfers".

As the word was rejected as registrable in a number of countries, lawyers advised that to be successful the word would have to be used as a proper adjective. They realised that this required a number of generic nouns to which the adjective would apply: sailboard, boardsailing, planche a voile, segelbrett and so on. The rearguard action was ultimately unsuccessful and arguably created considerable confusion which hampered marketing efforts in later years.

Marketing

While the numerous patent and trademark disputes have left an unfortunate legacy, the fact is that these disputes did not occur until well after Windsurfing International, its licensees, class associations, retailers, schools and owners had built the sport to a successful commercial basis. That success brought imitation and then legal disputes.

The launch phase saw a comprehensive development of infrastructure for a new sport and dramatic sales growth.

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, and were optimized for lighter winds or course racing. Shortboards were less than 3 meters long and were designed for planing conditions. However, this classification by length has become obsolete, as new techniques, designs, and materials have taken the sport in new directions.

A windsurfer using an early 1990s slalom board to perform a small jump.

Most modern windsurfers (1990s and later) are derived from the shortboard design, and are intended to be used ideally in planing 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 boards and smaller 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 winds has driven the popularity of wider and shorter boards, with which planing is possible in wind as low as 8 knots, if sails in the 10 to 12 square meter range are used.

Modern windsurfing boards can be classified into many categories:

There are many attempts to bridge the gap between any two of these categories, such as freestyle-wave, freeformula, and so on. These attempts are often successful in their own right, but every shape has its specific strong points and disadvantages. In short, a board with a lot of scoop, rocker or tailkick will turn more easily and respond to footsteering, but top speed and upwind performance will suffer. A board with a straight mid- and aft waterline will plane earlier, thus giving good upwind performance, but will not footsteer without the sailor actively shifting weight. In 2013 a Norwegian inventor Sundin Gjessing patented a prototype board which changes its tail shape with a footswitch - an attempt to combine speed and turning ability into one hull. The board has not been put into production.

The original Windsurfer board had a body made out of polyethylene filled with PVC foam. Later, hollow glass-reinforced epoxy designs were used. Most boards produced today have an expanded polystyrene foam core reinforced with a composite sandwich shell, that can include carbon fiber, kevlar, or fiberglass in a matrix of epoxy and sometimes plywood and thermoplastics. Racing and wave boards are usually very light (5 to 7 kg), and are made out of carbon sandwich. Such boards are very stiff, 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.[19]

Sails

Modern windsurfing sails are often made of monofilm (clear polyester film), dacron (woven polyester) and mylar. Areas under high load may be reinforced with kevlar.

Two designs of a sail are predominant: camber induced and rotational. Cambered sails have 1–5 camber inducers - plastic devices at the ends of battens which cup against the mast. They help create a rigid aerofoil shape for faster speed and stability, but at the cost of maneuverability and how light 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 battens.

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.

The windsurfer in the foreground is using a camber induced sail and is fully planing using the footstraps, while the other is using a rotational sail and is not planing.

Rotational sails have battens which protrude beyond the back aspect of the mast. They flip or "rotate" to the other side of the mast when tacking or jibing, hence the rotation in the name. Rotational sails have an aerofoil shape on the leeward side when powered, but are nearly flat when sheeted out (unpowered). In comparison with cambered sails, rotational designs offer less power and stability when sailing straight, but are easier to handle when maneuvering. Rotational sails are usually lighter and easier to rig.

The leading edge of a sail is called the luff; the mast is in the luff tube. The rear edge of the sail is the leech. The front bottom corner (where the mast protrudes) is the tack, and the rear corner, to which the boom is attached, is the clew. The bottom edge, between the clew and the tack, is the foot of the sail.

A windsurfing sail is tensioned at two points: at the tack (by downhaul), and at the clew (by outhaul). There is a set of pulleys for downhauling at the tack, and a grommet at the clew. Most shape is given to the sail by applying a very strong downhaul, which by design bends the mast. The outhaul tension is relatively weak, mostly providing leverage for controlling the sail's angle of attack.

The sail is tuned by adjusting the downhaul and the outhaul tension. Generally, a sail is trimmed more (flatter shape) for stronger winds. More downhaul tension loosens the upper part of the leech, allowing the top of the sail to twist and "spill" wind during gusts, shifting the center of effort (strictly, the center of pressure) down. Releasing 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; less outhaul results in more draft, providing more low-end power, but usually limiting 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 nearly flat when depowered to allow riding waves. 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. Race 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 6 m2 to 15 m2 for race 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 race sails up to 15 m2.

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 displacements; it will either sail or hydroplane (referred to as "planing"). A sensation likened to low-level flying may be experienced by the hydroplaning windsurfer.

Under Sailing Conditions (light winds, less than appr. 12 kts)

The board moves through the water – much like a sailing boat does – using an extendable centreboard (if available) and fin or skeg for stability and lateral resistance. The centreboard is retracted at broad points of sail, again similarly to a sailing boat, to allow for jibing control. In these conditions windsurf boards also tack and jibe like a sailing boat.

Directional Control is achieved by moving the rig either forward (turning away from the wind) or aft (turning towards the wind). When jibing, the clew of the sail is let around and allowed to rotate out and around the mast.

Fall Recovery. The rider climbs onto the board, grabs the pulling rope (uphaul), makes sure the mast foot is between two feet, pulls the sail about one third out of the water, lets the wind turn the sail-board combination till he/she has the wind right in the back, pulls the sail all the way out, places the "mast hand" (hand closest to the mast) on the boom, pulls the mast over the center line of the board, places the "sail hand" (hand furthest from the mast) on the boom, then pulling on it to close the sail and power it.

Under Planing Conditions (strong winds, more than appr. 12 kts)

Ideal sail size (m²) for different wind speeds and rider weights (recreational level). The red values indicate sail sizes that are unpractical or not available.

In planing conditions a harness is typically worn to more efficiently use the rider's weight to counter the force in the sail. As the wind increases, the rider continues to sheet the sail, the fin generates more lift, and the board gains speed, transitioning onto a plane. The volume of board in the water (displacement) decreases, and the rider moves rearward, stepping into the footstraps for improved control. When planing, the board skims on the surface rather than displacing water as it moves. Planing can be achieved at different wind speeds depending on the rider's weight, sail and fin size, wave conditions, and rider ability. With modern equipment planing can normally be achieved at a wind speed of around 12 knots. The transition from displacement motion to planing requires a jump in energy, but once planing, water resistance decreases dramatically. This means that it is possible to continue to plane, although the wind has dropped below a level that would be required to transition to plane. A board in plane can be much smaller than a board moving by displacement (thereby gaining an advantage in gear weight and board control). Lateral resistance to the wind is provided by the fin alone (generating more lift at higher speeds) and a centreboard is no longer used (smaller boards do not have one). A fin generates lift, transferring a strong load to the board, and so is usually constructed of carbon fiber for accurate shape and strength. A low-pressure area develops on the windward side of the fin, which can lead to cavitation, leading to a sudden loss of lift, called "spin-out" (equivalent to "stalling" in flight terminology). Ideal planing conditions for most recreational riders is 15–25 knots of wind, but experts can windsurf in much windier conditions. Planing is considered one of the most exhilarating aspects of the sport.

Directional Control is mainly achieved by putting rider weight pressure on either the left or the right rail (edge) of the board. Jibing is done at full speed (a so-called "carve jibe", "power jibe" or "planing jibe"), whereby the rider continues to apply pressure on the inside rail of the turn, leaning into the turn much like a snowboarder making a toe-side turn. Pressure is released from the sail as the board speed turns downwind, allowing for the sail to be jibed. Tacking is still possible, but at these conditions has become an advanced maneuver, because it requires quick movements and good balance. A heel-side turn while planing (called a "cut-back") is usually only executed in wave riding.

Fall Recovery: In strong winds it is difficult to uphaul the sail (pulling it out of the water while standing on the board) so waterstarting is necessary. This is done (while water treading) by positioning the mast perpendicular to the wind, lifting the luff out of the water to allow the wind to catch the sail, and then having the sail pull the sailor onto the board. As the sail becomes powered, it is then trimmed to bring the rider, board, and sail back onto a plane. Occasionally a rider may be unable to waterstart if the wind has dropped. If this happens the rider can wait for a gust and "pump" the sail to get back on the board. If this becomes hopeless uphauling the sail will be necessary.

Learning

Learning to windsurf used to present the biggest barrier to the sport's growth, but with the development of new, wider (80 to 100 cm), high volume (more than 200 liters) beginner boards the transition time from beginner to intermediate has been reduced. 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. But with good instruction windsurfing can be picked up rather quickly, not unlike other extreme sports like Kitesurfing, or Snowboarding.

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. These techniques involve a similar process to that required to learn to ride a bicycle – the development of muscle-memory automatic reactions:

1. Standing on the board while holding the sail and balancing the weight of the sail leaning to one side with the sailor's weight leaning out on the other side.

2. Leaning the sail towards the front and rear of the board and learning how this is used to turn the board by adjusting the relative positions of the centre of weight of the whole sail/board/sailor combination and the centre of pressure of the wind in the sail.

3. Learning to adjust the amount of pressure in the sail while simultaneously counteracting that pressure by leaning the sailor's body in or out from the board.

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.[20] 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 better known, the PWA[21]/UKWA[22] World Indoor Windsurfing Championships, are held during the annual London Boat Show at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London in January.[23] 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.[24][25]

Additional equipment

Competitions

Slalom at the 2005 national championship at the Columbia River Gorge.

In windsurfing competitions, there are the following disciplines:

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, daggerboards, fins and sails. The equipment is chosen to allow racing in a wide range of sailing conditions. This is important for the Olympic Games, 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 and 2012 Summer Olympics. However, in May 2012 the International Sailing Federation voted windsurfing out of the list of the Olympic sailing disciplines for the 2016 Games in favour of kitesurfing. The decision to replace windsurfing with kiteboarding was reversed by the ISAF general assembly in November 2012.

Formula class

Formula racer in San Francisco Bay.

Formula windsurfing 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 that has the principal characteristic of a maximum 1m width. They have a single 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 One Design remains popular amongst amateur racing clubs.

Slalom

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

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.

Big Air

Competitors compete to see who can record the highest jump or maneuver. A 3D accelerometer is worn to measure and record heights of the jumps. Xensr is a manufacture of 3D accelerometers and promoter of the Big Air competition. It is a popular discipline in Hood river, USA.

Super X

This discipline is a cross between freestyle and slalom. Competitors race on a short downwind slalom course, must duck jibe on all turns, and are required to perform several tricks along the way. Competitors are required to wear protective equipment. The Super X discipline was short lived and is now largely unpracticed; it reached its peak in the early 2000s,

Speedsailing

Speedsailing 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 windsurfer Antoine Albeau.[27] The women's 500m Record is held By Zara Davis, from England, also in Luderitz. The Men's nautical mile record is held by Bjorn Dunkerbeck and the women's mile record is held by Zara Davis 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.[28] With over 5000 sailors registered it is possible for windsurfers all over the world to compare speeds.

Speed Sailing Records Date Sailor Location
53.27 knots 5 November 2015 Antoine Albeau Luderitz, Namibia
52.05 knots[29] November 2012 Antoine Albeau Luderitz, Namibia

Freestyle

A windsurfer in the final stages of a forward loop at Sardinia, Italy

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, and 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

Robby Naish competing in a wave sailing event at Sylt, Germany
Wave jumping wipeout. While attempting a forward loop in storm conditions off the coast of Cantabria, Spain, a windsurfer gets catapulted into a high double flip.

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 forward rotation (forward loop, cheese roll) and backward rotations(back-loop, push-loop). 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 airborne (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.[30]

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 a few annual events held in locations with consistent wave-sailing conditions like Maui (Aloha Classic) and Cape Verde[31] (which boasts an impressive track record in recent years). World-class wave sailing can also 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. Many windsurfers around the world are OK without this spotlight as it allows them to be a part of something free of the corporate pressures.

Wave sailing at Ho'okipa Beach Park, North Shore Maui, Hawaii, a location for international wave competitions.

International stars

Youth windsurfing

A child practices uphauling a lightweight rig in a swimming pool

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).[32] 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 a professional level in both wave and freestyle disciplines. Marcilio "Brawzinho" Browne[33] and Jose "Gollito" Estredo[34] are two windsurfers which both won PWA Champions before reaching the age of 18. Whereas most recently, Philip Köster[35] 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.[36]

In Maui, there is a growing band of young wave sailors, led by Kai Lenny, a multi-sport waterman, and Gustav Häggström (Sweden), who are beginning to gain access to the most extreme wave sailing spots, including the legendary Jaws 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."

Robert (Robby) Naish took up the fledgling sport of windsurfing at the age of 11, and in 1976 won his first overall World Championship title at the age of 13.

See also

Similar sports:

References

  1. ↑ See S. NEWMAN DARBY WINDSURFING COLLECTION, 1944-1998 #625, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
  2. ↑ "From Hawaii to the World". British Broadcasting Corporation.
  3. 1 2 "Windsurfing was invented 60 years ago by Newman Darby". SurferToday.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "History of Windsurfing". Oregon Interactive Corporation.
  5. ↑ USA. Lonely Planet. 2008. ISBN 9781741046755.
  6. ↑ Board. Netbiblo. 2008-06-03. ISBN 9788497453318.
  7. ↑ Sailboarding. Popular Science, August 1965.
  8. ↑ "Robbie Naish interview in The Windsurfing Movie". thewindsurfingmovie.com.
  9. ↑ "Jim Drake – Inventor of windsurfing". World of Windsurfing.
  10. ↑ "A Chronological Order of the Development of the Free Sail System Sailboard". The Hart's Homepage.
  11. ↑ "Windsurfing From the Beginning". Darby Electronic Museum.
  12. 1 2 Windsurfing. Human Kinetics. January 1995. ISBN 9780873227605.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Origins of windsurfing : JIM DRAKE". American Windsurfer Magazine : Vol 4 Issue 4.
  14. ↑ "About.com: Inventors – History of Windsurfing". Inventors.about.com. 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Origins of windsurfing: Hoyle Schweitzer". American Windsurfer Magazine.
  16. 1 2 "History". Bic Sport.
  17. ↑ Zelasnic, Laura. "Technology, invention, and innovation collections". Americanhistory.si.edu. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  18. ↑ see pages 104–105 of judgment cited
  19. ↑ Hollman, Eva-M. "Anatomy of an Epoxy Sandwich board". The Board Lady. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  20. ↑ "Lemelson Center Invention Features: Newman Darby". Invention.smithsonian.org. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  21. ↑ Professional Windsurfers Association. pwaworldtour.com.
  22. ↑ "UK Windsurfing Association. ukwindsurfing.com.
  23. ↑ "Schroders London International Boat show". Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  24. ↑ "The PWA World Tour". Professional Windsurfers Association.
  25. ↑ pedrowind (May 5, 2007). "Indoor Windsurfing Kamasutra". Youtube. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  26. ↑ Windsurfing Safety, San Francisco Boardsailing Association (SFBA)
  27. ↑ "Windsurfer Breaks Speed Record at Over 60 mph". www.redbull.com. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  28. ↑ "Home – GPS-Speedsurfing.com :: for windsurfers by windsurfers". GPS-Speedsurfing.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  29. ↑ "24 Hour Distance". Sailspeedrecords.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  30. ↑ "The Ricardo Triple Challenge". Boardseekermag.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
  31. ↑ Cabo Verde World Cup 2009. caboverdeworldcup.com.
  32. ↑ "Team 15". "RYA. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  33. ↑ "Marcilio 'Brawzinho' Browne". pwaworldtour.com.
  34. ↑ "Jose 'Gollito' Estredo". pwaworldtour.com.
  35. ↑ "Philip Koster". pwaworldtour.com.
  36. ↑ "Double Trouble: Philip Koster" (video). boardseekermag.com.
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