Windsurf

Director:
Simos Boeros –
mob +357 99 493903
Coach:
Rafail Michaelides –
mob. +357 96 664856
Windsurfing the WaterSport…

The entire history of windsurfing reveiled, from the first windsurfer, to the shortboards, to the short and wide designs that made windsurfing fun and easy again.  The history of windsurfing started in 1948 when Newman Darby, a 20 year old American created a floating platform which looked more like a catamaran than a windsurfing board on which he mounted a sail.  In 1964 he invented a universal joint, which he used to connect the mast of the rig to the board, which by now had a dagger board, a tailfin(to steer it around Trailwood lake, Pennsylvania) and a kite shaped sail.  He called his invention sailboarding after he wrote an article in 1965, but he never patented it. In that time he and his brothers were manufacturing the boards in their own company Darby Industries.

In the mid sixties Jim Drake, an aircraft engineer had this idea of some kind of a water ski which floats when you could stand on it, and which would be driven not by a boat but by a wind filled kite which could steered by hand. After brainstorming on his idea, he found out that the kite was not the best solution for his idea, he was now thinking towards a sail which could steered by hand as well.  He discussed this with Hoyle Schweitzer, who was his neighbor, Hoyle liked it as well and together they started brainstorming about the boards, which were build not that long after they brainstormed the idea.  They had a board, a sail and a boom and went to the ocean, tried it and found out that once the sail was in the water and got wet, it was hard to pull it out of the water, so they had to help each other to lift the sail.  Not much longer after that session they mounted a rope attached to the boom to pull the sail out of the water, this was the birth of the first uphauling rope ever.  They called their invention the skate, later on they renamed it into the Baja board, and finally it was renamed one more time. The newest name they gave their invention was “the windsurfer”.  This was the beginning of the chapter in the history of windsurfing what a lot of people see as the true birth of windsurfing.

They patented the windsurfer in 1970, Hoyle Schweitzer begun marketing the windsurfer and as Jim Drake did not see the possibilities of the windsurfer and the impact his idea had on the history of windsurfing.
Hoyle did see this possibility and was very happy that Jim sold the patent to Hoyle for 36,000 USD who changed the name into windsurfing international and earned millions with it.  Hoyle was producing polyethylene sailboards in big numbers and specially in Europe it was a very big hit. It was such a big hit that by the end of the seventies 2 of the 3 families had a windsurfer.  In those ages windsurfing really was a booming business and different brands were founded, some brands which still are on the windsurfing market nowadays like Mistral and F2.

Windsurfing was undergoing a steady growth from a trendsport into a full-grown sport which eventually by 1984 was accepted as an Olympic sport.  In this year the Olympics were held in Los Angeles, USA where the Dutchman Stephan van den Berg won a gold medal.  Stephan van den Berg later switched from the Olympic contests to the funboard contests which are now known as the PWA (Professional Windsurfers Association).  He now owns one of the biggest windsurfing shops in the Netherlands.  On the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain in 1992 women were allowed compete in the windsurfing class where Barbara Kendall from New Zealand won the first ever female windsurfing Olympic gold medal.

The late seventies and the eighties were the booming ages of windsurfing. It became a mainstream sport in Europe. It was in Europe where of every three households at least one of them had a windsurfer.
With this popularity, development didn’t stand still either, a lot of new ideas were introduced, some good, some bad. Even more brands were founded, they all had a team of professional windsurfers testing, promoting and doing contests all over the world.Around that time the professional windsurfing association was born, which was another big chapter in the history of windsurfing.

In Famagusta Nautical Club you can live the thrill of windsurfing.  Our experience coaches could provide you with all the essential skills not only to windsurf, but also give you the opportunity to compete at the highest level of competition with greate chances of success.

For Windsurfing lessons for all ages you, can contact us at anytime.

TEAMS

Techno

RS:X

Fun Boards

                                             

              

        

            

        

 

 

Famagusta Nautical Club. Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Back to top