The Mistral Equipe & Pan-Am

The original Pan-Am boards were developed in 1983 and were course raced through the surf, they were of similar design to the modern mistral raceboards i.e equipped with retractable dagger boards, sliding mast tracks and footstraps and were the precursors that all modern raceboards were founded upon.
In 1989 Mistral Windsurfing produced their first Mistral Equipe which was designed by Rick Naish father of the legend Robbie Naish. This board was approx 3720mm in length max width 635mm and a volume of 235 liters.
Originally supplied in a CHS (carbon hybrid system) basically a fiberglass, kevlar carbon epoxy system over styrofoam core.

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Starboard Phantom 380 update

After all the initial excitement it has been a while since we heard anything from the Starboard crew about the proposed Phantom 380 Raceboard. With the prototype of the board having such a successfull outing at the Raceboard world championships earlier in 2007 everyone in Australia was hoping that the board would be ready for our season 07/08. Several people placed orders but were later told by the supplier that the board would be delayed a while as some design refinements were made. [Read more]

Loft Sails ‘Blade CR 9.5′ Review

Most of us are interested in new gear that may be suitable for longboards, especially when this gear is hard to find. When I heard that Loft sails were producing a Raceboard sail in their 2008 line up I was keen to see what it was like.

However, I need to go back a few months to when this story started…

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Australian Raceboard Championships

The recent Australian Raceboard National Championships 07/08, at Sanctuary Point NSW, delivered two spectacular days of sailing with a mix of light and high winds that tested the endurance and skill of the fleet. As event organiser it was pleasing to see a fleet of approximately 40 sailors battling it out. As a sailor in the fleet it was awesome fun to sail on this great patch of water amongst this skilled fleet.

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Longboard freestyle - generalities & terminology

This article is a mish-mash of general advice and thinking around freestyle and practicing freestyle. There is no one-shot, magic tip that will make all tricks easier to learn. Freestyle is an attitude as much as skills. If freestyle was pure skills, I just wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure. Learning a new move is all in the approach, the forethought, the perseverance, the will to perform, the visualization, and so on. [Read more]