Longboard freestyle – the basic forward railride

In this article, we will learn to ‘pull’ the basic, forward railride. We sailboarders are lucky. The wind Gods - or the Gods of wind, if you will - have given us windsurfing, and for longboards, they’ve given us the possibility to railride. [Read more]

Longboard freestyle or the art of fun windsurfing

Why freestyle? Simple: freestyle is fun, and I want to share this with you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s longboard or short board, beginner stuff or advanced - there’s nothing more delightful than seeing someone try new moves, try to improve, and just have fun. To see their face when it works for the first time, and having them going out for more (in my case, for more punishment!).

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A growing sport, the longboard illusion?

Are wave oriented longboards the future of the sport of windsurfing? Or is the future something else? The windsurfing industry seems to be putting lots of weight behind wave-oriented longboards. Will it pay off?
If you open your atlas and check out where people live, where they have realistic opportunities to go for an “after the work sail”, then it becomes painfully obvious that places with a high people density typically have no waves. I have personally lived in Mariehamn (Maarianhamina, Finland), Espoo (Finland), Dallas (Texas) and the Bay Area (California). In none of these places there has been any opportunity for wave sailing nearby. The Bay Area does have waves reasonably close, but it is quite a drive (1 1/2 hour plus) for the majority of the inhabitants in the area.

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Longboard windsurfing in Germany

All shortboard and longboard windsurfing classes are organised under the roof of German Windsurfing Association DWSV. DWSV has over 700 paying members, about 65% of them are longboarders.

Germany was one of the first and largest longboard markets in the world.

Longboard racing has accordingly a long tradition in Germany. The first Regatta with the original Windsurfer was 1972 at Sylt. Today 35 years later, after the golden times in 80´s and 90´s, there are still 40 DWSV factorised longboard racing events, which count for the yearly ranking list. The participant fields vary between 10-60 sailors at each event.

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