Waiting For Joel
July 16, 2008
Lessons from surfing.
It looks like we’ve made it. Rumours of the longboard windsurfer’s death were much exaggerated. We know the longboard works, and we’re out there making converts. Manufacturers like Kona are pushing the concept. The Kona One, they say, is the world’s top-selling board. We may not be the biggest part of the windsurfing scene yet, but we’re not going away.
In a sense, it’s déjà vu. About two decades ago, longboard surfing was in the same position. There was a low groundswell of support, and the old walruses
The Glide - the new sport of longboard wavesailing
November 14, 2007
Jeffrey Henderson, sailmaker of Hot Sails Maui, lives in the home of the shortboard. Waveboard heaven. High-wind nirvana. And what is Jeff doing for fun and for the future of windsurfing? He’s becoming a prophet of longboard wavesailing. Longboard wavesailing seemed almost like an oxymoron for years. Wavesailing meant shortboards. Longboards meant flat water. But as Jeff and a few other people realised modern longboards (like SUPs) under sails can be just as effective in the surf as longboards you paddle – and longboard surfing has long been the growth area of windsurfing’s sister sport. Henderson reckons longboard wavesailing can give the same boost to windsurfing.
The Word from the Worlds
November 3, 2007
Photo curtesy - www.mundial-potrerillos.com.ar
Cruising a longboard
October 20, 2007
The island and the lake have been there for 15 years or more…..”there” in that list of places I have to explore one day. But through all the shortboarding, the slalom and bump and jump, that “one day” never happened. The island and the lake were always too far downwind, or too far upwind, or too shallow for a slalom fin, or the wind was too light.
Wallace Lakes, NSW Australia
It wasn’t until my lake sailing met the longboard renaissance that I finally got to sail to the island and the lake. A gusty, patchy nor’westerly was bringing an early promise of spring. Onto the water, up on the rail, twelve foot of board slicing through the chop.I love the way a longboard poised on the rail seems to meet the water, sliding it gently apart rather than slapping it down like a shortboard does when it planes.