Windsurfing


Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.

History

Early sailboard concepts

In 1964, Newman Darby of Pennsylvania developed a rudderless “sailboard” incorporating a pivoting square-rigged or kite-rigged sail. Darby’s design allowed the rider to steer a rectangular board by tilting the sail forward and backward. However, the sail was operated in a back-winded configuration, with the sailor positioned on the leeward side of the sail. This arrangement differed significantly from later windsurfing designs and limited both efficiency and performance.
Peter Chilvers is also cited as having built a sailboard-type craft in England in 1958.

The modern windsurfer

Between 1967 and 1970, Jim Drake, a California-based aeronautical engineer, invented and co-patented a sail-powered surfboard that introduced the fundamental design principles of modern windsurfing. Drake’s design differed substantially from earlier sailboards. It allowed the rider to stand upright on a large surfboard while directly holding on to the windward side of an aerodynamically shaped triangular sail.
Central to Drake’s design was the free-sail system, in which the sail rig is connected to the board by a universal joint, and the sailor holds on to the sail directly via a wishbone boom. This configuration allows the sailor’s body to function as an integral part of the steering and control system, eliminating the need for a rudder or fixed mast.
Drake has stated in various interviews that he recognizes Darby and Chilvers as early sailboard pioneers, and sees himself as the sport's "re-inventor".

Commercialization

One of Drake’s associates, businessman Hoyle Schweitzer, became interested in commercializing the free-sail design developed by Drake. In 1968, Drake and Schweitzer jointly founded the company Windsurfing International, initially operating from Drake’s home in Santa Monica, California.
Windsurfing International Inc. produced and sold the original Windsurfer model, which closely followed Drake’s design and became the basis for a one-design sailboat racing class. As the sport spread internationally, additional companies entered the market and variations in sailboard design emerged.

Patent disputes

In 1970, Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer were granted a joint U.S. patent for the windsurfing rig. In 1973, Drake sold his share of the patent to Schweitzer.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, windsurfing experienced rapid international growth. As the patent holder, Schweitzer pursued licensing agreements worldwide and required manufacturers to pay royalties to produce sailboards using the patented design. These licensing practices became the subject of controversy within the industry, with critics arguing that high royalty fees constrained competition and innovation. Despite these disputes, the sport continued to expand rapidly, particularly in Europe.

Equipment

Windsurfing equipment has evolved in design over the years and are often classified as either shortboards or longboards. Longboards are usually longer than 3 meters, with a retractable daggerboard, and are optimized for lighter winds or course racing. Shortboards are less than 3 meters long and are designed for planing conditions.
While windsurfing is possible under a wide range of wind conditions, most intermediate and advanced recreational windsurfers prefer to sail in conditions that allow for consistent planing with multi-purpose, not overly specialized, free-ride equipment. Larger free-ride boards are capable of planing at wind speeds as low as 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, if sails in the 10 to 12 square meter range are used.
Modern windsurfing boards can be classified into many categories: 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, 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 and more robust, containing more fiberglass.
  • Beginner boards: these often have a daggerboard, are almost as wide as Formula boards, and have plenty of volume, hence stability.
  • Freeride: Boards meant for comfortable recreational cruising at planing speed, mainly in flat waters or in light to moderate swell. They typically fall into the volume range of 90 to 170 liters. The so-called freeride sailing movement diverged from course racing as more recreational sailors chose to sail freely without being constrained to sailing on courses around buoys.
  • Racing longboards: Internationally recognised One Design Classes such as the WINDSURFER Class, Mistral One Design, or the old Olympic RS:X class race boards, and the new 2024 Olympic Class iQFoil.
  • Formula Windsurfing Class: Shorter boards up to one meter in width, for use in Formula Windsurfing races. See [|below] for a more detailed description.File:Windsurfing at Sandbanks, Poole Harbour, England.jpg|right|thumb|Windsurfing in the late evening on a longboard at Sandbanks in the 1980s
  • Slalom boards: In the past, the key feature of slalom boards was merely speed, but it has been proven that maneuverability and ease of use are as important as speed in order to get you around the slalom course faster, and therefore modern slalom boards are shortboards aimed at top speed, maneuverability and ease of use.
  • Speed boards: In essence an extremely narrow and sleek slalom board, built for top speed only.
  • Freestyle boards: Related to wave boards in terms of maneuverability, these are wider, higher volume boards geared specifically at performing acrobatic tricks on flat water. Usually 80 to 110 liters in volume, and about 203 to 230 centimeters in length, with widths frequently in excess of 60 centimeters. Freestyle boards began to diverge more noticeably in design from wave boards in the early part of the 2000 decade, as aerial tricks became the predominant part of the freestyle repertoire, superseding Old School moves, in which the board did not leave contact with the water.
  • Wave boards: Smaller, lighter, more maneuverable boards for use in breaking waves. Characteristically, sailors on wave boards perform high jumps while sailing against waves, and they ride the face of a wave performing narrow linked turns in a similar way to surfing. Wave boards usually have a volume between 65 and 105 liters, with a length between 215 and 235 centimeters, and 50 to 60 centimeters in width. A general rule is for a sailor to use a wave board whose volume in liters is about the same as the sailor's weight in kilograms – more volume providing additional flotation for sailing in light winds, and less for high winds, where less volume is needed to achieve planing. In recent years, the average width of wave boards has increased slightly, as the length has shrunk, while the range of volume has been maintained the same more or less—according to board designers this makes wave boards easier to use under a wider range of conditions by sailors of differing abilities. The most common sizes of sails used with wave boards are in the range of 3.4 to 6.0 square meters, depending on the wind speed and the weight of the sailor.
Sails
Modern windsurfing sails are often made of monofilm, dacron 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.
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. 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.
A windsurfing sail is tensioned at two points: at the tack, and at the clew. 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 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 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 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.
Associated Equipment
  • Mast
  • Boom
  • Fin
  • Universal joint
  • Harness and Harness lines
  • Wet suit/dry suit
  • Footwear
  • Helmet
  • Personal flotation device
  • Travel gear – sail bags, board bags, car racks
  • Safety gear: line, distress strobe light, whistle, marine VHF radio