When will Hobie make Windsurfers???

This is really inspiring

I just wish we lived closer to the coast...Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4S6bwZMJI4

Thanks to powercat for forwarding

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If Hobie is smart, never...

The standing joke in the windsurfing business is:

"How do you make a million bucks in windsurfing....

Start with two million."

Fortunately, we usually have only hurt our pride when we go over the falls like that.

Brian C

In the mid-80's, Hobie Cat bought into Alpha Sailboards. They were extensively promoted in the Hotline.

The first Hobie "Wave" was a sit-on board / kayak made by Alpha.

Bad investment. Went away in the early 90's.

That was the day when everyone was into it... And very few people did it right. Lots of canoe bottoms. I constantly hear, "I tried windsurfing back in (insert date from the '80's here) and it was hard." Duh!

Equipment back then has as much in common with today's gear as mobile phones from back then have in common with today's cell phones.



And not a moment too soon. I cut up a couple of old poly Alphas at the shop this week. If anyone wants the pieces, they'll be in the dumpster till Thursday a.m.

Brian C

Matt Miller,

Care to post any pictures of you 25' up and upside down?

Mike

Remember the Bic wonder carve and splash jibe?

Many of us still have a garage with multiple mast, sails, and really dusty fast boards.

The new "race" boards, the ones that look like Pingle potato chips with a 3 foot fin just look wrong, but sure sail fast until it really blows.

A few years ago when I had windsurfing stuff in the store I heard this everyday, that can can I demo one of those kite things!

I also hear I tried kayaking once and it was so hard, our standard reply was there thins thing call technology that got a hold of the sport, its no longer an factor, the same also applies to windsurfing.

the question was brought up in the 2000 Hobie dealer meeting, Hobie asked what new products we'd like to see them produce, I stood up and recommended kite boarding, simply because I'd just gotten into it, and they shot it down, thank god. The compared to there windsurfing experience.

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Hey J,
To answer your original question. You might talk Hobie into making windsurfing gear in, oh, say 1984.

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What a great video. The credits be like the who's-who of pro windsurfing. That's the public image of WSing and many of us mortals have small gear like that and know how to go insanely fast, chop hop and do a few tricks. Fewer sail in surf, do those huge jumps and fewer still can forward loop, double forward loop, goiter, williskipper, etc, etc. Most of the WSing world for mortals is inland at home or on a trip and once in a while. The events and organized racing for amateurs have almost completely evaporated.

Mistral had a great thing going in the 80's with one-design racing, first with the Superlight then with the IMCO. There were 100s of people traveling weekly to events to race, party and generally misbehave. There was an organized series with a scoring system that made it compelling to go to lots of events and serious sponsorship with fantastic prizes all along the way... huge fun. The pinnacle for many was The Worlds in San Francisco in 1992- St Francis YC race management, big wind, killer venue, 200 boards on the start line-- it was awesome.

Maybe other board makers wanted a piece of that action, and Mistral lost some enthusiasm for it, but things started getting much more fragmented. There was a succession of new one-design wannabes including slalom-oriented boards (bad idea - they need lots of wind... try having a regatta at an inland venue with a 15 kt wind minimum).

Quick-to-plane "widestyle" boards became all the rage for recreational sailing and eventually the Formula Raceboard became the new thing for racers. These are the potato chip looking things-- 100 x 200cm wide/long with no centerboard but enormous, highly refined fins and very large sails requiring fully carbonated spars. They are amazing. When planing they make the same angle to weather as the old, long raceboards but at 150% the speed. For the dedicated racer with some money to burn, in a reliable sea-breeze location, it's a dream. For the rest of the WSing world it was an expensive, somewhat esoteric proposition that often left the fleet waiting on the beach, hoping for the prescribed 10 kt wind minimum to appear.

Enter the "hybrid" boards-- relatively short, not as wide as a Formula board and with a centerboard for light wind performance. They claimed to "do it all", but like so many compromise designs, they really didn't do anything all that well. The Mistral Prodigy and the RSX (the current Olympic board) are examples. IMHO What still works best for racing where most of the world lives is 12 ft long, has a centerboard and a modern sail.