I thought I'd introduce myself. I just joined LBWS and look forward to regular visits to your site. I have been sailing for 39 years, Windsurfing for 32. I started in Northern California with the all teak version of the Windsurfer. There were only a handful of sailors back then in my area, but it was growing fast. I'll never forget the day the Mckibbin harness came out. After the initial crashes and launches, it then extended our sailing sessions from a few hours to entire days. Soon the racing scene was exploding, racing on San Fransico Bay was the ultimate challenge. High winds, monster chop, massive current. Getting around the weather mark was easy compared to reaching down, pulling the dagger board, sheeting in onto an instant plane at 15-20knots with a geyser of water shooting out of the daggerboard well right into your face. What a thrill it was (as long as the dagger board didn't hit you in the back of the head and knock you out cold!).

Fast forward...years of racing Windsurfer led to many customer boards. I'll some post pic's later, but one of the early ones was a "Woodwinds". My first with a center board, twin fins, boxed rails, chopped transom, but a fixed mast step (no tracks yet). What a ride!! Jumped great, upwind was a scream, and off the wind even better. Then we started playing with mast track concepts, using a traveler car & track, surgical tubing to hold it forward for upwind and a spinnaker pole end mounted at the back end. As you rounded the weather mark you just pulled the rig back until it clicked into the pole end latch. At the down wind mark, the action of slamming down the centerboard would release the latch (via a small line between the two) allowing the mast to move forward and off you went upwind. Worked Great!

Fast forward....F2 America opened in San Mateo. I signed on as a coach/racer and started promoting and racing F2 products, building the local race team, etc.. Sailed for several years at a number of the PWA events. (best rank 16th in the world)
Fast forward...moved to New England, switched to sailing IMCO. A hard transition from sailing heavy air most of the time, now it was lake sailing and shifty winds, tactical racing. In 1992 I won the Mistral Tudor Nationals in Hyannis.

Fast forward....mid to late 90's the fleet in this area started shrinking in a serious way. We have the longest running evening race series in nation. Now we are facing the real possibility it will end after this year. Average turnout now is less than 3. It's hard to hold races for 2-3 sailors. We have tried to re-build from the youth, but it very hard to get consistent improvement in the numbers.
I am very excited to the the revival in longboards. This is what we need to keep it going and bring back the good times.

I am in full support of what LBWS is doing and want to contribute. I'll be pointing all of our local sailors to your site. "LET's BRING LONGBOARD SAILING BACK !!!"

p.s. Sorry for the long intro. but felt the need to share. (I left out all the Windglider, BIC Dufour Wing, Ken Winner Div.2, Letchner, Olympic campaign, etc. etc., history to keep it short, and it's still way too long)
_Mark_
US101

Hey Teak Boy,
Great to read your extensive windsurfing history. Hang in there with the local scene. I think that you are on the right track with juniors. But dont forget about teaching older folk. One other way of growing the fleet may be to promote the simple Kona One as a one design class as it is relatively affordable, equitable and easy to use. Do you have a local Exocet distributor? One final tip from our longboard scene here in Sydney OZ is to ensure that the social side of the sailing is a big part of the whole scene as well. Let us know about how you go with the project.

Cheers
Pat