I read a lot about boards like the Windsurfer One Design, the Mistral One Design and the Exocet Kona, all successful One Design long boards in different eras. Did I miss something along the way because there seems to be a very notable exception that is almost never mentioned. Indeed the internet for all it's information, I can't find a single photograph of one.

The Mistral Competition??? Any of you guys remember it? I would think so as statistically it was the board responsible for bringing the masses into Long Board riding with over 270,000 of them made in one technology or another.

Ok so those of you who know me will know I have a somewhat biased view that it should have infact been this board and not the Windsurfer OD that survived to this day as a basic One Design board. We can thank Mistral for their lack of foresight for this. Rather than keeping the board in production in it's standard design they started tweaking things and eventually changed the shape of the board. But between 1977 and 1982 it was pretty much the same.

What I want is any pictures, information, design specs, references, ANYTHING that any of you longboarders out there know about the board, the whereabouts of any left in Australia, the last known location of the moulds etc.

I've heard so many people jump up and down about how the Windsurfer OD is the way to go for budget OD racing. I dissagree. For all the pros about the local production in places like Australia and relative low cost, that has been the case for the last 20 years and yet for some reason people aren't buying them and aren't sailing their Wally that has been in their shed all this time. One has to ask why is this? My answer is that to the masses it's just not a very nice board to sail, particularly for the raw beginner, should the conditions be anything but ideal. The Competition in comparision had all the pros of the Wally but none of the flaws. If I had a choice of the board to bring back for basic, non footstrapped high volume, high buoyancy all around easy access OD, then without doubt the Competition would be my choice. Any info that is lying around out there. Any photos... anything. Can you send it my way please. dstaight@hotmail.com

Hey Darrell, yes I remember that board well. At the spot where I was sailing (inland, so no wave or custom boards), the Comp was the very start to the downward trend this wonderful sport has been in the last 20 years.

Let me explain: late 70s, early 80s. Almost all had the same board. No gimmick. Fun, getting about, freestyle was the only game in town. There were a few other boards around - TenCate, O'Brien, Bic, Dufour, Wayler - but they were minor and not that advantageous to the old Windsurfer. We had picnics, parties, friendly racing, and even some camping trips. We'd go to competitions and our club, though far inland, used to fare really well at the national level. A very tight bunch.

The Competition came in town as a lighter board than the Windsurfer around 1981 for us. Expensive, but a little faster on a reach, and especially pointing up a lot better in races. For that reason, some of the guys got them and started winning the club's traditional Wednesday races - easily too. Even the not-so-good guys started winning.

So more and more people started getting gimmick and replacing gear often for slightly better/faster performance - Comps, Division 2, Windgliders, etc. All Windsurfers started dropping out of racing (we tried 2 classes for a while, OD and "open"). The rest - the new open fleet - dwindled rapidly - most could not afford the constantly renewal of equipment. I still remember in the spring the Tupperware party of new equipment lying around at the beach on the first outing. That didn't exist before.

On top of that, short boards - F2, Rockets and customs - started appearing. Quivers, trailers, multiple gear, etc. General skills started dropping (my view) at the expense of the gear-of-the-day. I'm blaming no-one: technically that's when I got in the great fun of wavejumping myself, having moved to a good wave spot by then.

By then, you could see sailboarders teaching newcomers on ever more specialised gear: short boards. All of a sudden, learning windsurfing became "difficult" and many could not take it up anymore. I sometimes think that those who taught beginners on short boards, ridiculously high booms or offshore conditions, do not really want the learner to succeed. Windsurfer at first was deemed inexpensive, there was little board renewal, and anyone could take it up. Funny, with all the fancy gear nowadays, it's perceived as too difficult and a sports of expensive, multiple gear.

At least modern gear such as Starboar and Kona, are slowly changing that...

So that's what I remember of the Comp. In our spot, and I was just talking to someone about it from then, the Comp was the start of a long downward trend, unbeknownst to Mistral, of course.

Great board though. Feels comfortable, but fragile for freestyle, broke a few in my days... Once my whole foot went right through the deck on a jump.
;-)

Hi Pierre,

I agree in part with what you are saying that because Mistral didn't standardise things and keep the board design frozen, it didn't strictly speaking become a one design class. The board was made in 3 different technologies. GFK, Glass Fibre and Epoxy. It would no doubt be the Epoxy version that you are refering to as being 1. delicate and 2. expensive. The original version was only marginally lighter than the windsurfer. However as you have also pointed out this board did have a very nice feel to it. I would describe it as a really well balanced longboard of the original classic shape before teardrop shaped boards started appearing. It is still in my mind the nicest handling old style basic board ever produced... by a mile. I do agree though that Mistral made some real mistakes by tweaking the design, changing the construction and eventually changing the shape. It was as a result of this that the board eventually dissapeared. Had it's design been frozen. It wouldn't have. There are still hundreds of these floating around out there, particularly in Germany (over 270,000 in total were produced in the various technologies). If ever there was a board that I want the rights to to reproduce as a budget One Design board for Australia then it would be the Competition (in the more robust heavier but cheaper materials).

Hi Darrel,

I started to windsurf on a mistral comp, when I was 12.

I put a pic of the mistral on my site.

http://www.3beaufort.com/eure_fotos.php

Just contact me if you want the foto.

greets Torsten

Ah yes, brings back memories as I was a similar age when I was sailing that board. What a beautiful thing it was. If you could send me any Competition pictures to KonaAus@hotmail.com I would really appreciate it.

I'm certainly going to try and perservere with the Kona class over here. I love the potential it has and after my first sail on one a couple of weeks ago, I can't wait to get out on mine again, but you know, someday I'd like to get hold of an old Mistral Competition again too (the heavier, more robust model, but still with fully retractable daggerboard like all models after '82). Very little gets said about it on this site but it doesn't matter what basic long board I sail on, maybe it's just for nostalgic reasons, but nothing feels as good as a Competition as far as traditional longboards go. Just an opinion but I'll stand by it.

By the way does anyone know of anyone in Australia who has one that I can get hold of. Initially I was looking at getting a whole batch through the board's designer in Germany (there are still quite a few there) but I think the importation would be a bit expensive. I'd still like to get one in my collection for extremely light wind days. Preferably one with a fully retractable daggerboard. Superlight would be nice but probably a bit sus after all these years. I'm quite happy to get hold of one of the standard Competition models. Just really love this board. Does anyone know what happened to the moulds??? Not expecting that Mistral would part with the rights very easily but when you think about it, it's not like they are going to rebuild the Comp...

After a good results at school, my father brought me a second-hand one at the begining of the 80´s. I was about 17 years old and I learn windsurfing whit this board that remember me great days. Mallorca (spain).