My son Alex is 12 years old and last week he broke the 30 knot speed barrier. This is a world record for a child under 13. His maximum speed happened to be 30.82 knots.
I had been windsurfing for only 3 or 4 years in 1983 and vividly remember Fred Haywood setting a world record as the first sailor to break the 30 knot barrier. Of course they didn't use GPS like we do now and his speed was measured over 500 metres. But he also achieved 30.82 knots just like Alex.
In 30 years windsurfing sure has come a long way!
Fred Haywood was a 34 year old professional windsurfer who was 6'2" and weighed 90kg. He used a 6.2m sail with an especially designed winged mast which was such a difficult rig to use that he was never able to gybe with it.
Alex is a 12 year old that weighs just 36kg and was not carrying any extra lead in a weight jacket or even using a camber-induced sail. Alex's complete rig retails for less than $600 whereas Fred's mast alone was worth $1300 in 1983 (almost $3000 in today's money). Alex can use the same rig he used to break the 30 knot barrier as he uses to gybe, wave sail, pull off flat-water forward loops and freestyle. In 1983 it would have been extremely difficult for a child as young as Alex to already have 5 years windsurfing experience because the rigs would have been too heavy for him to start learning so young.
It would have been unimaginable in 1983 that, 30 years later, a kid that had just finished primary school would be able to match what an adult man could achieve then.
Ado i was there that day and you still hold the record in chop and scary stuff, i had a look at Arkims tracks in realspeed and he got a 35.60
heading to the marker on the speed board with a 17cm weed fin ,and a 36.60 in flatter water not the weed bed, 
Amazing speed for someone so light!
