Im 70kg but i have a very physical job as a builder so i really have very little fat all muscle .My wife is 70 kg & on a diet. I think strength would make a greater difference than weight .We both weigh the same but I win in an arm wrestle.

barn said...


There are no 110 kilo elite wave sailors cause at 110 you're a relatively uncoordinated klutz.

Once again... 110 kilos when you are 6.4 actually ain't that much. 110 kilos for the midgets shown in the photo above is massive.

Just look at someone like Dwayne Johnson aka "The Rock". He is about 120 kgs at 6.4. I'd hardly call him a fat uncoordinated klutz.

Whoever said big guys aren't agile, just watch this (he's over 100kgs)

Those are not midgets in the photos. Koster and Brawzinho are not Whippets. Clearly don't know who these 'midjets' are, two of them even sail for GayPryde!!

Put the emphasis on relative klutz. Big long arms are harder to control, the distance from brain to fingertips is further.. Giraffes are spastics compared to Gazelles.

Dunk is 103, dare say a lot lighter when he was competitive in the waves.. And why are you talking about him in the past tense?

Dunkerbeck is a relative Klutz compared to Gollito.. Watch any clip of Dunk even in his youth he muscled everything, same with Brawzinho..

Unrelated, Edvan uses his 4.8 when there are 100kg blokes on 4.2.. He weighs about 60kg.. He uses his 4.8 when I'm hangin onto a 4.2.. power to weight.

barn said...

Put the emphasis on relative klutz. Big long arms are harder to control, the distance from brain to fingertips is further.. Giraffes are spastics compared to Gazelles.

I'm no expert, but I think if you had arms one foot longer, then the time taken for the nervous impulse to travel from brain to hand would be about one 330th of a second longer or something like that.....probably not a big deal.

There's many other differences between a gazelle and a giraffe - one of them is that an optical illusion means that the larger object (i.e giraffe) appears to be moving more slowly than than a smaller object (gazelle). And there's not exactly the same sort of difference between large and small sailors as there is between a gazelle and a giraffe!

Watch any clip of Dunk even in his youth he muscled everything

Dunky was a tiny kid when he started World Cup sailing - probably 55-60kg, quite skinny and about 5'6". He had no capacity to muscle anything, but he still kicked arse, even on a Raceboard.

barn said...

Those are not midgets in the photos. Koster and Brawzinho are not Whippets. Clearly don't know who these 'midjets' are, two of them even sail for GayPryde!!

Campello is 178cm... sorry mate, but in my book that's being a midget. Most chicks I know are taller than that.

stehsegler said...


Campello is 178cm... sorry mate, but in my book that's being a midget. Most chicks I know are taller than that.

178 is the average height in Aus. And the average height of females is obviously less. To know only chicks taller than 178 means statistically it must be a very small sample of the population. By your own admission, you must not know many chicks. Maybe that's cause you use 'mate' in the derogatory sense all the time.

One thing i've noticed is, although there's a relationship between board volume in litres vs your weight in kg, and the amount of wind required to get planing, it's not so easy to pin down exactly.

Example: Me on 145 litres weighing 95kg (a couple of monthe ago; lost much of the excess weight now), with an 8.5. That's a difference of 50 between board volume in litres and rider weight in kg. (50 litres of "extra" volume, not including rig weight, according to my wacky science).

Another guy is on 105 litres, 70 kg, with a 7.5. That's only 35 litres of "extra" volume, 1 metre less of sail area - and the bastard can plane much earlier than I can!

Is there a basic formula (beside's Sod's Law) that can be invoked to explain this?

gregc said...

I find that about 20kg lighter than me at all times regardless of what my weight is at the time is definitely the best weight for windsurfing. This excuse now allows me to progress really slowly or not at all and always go "dam my weight is holding me back". I can also now argue age as well, this sounds like a winning combination to me lol.

insert heavier...

barn said...


There are no 110 kilo elite wave sailors cause at 110 you're a relatively uncoordinated klutz.. And at 110 you're outside the average weight and nobody can be bothered to make kit for you.

Hey Barn, have you been spying on me? Because I resemble that!

At 110kgs (6'3", 38yo), I definitely don't consider myself as an elite wave sailor (actually only had a few goes in the surf), and yep, I'm a bit unco (prob very) and although I am big-boned, I could afford to lose a few kgs, but I also really enjoy blasting, chop-hopping & having fun out there...I'll never do the freestyle moves, or carve up a wave in an impressive fashion that most of the members on here enjoy doing, but throw me on some bigger gear in strong wind & gusty conditions & watch the smile on my face widen as I do what I enjoy most, getting on the water, blasting along looking for a bit of chop to get some air.

The main downside is (as Barn mentioned), the gear isn't made for us big guys...so I'm putting it out there - a marketing strategy that will open the doors for bigger windsurfers & bring in wads of cash to w/surf suppliers all over...
-
-
-
- 'SPONSOR A FATTY' - If a manufacturer wants to prove that their gear is bomb-proof - kit me up & I'll happily test it for you, imagine, having 110kgs smashing forwards, wipeouts, catapults, taking on the strongest elements and if/when the gear survives the test - I'd be happy to spend my spare time promoting it!...it would be marketing genious!

No payment required, simply supply me with full setups, board/rig accessories etc. (oh, and travel costs if required to travel to exotic locations - including support crew of wife & 3 kids).

I'm 95kg-100kg, varies month by month, so took particular interest in this thread.

I'm convinced the relationship of a sailor's weight to their gear in any given wind was simply a matter of ratio eg. small sailor smaller gear and vice-versa. Here's an interesting pdf link to Guy Cribb's BIG mate's rigging (he's 129kg @ 6'1"), an accomplished sailor and specialised speed sailor, interesting read for the bigger guys out there. He basically uses unorthodox methods of rigging to get going.

www.guycribb.com/userfiles/documents/HavingItLarge.pdf

sboardcrazy said...

swoosh said...

i saw this thread go up... and just knew....



if you are lighter you need to rig a smaller sail then the heavier blokes... it's really a simple concept...

Whats wrong with horses..[}:)]
need to rig a smaller sail then the heavier blokes
+ smaller board ..sigh more $

Am I missing something?.. How does a lightweight need to own more sails than a heavy weight?.. Where is the extra expense?

Its all due to skill. A more experienced person can hold down bigger sails and get planing sooner on smaller sails than less experienced people.

There's no ideal weight, whatever you want to do you can find a board sail combo to do it.

I've seen a 110kg guy on freestyle gear doing nice moves and a 60kg guy with huge sails doing speed runs.

1. Choose the style of sailing you want to do.
2. Get appropriate gear.
3. Spend more TOW getting good.

There is no excuse for being the "wrong" weight

sboardcrazy said...

I suppose a heavyweight would need to buy some larger boards whereas I'd need smaller..I was thinking that for the same skill a large guy would have a bigger wind range..? Be able to hold down the sails longer.

Just to clear this up for you, a heavier person is going to have the same issues with a quiver of sails to cover the same wind range as a lighter person. You don't just use one sail in anything from 16 knots to 30 knots. Well, you could, but its not fun.

I have noticed that in the past my friends might have 4.5m, 5.0m, 5.7m, and 6.5m sails, where I would have a 5.4m, 6.0m, 6.5m, 7.5m, and also a 8.5m. We would still need to change at roughly the same point, and any time when I didn't I attribute purely to skill

For them, a 7.5m and 8.5m were not needed as the 6.5m gave them enough grunt in any wind they wanted to sail in, and for me the 5.4m and 6.0m were for exceptional windy days. I don't know what 4.5m sails are useful for...

I suspect the relationship between weight and sail sizes is logarithmic, based on the power versus sail area. It applies no matter what weight you are.

Sailhack said...

wespyyl said...


1. Choose the style of sailing you want to do. Any sailing would do atm!
2. Get appropriate gear. Hmmm, 2nd hand and cheap do?
3. Spend more TOW getting good. Refer comment 2 lines up!

There is no excuse for being the "wrong" weight

PLEASE let me have at least that excuse?????
Basically no TOW for past 12mths (doldrum type weather), and even when it was good work/family kept me off the water most days. Because there's near no wind here, and with 3 young'uns can't justify spending $$$ on "appropriate gear"...it's the only excuse I have left that explains my poor technique.

I always buy 2nd hand gear. Theres nothing wrong with it.

All 3 of my boards have been 2nd hand. 4 out of 5 of my sails have been 2nd hand.
2 out of 3 masts have been 2nd hand. i've brought 2 news booms. 1 mast foot.

Being a student and windsurfing really don't go well together.

lastly screw windsurfing in Vic. its cold and the wind is crappy