Found this article and thought it interesting and raised some very valid points especially with the lack of newcomers to the sport.

http://www.lbwindsurfing.com/windsurf/the-longboard-windsurfing-revival/

If anybody has or knows someone with an old longboard/raceboard gathering dust in a shed somewhere within Brisbane to Bundaberg area please let me know willing to spend $.

I`ve got a Tiga race longboard (bright colour graphics; like a Ken Done painting). Only problem is I lost the the universal connection to it when we move down to Brisi from North Queensland in the late 90s. Other than that its in great nick.

I have read the article and it does make some valid points.

I've started sailing at the end of last summer, on a short board. In the very beginner stages, a lot of the points in that article stuck in my head (read it last year) and thought about buying a longboard. I had some frustrations with the short board (the ones mentioned in the article).

After approximately a year on and more time with the shortboard, I've changed my opinion. This is what it came down to; Once I've experienced the short board in windy conditions, there's no way of ever going to a long board for me. Even if I could go sailing almost everyday with a long board, I'd always be hanging for short board conditions. I don't own a longboard, wouldn't mind one, but I can't justify the space, etc for the amount time I'd want to go out with it.

I don't think short boards killed the sport, it just died a natural death, similar to roller staking etc. Majority of people still left in the sport say short boards are the go and rightly so (my opinion).

If you really want to get back into non planing windsurfing, get a SUP with a mast mount. The new epoxy or wood construction means these boards are MUCH lighter then their blow moulded counterparts. Some (JP wide body) even come with a centre fin mount so they can go up wind really well.
Great cardio workout paddling in sub 5 knots on flat water. A real hoot in small waves and when the wind gets too annoying, whack on a small sail and go non planing windsurfing.
Taught my brother to windsurf on one boxing day.
The 10'2" Tabou is also fantastic for this cross over purpose.

The issue is not long versus short, as some posts imply. In fact the two don't overlap all that much. In real winds I take my Goya and Flare anytime over a longboard.

The issue is sitting on the shore in the 10-15 knot range and whinging as we see often, versus going out and getting a work out.
Yes it's one more board, it's large and cumbersome, but getting out in say 15 knots and no harness is a great exercise that keeps fit for when the wind does pick up.
I windsurf for the workout first and foremost.

FlickySpinny said...
Sorry Ploppy, but for anyone who has ever sailed outside Australia, this is hilarious.

It's only in Australia that there are few newcomers into the sport. Elsewhere in the world windsurfing is alive and thriving.

Windsurfing in Australia is held back by three things:
1) The need to have massive amounts of cash to get into the sport over here - equipment and vehicles are far more expensive here than in the UK, both brand new and especially second-hand.
2) Kiting - easier, more accessible, less kit, less money
3) SURFING! This country has so much surf, and so many surfers that it automatically removes a whole pile of water-loving people from the sport.

Didn't know that it was thriving, as you say. Drove around UK and France 4 years ago and I'm stuffed if we saw couple beaches with more than a few rigs. Middle of summer too. I thought the fora over there complain about the big decline ?

I do travel the US fair bit, and certainly a very far cry from 15+ years ago, and numbers definitely not overwhelming anywhere, bar the Gorge and a few spots. Even Hatteras is now all kiting. Kiting is the one thriving activity no doubt. Most windsurfing shops have disappeared 10+ years ago (as in Sydney) for lack of business.

The 1-2-3 reasons you give above apply anywhere else, nothing special about Australia. Just replace #3 with basketball in US and soccer in Europe.

Not saying longboarding is the answer (frankly I don't care), but we've seen many a newbie turned off by trying to learn on inappropriately small gear.

kind of dont agree with the shortboards are better thing... although i do love being powered on a shortboard, ive actually had some great lightwind longboard wave sessions this past year.. when the wind dies.. throw the 6.2/7.0 on the longboard, and keep catching waves, a completely different feel to it compared to the shortboard.
and if its more onshore, the extra length helps getting out.
its the same as comparing shortboard surfing to mals.. theyre both good.
i ride a kona 11 5.. and unless you live where you get lots of perfect conditions, its well worth getting one.
i also have an old mistral equipe that i still use .. but thats a completely different beast.. but, still id rather sail that in flatwater than a formula board.

I love my longboard, an Exocet Kona Surf (370cm, 170L). I go out nearly every day in the surf, no matter what the wind is doing, and have a lot of fun in the waves. It is normal where I live to have extended periods where winds will not get over 15k. This is the joy of the longboard. As it is a longboard, it is more cruisy. That's not to say that I can't do cutbacks, bottom turns and get some air when it pleases me! It really comes into it's own, especially in 2m+ conditions, riding the swells from off a headland to a km or two up the beach, going down the line all the way. And so easy to get out through the chop, even in low winds.
To give you the gist of what I am talking about:

I guess I would describe it more "surfing" than windsurfing as most folk know it.
Also worth a look is the interview with Jeff Henderson:

Just acquired a FSW board, to take advantage of those better days. But I still reckon my longboard will be my most used.

Did anybody come across two piece boards that can be assembled like a mast ofr expamle?
If could save a lot of space if we could divide our board into two pieces.
Ok i can hear voices that will add 1 kg weight to the construction due to hinges and mounts but hey we can have 140 cm long pack inside car easy then.

i'm with you gidget!

longboards like the kona 10'5" or sailable sups tuff enough for the surf are excellent fun.

yeah the raceboards are horrid in surf. but the surf designed longboards are different beasts. plenty of rocker for the turns.

one of the things with the larger shortboards is they are typically fairly wide to. the kona styled longboards or sups are narrow and you can feel it in the turns. narrow is good.

there is also a lot more momentum/volume up front with the longboards which can help clumsy carves.

great post wave knave.

glide is the word i was struggling for. i broke my cherry on a 9'8 custom sup/windsurfer, swallow tail single fin. no straps.

the glide really caught me out taking off onto waves. unlike a short board i was instantly accelerating down the face.

for me, being a little clumsy in the surf i kept falling off the back of the board. wasn't ready for the glide

loved it.

Gestalt said...


glide is the word i was struggling for...loved it.

That's the word! Longboard surfing but from way (way) out the back into the breakzone and more!

WARNING - LONG POST!

I wrote both the article the original poster posted, and the one that Wave Slave posted. Obviously I'm biased, but I still stand by them. In fact, since those articles were written there's been a shift back to longboards - not huge, but quite widespread.

I'll take some of the points that have been raised;

1) "If you really want to get back into non planing windsurfing, get a SUP with a mast mount."

The dimensions (especially rocker) of a SUP make it much slower and less efficient than a "real" dedicated windsurfing longboard. Of course, if all you want to do is get out and cruise, that's fine. But there's probably as much performance difference between a fast longboard and a SUP as there is between a Bombora Tri-Fin and a modern shortboard, and we rarely imply that you may as well get a Tri-Fin as a Futura.

2) "Riding a longboard in light winds is basically not as much fun as riding a shortboard in stronger winds. This is why the sport is shortboard biased."

What's more fun is a matter is taste; personally these days I get bored very quickly sailing a shortboard in strong winds on flat water, or frustrated waiting for winds and waves. Other people love it, and good on them.
However, even if shortboarding in strong winds IS more fun, that doesn't mean the whole sport has to be biased towards it. As a comparison, riding a bike downhill may be more fun than riding it uphill, but you don't see specialised downhill road bikes and only a few DH MTBs. Riding a surfboard in clean 6' barrels is more fun than riding in 3' slop, but plenty of surfers still go out in dodgy conditions and plenty of surfboards (mals, SUPs etc) are specifically designed to be fun when the conditions aren't perfect. Sailing dinghies are designed around average conditions, not perfect conditions.

So the fact that certain conditions may be more fun doesn't mean that the whole sport has to be biased towards the gear that works in that conditions.

3) "The problem is that now days the longboard has no chance of being the future of the sport, why, because as soon as a kid sailing a longboard see's someone fly past and bust a shaka or someone at a beach shred a wave they are going to want to do that."

But in that case, where are all the kids who have seen someone bust a shaka or shred a wave and then got inspired to go into windsurfing?

Around the world, hundreds of kids are sailing hybrids that you could call "kid-size longboards" - i.e. 5'4" kids sailing 3m Technos and 5'9" adults sailing 3.7m Raceboards. Kids like messing around (which you can do in light winds), they don't always need a huge challenge, they're not all adrenalin-charged revheads.

25% of the people turning up to Windsurfer One Design championships are under 18. It's similar in the Kona One Design overseas. In the UK, the biggest junior windsurfer competition fleets are in Technos, not freestyle, wave or slalom. In other forms of sailing it's the less-extreme classes that get more kids.

I don't know if there's a shortboard scene in Oz where 25% or more of the sailors are under 18. So kids aren't just into freestyle or waves- far from it. In fact, given the other things modern kids do, it may be the less-extreme activities that attract them more. From many angles windsurfing, even in waves, isn't "extreme", so if extreme is the thing the whole sport could be in trouble.

4) "It's only in Australia that there are few newcomers into the sport. Elsewhere in the world windsurfing is alive and thriving."

It's much smaller than it used to be worldwide - some estimates say around 8% as big, others 20%.

5) "I don't think short boards killed the sport, it just died a natural death, similar to roller staking etc"

To quote an article from kenalu.com about Svein Rasmussen's message to Starboard dealers;

"It’s clear that windsurfing did not follow the typical adoption curve of most active sports. After reaching a very strong peak it declined precipitously leveling off at a much lower participation rate than similar sports. They typical boom/leveling cycle for active sports goes through a very fast growth period when the sport is “cool” and everyone knows about it, then declines to a maintenance level at perhaps 60 percent of the peak. Windsurfing declined to something like 20 percent of the peak participation. Starboard maintains that was because all manufacturers focused solely on the performance end of the market, abandoning longboards and the simple fun of being on a board in light wind in favor of sinker shortboards and high-performance sails that required careful selection and tuning to meet conditions. They are looking to SUP to rectify that problem!"

So windsurfing's decline wasn't just the normal drop-off, but something more.

Anyway, thanks for all the positive posts, the interesting posts with opposite views, and the way everyone (pro or anti longboard) has reacted.

Jeff Henderson (Hot Sails Maui) was asked, "In the early days of the sport, no one planed, yet people had a lot of fun. The focus shifted to high performance sailing. Has non-planing windsurfing got the stigma of shuffleboarding, or is it an aspect of the sport that deserves to be discovered by people who aren't necessarily extreme by nature?"

JH - "People who used to be adrenaline junkies usually end up taking Yoga when they grow up. Longboard windsurfing is the yoga of windsurfing.
It rejuvenates you, not exhausts you. This will be bigger in the future as it was bigger in the past." quote from http://www.stableroad.com/henderson.html

Sounds like what attracted people back to mals. Soul surfing. Longboards in smaller surf would be a hoot under 15 knots, or ride one of those swells way out the back that has trickling white water at the top that end up as nothing waves on the beach. Long DTL ride....I can't wait! I'd love to have a quiver of Jeff's dacron SuperFreaks!

^ kids are almost at the age where the beaches are calling so i'm wanting one for that. it may be a while before i can afford to get one built but it's on the drawing board.