THE ROOTS OF WINDSURFING

The original form of Surfing arrived in the Hawaii islands some 1500 years ago with the Polynesians that settled there.
Surfing increased in popularity dramatically because of Duke Kahanamoku, the swimming sensation at the 1912 Olympic games. Duke toured the world enthusiastically promoting his native culture. He introduced surfing to Australia, America and many of the big personalities in Hollywood. Surfing became very popular and people started to want to identify themselves with the sport and the lifestyle in order to appear cool.

In 1965 Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer -a sailor and a surfer- came to the idea of combining these water sports powered by waves and wind, and from this windsurfing was being developed. They fabricated a special universal joint to attach the sail and the board. In this way a person is able to tilt the sail forward and backward to steer without a rudder; the only sailing craft to do so.

 JIM DRAKE, born in 1929 in Hollywood, California, graduated from Stanford University to become an aeronautical engineer for what was then called North American Aviation. His carrier took him to the Pentagon, the Rand Corporation and lastly R and D Associates, a technical-studies-firm he help found. He, with help of course, developed the first designs of what became the X-15, the B-70 and the cruise missile.

HOYLE SCHWEITZER, born in April 1933 in Los Angeles ca, is known as the man who brought windsurfing to the masses.. He is the joint inventor of the windsurfer and the man who brought windsurfing into the public eye. He manufactured the Windsurfer and was the first to promote one design racing.

Drake and Schweitzer patented the first windsurfboard - the "windsurfer" - in 1968.
Windsurfing immediately started to gain popularity. Also experiments with new materials where used to cut costs and improve durability which led Schweitzer to the raw material Polyethylene.

The supplier of polyethylene "Dupont" were so impressed by the new use of their material that they published an article that gave the Windsurfer recognition all over the world.

These durable polyethylene boards were suitable for all sailing levels, simply because it was the only board available at that moment. Beginners learned on them, and experts prevailed on them. Everyone made the Windsurfer work, regardless of the conditions.

In 1973 Schweitzer acquired Drakes half of the patent and then Ten cate took out a license to produce the Windsurfer in Holland. Especially in Europe, the sport grew proportionally and in the five years that followed, European board sales began to overtake their American counterparts.

There was one big problem, the one that the windsurf board was already invented before.
Since the end of the fifties, S. Human Darby from Pennsylvania experimented with windsurfing boards.
In 1965 he had published an article on windsurfing in the magazine "Popular Science".

It's incredible that until the end of 1976, Hoyle Schweitzer and Darby had never heard from one another. They began an incredible fight for the patent of the windsurfing board, which cost millions of dollars in lawyer fees.

By the late 70's windsurfing fever had stricken Europe. Windsurfing was taken up in masses, and one in every three households had a sailboard, as they were called back then. Dozens of European manufacturers produced their own versions of the Windsurfer, and a thriving industry was born. Americans started buying European-made boards, a trend that continues to this day.

The 1980's were a period of tremendous growth for windsurfing. Racing participation was at an all-time high, the professional World Cup tour was born in 1983.

Very soon the boards became shorter and lighter. The sinker boards were invented, the foot straps and the harness. The fun board was born. In the beginning it was only practiced on Hawaii. But then it was repanded all over the world.

The windsurfers got better and better. They began sailing in big waves, wave sailing, a new challenge. The equipment also got a lot faster. In the professional circuit 2 disciplines, race and wave, determined the overall world champion.

 A king was born on 23rd March 1963!
Robby Naish, from Kailua Hawaii, is the living legend in windsurfing. He is the true windsurfing ambassador. Robby has won the overall world title 1983-1987 and world champion wave 88,89,91.
The sport was awarded with Olympics status in the 1984; at the Los Angeles Games Stephan vd Berg born on 20 February 1962 managed, to get a gold medal proving to be a tactic genius and a big name in our Dutch windsurfing history.

Maui, Hawaii is a special, sacred place and the Mecca of windsurfing. This is where wave sailing really took off. The brother of Hoyle, Matt Schweitzer was the first person to sail the famous spot of Hookipa and in the late 80's this is the place responsible for the radical beach lifestyle image windsurfing is really all about.

People like Robby Naish, Dave Kalama and especially Mark Angulo sailed here every day creating the basis for a lot of moves we know today. In the 90's competition reached it's top especially in 1992 the Professional association produced the biggest windsurfing events all over the world.

 BJORN DUNKERBECK was born in Denmark 16/07/69. With 12 consecutive World Championship titles in the modern professional world cup under his belt, Bjorn Dunkerbeck has to be one of the most successful athletes on the planet. His exceptional reign at the top has earned him the respect of his peers and created another windsurfing legend.

In 1998 the professional association hosted the first series of freestyle events. After the success of the king of the lake event in Italy, freestyle has been accepted as an official world tour discipline. Into the new millennium new & radical flat water moves are being invented regularly and creative windsurfing is brought to the cities, to the smaller lakes as well where wave action is lacking. The equipment is still ever changing, improved quality and performance.

Nowadays we know wave, freestyle, slalom, race, speed and long distance - all different aspects evolved over the years into a fully matured sport with millions of practitioners young and old all over the world.