Windsurfing 1.01-Boards #4

Boards, Volume vs. Width:

You may have done a little of you own research in this fabulous sport of ours and discovered that nowadays both BOARD WIDTH and BOARD VOLUME are coming up time and time again when referring to how a board performs. Yes, it is confusing! However, to simplify things a bit, nowadays the far more important factor of the two is BOARD WIDTH.

Unfortunately width is also the factor which is less easily grasped as an indicator of size particularly if the variation is small (does a 62cm wide board perform differently than a 65cm board?)

See what we mean?

Fortunately, many manufacturers have a fairly set standard volume to width ratio for a particular size of board (i.e. 145 liters / 75 cm) making things somewhat easier to understand. However, some manufacturers still use different ratios; some offer thin boards with less volume while others go in the completely opposite direction.

In cases such as this, the width should be taken into account before the volume. Certainly, we agree that it is important to have enough volume under your feet in order to float your body-weight, but it is mainly width that determines ease, stability and sail-carrying ability.
As for

sail-carrying ability, take a look at this rough guide to the maximum sail size that a board of a certain width can carry comfortably. For arguments sake, we are using an individual of average weight (160-180lbs). You may be able to squeeze out an extra 0.5m of sail if you are lighter than average.

Board Width vs. Sail Size
62 cm = 7.0 m

65 cm = 8.0 m

69 cm = 9.0 m

75 cm+ = 10.5 m

Windsurfing 1.01-Boards #3

The Categories of First Time Boards:

Here is a small description of what your choices will be as a beginner (find your description in the previous section). Please note that we haven’t gone into all of the characteristics in detail. This is only a guide to hopefully point you in the right direction.

Very Wide Boards (+90cm wide):

These boards either have a dagger board or a center fin and are the most stable and easiest boards to learn on in light-winds, and will get the rider going in an hour or two. Being the widest and highest volume are also suitable for heavier individuals to learn on, as they provide a maximum amount of buoyancy. Schools also find them fantastic for general use for teaching due to their all-round voluminous support.

Wide Boards (80-89cm wide):

These are good boards for all first-time sailors except extreme heavyweights. They offer more in terms of higher wind or intermediate performance. Some have dagger boards or center fins. These boards are perfectly geared towards the cautious beginner as they offer a more stable and secure path towards future higher performance windsurfing goals. The center fin ensures that the sailor will always get home regardless of the wind conditions.

General Freeride Intermediate Boards (130-160 ltrs. 65-79cm wide):

Rather than being sold as beginner boards they are usually targeted to intermediate sailors and very rarely have dagger boards or center fins. HOWEVER, depending on your weight and long term goals many of these boards in this size range are very suitable purchases for ambitious first-time buyers.These boards offer enough light-wind performance for beginners to get their “sea legs” on and putter around quite happily on them during their beginning stages. They are wide enough to offer the stability that a beginner needs without being too beginner-oriented that an ambitious individual will not quickly outgrow.

If you are an ambitious beginner and want to purchase a board such as described, be aware of a few points before you race to your local shop demanding a free ride board.

Foot strap Placement:

If there are foot strap inserts located near the centerline of the board, the board is suitable for beginners. It all boils down to how easy it will be to get into the foot straps and how easy it will be to control the board

You must keep in mind, that the learning period will be slightly longer and less easy on this type of board due to the lack of center fin or dagger board. But so long as you learn in an area of limited current and light-wind, you’ll be on your way easily enough.

Older Style Boards:
Unfortunately, the beginner board picture is clouded by the existence of a massive range of older-style beginner boards on the used market. Since the first days of windsurfing, boards have evolved from long, narrow, heavy things to short, wide and lighter things. So any older beginner boards will lie somewhere on this continuum. You would be almost crazy to learn how to windsurf on the very long, narrow and heavy boards just because of a sheer lack of balance. The older-style boards are the reason why there are not more windsurfers or female windsurfers out there. These boards were just too difficult to learn on. Period.

Just to make a point, we are not making this statement to increase the sales in the new market, as there are a few classic beginner boards out there from more recent times which are still quite good, and widely available on the used market.

Windsurfing 1.01-Boards #2

Types of WIndsurf Boards:

With so many different types and sizes of windsurfing board available, the sport might seem just a little confusing at first encounter. Fortunately, it's not as complicated as it seems; the boards are all for fairly specific roles and the large majority are aimed at the more experienced sailor.

So with the choice for the first time sailor being fairly simple, we go into greater detail about the options for first time board buyers later in this supplement, but to ensure you have at least some idea as to what is going on when you’re next in a windsurfing shop or at a popular windsurfing location, here’s a very quick guide to the various types of boards available, starting with the biggest and working down in size.

When we say ‘size’, we actually mean either volume or width (these two quantities being very much inter-related). Once upon a time boards were categorised very much by length, but nowadays pretty much every board on the market is under 3m in length (great for carrying in the back of a hatchback car!).

First-Time/Family/Fun boards
Wide, stable and usually with a soft deck and some sort of daggerboard or centre fins to give more stability, these boards are designed as the ideal first time purchase, to offer good fun and performance in light-moderate wind conditions. These are wide, stable boards that are forgiving of lack of balance and clumsiness associated with beginner problems. They generally come with dagger boards or center fins, and have soft EVA foam decks to protect the board from damage.

Formula Boards
The modern race boards - up to a metre wide, and short. They’re designed for planing racing upwind and downwind, carrying sails of up to 12.5m (i.e. huge!). These boards are designed to be raced around a course and deliver maximum speed in the lightest possible wind. They were designed for a very specific job: Carry enormous sails, plane in next to nothing and go upwind and downwind competitively well. They were not designed for beginners even if they are wide and voluminous.


Recreational Short Boards
We then have a huge hotch-potch of designs covering the requirements of all-round recreational sailing in planing winds - many of the bigger ones giving a reasonable modicum of light wind performance too. These boards span a wide range of volumes and widths, and within this section of the market there are numerous sub-groups and classes focussing on specific sail sizes or wind strengths (as described below), but the boundaries between these groups are very grey and ever changing. Fortunately, you won’t need to worry about making sense of it all for a while as your first time board will do you very nicely for your first season or so - when the time does come to consider purchasing a board more orientated towards performance in stronger winds we recommend you read our regular BOARDS Magazine tests to find out what the best solution will be for your particular requirements. However, just so you don’t get too baffled by the jargon, the three basic types of recreational short boards can be summarised as follows:

Freeride Boards:
Most of the larger designs in the ‘recreational short board’ group are designed to offer ‘Freeride’ performance to at least some degree - it’s a phrase you’ll hear very often in windsurfing. Freeriding refers to simply ‘blasting’ back and forth at speed, which is basically what the vast majority of windsurfers do for the vast majority of their sailing time. This term is also used to describe most of the larger non-specialist ranges that are appropriate to sails above 6.5 m² and/or to intermediates who want a board for marginal-medium winds. In other words, for the vast majority the term Freeride is the most relevant board for progressing on from beginner to intermediate and for carrying 6.0-8.5 sails.


A good freeride board is therefore one that offers good control, a fast, comfortable ride, good/easy cornering, and the ability to cope with a wide range of wind and water conditions. Slalom boards are essentially competition freeride boards in that they too are for fast straight line sailing, but tweaked to offer maximum speed, at the loss of some user-friendliness. (In simplest terms, they’re usually narrower!).

Freestyle Boards
It sounds similar to Freeride, but it’s actually almost the opposite. A good freestyle board is one which offers a manoeuvrable platform for doing tricks on. Most recreational short boards have some degree of freestyle performance built in - and while you may not be thinking about trying tricks just yet, a prime requirement of a good freestyle board is that it is very stable, which is in itself of huge benefit to the inexperienced sailor. So freestyle boards do have a high relevance to intermediates, and can work well as a first purchase in this smaller (110L and less) board size.

Wave Boards
Windsurfing in waves, swell or just big chop is extremely exciting, and thus most competent windsurfers with access to coastal sailing will have a ‘wave board’ in their quiver for those days when the swells are rolling in. Or just for when it’s really really windy - to deliver maximum manoeuverability wave boards are the smallest boards in common use, and thus also offer the best control when it’s all just a bit mad out there. Sailing a wave board is the most technically demanding area of the sport however, so it isn’t something you should be thinking about yet - although if you’re really keen, you could be at a suitable ability level for it in just a couple of seasons...

Freewave Boards:
Because most competent windsurfers enjoy more than one of these three types of sailing, many boards are designed to cater for more than one of the groups. So you may well come across boards categorised as

"freestyle-wave", "ride & style (i.e.; freeride & freestyle) and has the maneuverability of a freestyle board with the reaction time of a wave board. This type of board was introduced into the market in 2003 and has been full steam ahead ever since.

Some parts of this article are Courtesy of Boards Magazine UK

Windsurfing 1.01-Boards #1

Part 1 in a series dedicated to any windsurfer (beginner or otherwise):

You may ask yourself “Why are there so many different models of boards on the market?” A relevant question with a relevant answer: Because there are an infinite variety of different wind strengths and water conditions that you can go windsurfing in.

Most boards are designed for specific conditions and it all may seem very confusing to you at the beginning with all of the selection that one has nowadays. Fortunately for everyone, there are clear categories for boards. Now that we have de-mystified the basic classes of boards available on the market today, let’s get to the next important issue:

What kind of windsurfer do you want to be? What are your ambitions?

1 - The Weekend Warrior:
This category covers those time-challenged people who have family or job commitments that keep them from having as much time off as they would like to have. Their goals are not necessarily to be sailing the big waves of “Jaws” any time soon. They just want to have some fun and go out when the time comes. These individuals will most likely be going towards a board that will work in whatever the conditions and will be easy to ride such as a Wide Beginner or Free ride board. I will expand on choosing a Free ride board in a later section.

2 – The “At My Own Pace” Learner:
How cautious or reckless your natural attitude is will determine the equipment that this individual should buy. Cautious learners tend to have a healthy sense of self-preservation and tend to take things “slowly” and THAT’S OKAY! These individuals will tend to go at their own pace and learn gradually as they become more comfortable with changing conditions. In this case, a beginner board will be the source of many years of happiness and the stability will be a godsend.

3 – The “Bring it on” Learner:
The “Bring it on” learner will have a reasonable amount of spare time to fully commit to the sport and intend to progress as quickly as possible. They whole-heartedly embrace the windsurfing mantra of “practice, practice, practice”, they pray to the wind god as often as possible and look for sacrificial virgins and volcanoes to appease the gods on a regular basis. These individuals will not necessarily want a beginner-style board, but instead favor spending a little more time “practicing”. So, they will want a free ride style board that they will keep as their eventual light-wind board.

Tune in for Part 2...