"Those were the dayz!"
by Gordon Roach

Here is a little light entertainment for you, and embarrassment for me in the form of some of my very early windsurfing photo’s.

As you can probably tell (by the gear, not my ability), I have been sailing on and off for quite a few years.

Keep scrolling down the page for captions to the relevant photo's.... have fun..

Pictures 1 & 2
‘Menorca Sailing holidays’ holiday in Fornells bay circa 1983. Check out, the boom height & length, the sail foot height, the chest harness & the lack of battens in the sail. Please ignore my face ornament!
The second shot really shows how crap the early sails were.















Pictures 3 & 4
Nottingham Sailboard club’s water at Colwick park. Circa 1987
In those days even a ‘little blow’ felt radical. Notice the boom height now, is down to low chest. The board was a New Waves 275 purchased from Funsport in Breaston. Packed with over 125 litres of volume and even had ‘thrusters’. This was my first battened sail but look carefully and you will see that there is very little downhaul tension. No real change with the harness hook height.

Pictures 5, 6, 7 & 8
Circa 1990. You should recognise this stretch of water, the power station in the background is the big giveaway, and the same club house. The board is a copy of a High Fly 295 poly board. Still no cams in the sail.

Pictures 9, 10 & 11
Circa 1992. Again, these are taken at our pond. The board is a Bic Electric Rock and like the New Waves it was packed about 120 litres into it’s 265 length. This board has got to be my all time favorite, both fast and good at jumping. The sail is a 6.5 Easy Rider speed slalom purchased from Derby Sailboards before they closed. Notice the ‘New West’ sticker on the sail, it came from my trip to watch the Brighton Windsurfing World Cup held in this year. The wetsuit also looks a little bright but was common for the era, just wait until next years suits are released. Colour is making a come back!

Picture 12
Same sail, the 6.5, this my first (of many) trips to Weymouth. The board here was a Tiga 275 ACR from the dedicated slalom board era and despite what some said was a cracking board to gybe hard and fast.

Pictures 13 & 14
Again 1992 I think. This time at Overcombe (at the far eastern end of Weymouth Bay). The sail is another Easy Rider, but notably my first sail with cams, in this case a twin cam. Also notice the early introduction of the floppy leech.
I had to dump that rig about a mile out to sea on that trip and get rescued. But that’s another story!.

Pictures 15, 16 & 17
The days before very short boards and modern estate cars and mpv's; and no, I haven’t got that land surfer any more. Look at those one piece masts, what a pain they were.

Pictures 18 & 19
Right up to date. The 3 Starboard iSonic boards I took to the speed event at Weymouth this year. (The iSonic 50, was loaned courtesy of John at Dave Nobles)
(www.nobleboards.co.uk)
The other shot, taken by Simon Butler, is a Tushingham Lighting 8.5m, a common size now. Did you notice that the biggest sail in all the other photos was a 6.5m

Picture 20
And finally, a pic of the late Phil Frearson doing what he loved so much.

Regards,

Gordon Roach