Our sport is quite old and there are still some (like me) that started when it became a beach sensation. So here are a few pics of my early days in the sport. I always look at these photographs as happy memories. The strange part is that it really feels like it was yesterday. Enjoy!

My teenage years on a HiFly 111 with a couple of different sails. If I recall, my brother and I had the small one (~4.5m2) custom-built by a North Sail boat sail repair shop! I think these images are from 1979 or 1980. Notice that I was sailing without harness - it simply didn't exist back then!


Above: Sailing with my Brother's Girlfriend!




In 1983 I got a HiFly 555. This thing was a mistake! I don't have pictures of it but it looked like today's Freeride board but it was 355cm in length and was 21kg! A boat anchor! I don't recall what happened to it. Probably "forgotten" on a beach one day at the end of the summer !
A few years later in 1986, I acquired my 290x52 Local Motion Custom from Hawaii and then things started to get serious! This was the revelation! I was hooked forever to the sport! This board was in France the Rolls Royce of all boards. I was just on top of the world!


Above: a 3.5Early Tushingham! / Below a 4.5 Early Gaastra


Then in 1987 came a smaller custom board that I borrowed from a friend for one summer and that I had to "return" when my vacation was over! ...Which I did. The board was a short 240-something, narrow and ultra-thin. This thing was flying! The sail was a 6.0. Pretty modern for that era I think! Noticed how low the boom is?



I still have the 290 Local Motion and added pads to the deck in the 90s because my heels had dug a divot around the back straps. The Clark Foam has yellowed some but there are no holes! I haven't sailed this board in 15+ years. This season will be the year I put it back on the water for sure!

Wow, hats down to you Greg! Those are amazing pictures!

Thanks Ady.
Does anyone have old pics to share?

Thank you Gregory! The pictures are great by themselves, and your comments make for an exceptional post. It looked to me whether you were on the oldest gear or the somewhat newer gear you still found a way to fly!

All the images are great, and together give a nice look into your windsurf adventures, but, for me, the second photo really stands out; a powerful image that conveys the physical strain and corresponding exhilaration of windsurfing at speed. Silhouetted shredder glowing black in from of the white sail racing over the water. Such a powerful stance - the burning human shadow is the abstraction of speed and strength. Love it!

I know that may be a little more poetic or abstract than were accustomed, but, wow. I just couldn't help it.

Ady was right - hat's down, or hat's off for taking time to thoughtfully share the images and stories.

Just one question - and I'll understand if it's best left unanswered. Why did you punctuate "Sailing with my Brother's Girlfriend!" with an exclamation point? Whether it was done intentionally or without a thought; I bet there's a story there…..

Thanks for the retrospective.

Riding my G&S 8'3" with a Freedom Maui 50. This would be the summer of 1983




I'll dig out some more old pics... Drew

My very first board & sail, a Windsurfer and a high-wind sail I bought from Tom Arbanas in New Buffalo. These are probably from 1978, my second season. One is my first time in Lake Michigan


These are from about 1980, doing rail-ride head-dip and a crazy tailsink!


Doing speed runs in the spring, the ice making the water flat


Riding my G&S 8'3" board in 1983.


Next summer (2017) will be my 40th year, and I still love it like nothing else!
Drew

Way to go Drew!!!

Otto wrote:
Thanks Oto for your comments. ...and to satisfy your curiosity, there hasn't been much of a "story" between my brother's girlfriend and I. ...At least not that girlfriend, ha!

Andrew Scheidler wrote:
Very nice pictures Drew. This reminded me my first time on a windsurf. It was in summer 1977 like you it seems! I recognize the same instrument of torture: a Windsurfer board with the hand-burning teak boom and the ankle-breaker T-shaped mast foot that used to pop-out of its insert without warnings. Thanks for sharing!