Going to pick up a 7.5m2 tonic North sail tomorrow with boom, mast, extension. On the look out for my first board. Not afraid of going fast and steep learning curves... Any leads would be great.

Any experience at all? Have you taken lessons? What’s your weight? Where are you going to sail?

No experience, no lessons Im learning to sail though. I'm 150lbs and would be sailing Lake Decatur.

Drove three hours to check out that equipment and didnt pull the trigger... Kinda kicking myself. I think I passed up an ideal setup.

Well, not so fast! 7.5 is way too big of a sail for a total beginner. Windsurfing might look easy but it’s damn difficult in reality. I would recommend you starting with a smaller sail-something between 4.0 and 6.0 and a bigger then 150L board. Practice only in very light wind < 15 mph. Do you know somebody with experience who can sail with you on that lake and give you some supervision ? You can easily end up on the wrong shore without knowledge of how wind and equipment interact and how to turn.
PS: Do you mean by “I’m learning to sail” doing it on somebody’s equipment or just watching videos, reading, etc. ?

There is a very good starter kit on Craigslist and the price is right:
chicago.craigslist.org/chc/spo/d/windsur...rigs/6594273704.html
Don’t pass on this one!

I tried to use this guys windsurfer I know but he was like dancing and shit on it, not what Im trying to do. When I stood up on the board he freaked out.. Does that count for practice, lol. My only practice is on a sail boat, but it honestly bores me.. How much do you charge for lessons? Also I don't have alot of money so I figured I buy the best gear I could that someone my size uses and go balls to the wall.

Hm, balls to the wall and as cheap as possible you say. The good news is that there is a ton of unused but functional equipment from the 80s and 90s gathering dust in garages and shades and people will be glad to let you take it off their hands and make a few bucks on top of that. Keep looking and you’ll find what you need sooner then or later. Just keep in mind that for a beginner you need a lot of volume and width and that old sails run big - an 80s 5.0 equals a todays 6.5 in power. A full working set of that era is usually not worth more then 200 $ regardless of condition.

Thanks for the help.

I bought a Mistral Screamer cgi for 175.00. It was either by It for 75 more than what he listed it for or miss a chance at a cheaper set up... So now that Ive taken what will be the more difficult road, Is there a good all in one rig package that you would steer someone towards.

What size is that board? Whole rigs pop up sometimes on Craigslist and it’s definitely preferable trying to collect all the components separately. I don’t know why nobody else is chiming in, it’s sad.
Anyway here is a good instructional video to get you started:


A low end set ,new from a dealer-to give you an idea what kind of components you’ll need for a start. The prices are high as you can see .
isthmussailboards.com/chinook-power-glide-rig.html

Its a 277, 103L 56 width. Im looking at this www.loopeewindsurfing.com/Simmer-Novex-C...simmer-novex-rig.htm. When using
a sail calculator, jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2010/11/updat...lculator-online.html its saying I would need a 7.5m2 sail for 13-15 mph winds.. is this way off.. Id like to, when I eventually learn to go out on most days with winds around 12 mph- 15 mph and cruise.. Is it possible to have fun in anything less?