Windsurfplank-gids
Introduction Wind Surfing
Windsurfing, the fascination of holding the power of the wind in your own hands. It is enjoyment, nature experience, training and sometimes great challenge.
To make sure that the challenge is not too great, especially when starting out, I have put together a small guide for the suitable material.
Small
Term Guide
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Singlefin:
A center seated fin.
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Twinser:
Two fins side by side
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Thruster:
One larger fin far back, like the Single Fin, and two smaller ones a few inches further forward.
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Quad:
The two rear fins similar to the Twinser, a few cm in front, two small side fins on the outside.
Beginner
Board
Width and volume, are for entry-level boards the
Your first surfboard should have at least your body weight + 60-100L residual volume. That is, if you weigh 75Kg you need with 100L residual volume a board with 170L volume. At a surf school at the first beginner course, even larger boards around 220L are often used.
In addition to the volume, the width also plays a decisive role. On the Internet you can still often find old boards around 150-180L volume that are about 55-65cm wide. On such a very narrow and usually over 3 meters long board, the entry becomes a test of patience.
All you need in the beginning is a solid platform.
Suitable boards between 180L-220L are 80-95cm wide. Through this enormous width, your first ascents, catch-up attempts and maneuvers will be a breeze. A daggerboard in the middle of the board also helps excellent against the drift, if you still have difficulty to keep the height.
The smaller you choose the first board the more difficult the beginning will be, however, with more wind, a choppier sea and higher speeds you will enjoy it longer.
Children Boards
A special type of beginner boards, are children's boards, which are actually simply scaled down beginner boards.
The larger beginner boards with extremely small sails of 1.0-3.5 square meters are not maneuverable enough to implement turning maneuvers at normal speed with very small sails. So it makes sense, if you or your child still weigh under approx. 40 kg, and you want to start surfing, to go for a kids board rather than a normal beginner board.
Freeride Boards
The range of freeride boards is huge.
Here you will find boards between about 110L-170L with the most diverse strengths and chwächen. Most freeriders, are to allow early glide and brisk comfortable surfing including the common driving maneuvers in most conditions.
The choice of the right board here depends on your weight, the wind range in which you mostly surf, the water, your riding ability and also your preferences. Freeriders are mainly, but not exclusively, used in flat water.
The great freeride boards,
140L-170L are used to glide well with large sails 7-9qm even with little wind.
The freerace and light wind boards are the widest (approx. 80-95cm) and fastest representatives in this group. To call this potential, they need, however, a higher driving skill than classic freeriders whose shape is somewhat narrower.
Classic freeriders are then between 110L-150L. There are different wide concepts widths between 70-85cm. Here it can be roughly stated that a wider board often glides a little earlier, and offers more tilt stability in diving or when catching up. The narrower boards, have their advantages the stronger the wind blows, the more choppy the conditions and in maneuvers that are usually easier to master due to better maneuverability and smoothness. The volume should be approx 20-30L above body weight for a catch-up launch. The main wind range is 4-6Bft.
This is the kind of board the up-and-comer learns on,
who has learned to ride the harness and first gliding experiences on the beginner board, the next steps. Stable gliding in harness and footstraps, the first power jibes and maybe already smaller jumps.
In addition, the freeriders represent the most widespread board class. The possibilities from the first gliding experiences, to more difficult oldschool freestyle carving maneuvers such as, Carving 360 Bodydrag Duckjibe, Monkeyjibe are still enough for many surfers a whole surfing life as a field of activity.
Foil Boards
A still relatively new development are foilboards
that can give you a completely new approach to windsurfing. The feeling when foiling, noiseless, felt weightless and already with very little wind or with quite small light sails to use every breeze is a very unique experience. The feeling of flying over the water without vibrations can best be compared to snowboarding in deep snow.
The choice of the right board here depends on your weight, the wind range in which you mostly surf, the water, your riding ability and also your preferences. Freeriders are mainly, but not exclusively, used in flat water.
Windfoiling is much less physically demanding,
when all the material is adjusted appropriately than surfing in the glide.
The boards are comparatively short and wide, have partly no more possibility to use them with a normal fin and have mostly enough volume for normal catch-up starts. The main wind range, is 2-5Bft.
There are already some shape trends that are emerging, however, have not yet fully formed fixed subcategories. In general, it can be said that extremely wide foil boards (up to over a meter) in conjunction with fast foils and long masts are designed for good performance. These form a similar group within foiling as slalom and freerace boards do with normal surfboards.
The trend in the "smaller", more maneuver-oriented boards,
goes to easy to control handy concepts, which in conjunction with somewhat larger foils have the relaxed "freeriding" with small sails and good maneuvering capabilities in the foreground. In this class also freeriders with a tuttle box, which is suitable for foiling, play along. Such boards are capable of normal freeriding and, with a few exceptions compared to the special board, also freefoiling.
Even freestyle concepts for jumping with foil are already on the market, it will be exciting to see where the developments still lead.
Slalom Boards
The Formula 1 bolides of the windsurfing world, have about between 80-140L depending on wind range and rider weight.
Slalom boards are designed for maximum propulsion and control at high speeds. Slalom boards should glide early, accelerate quickly, and maintain good controllability even with fairly large sails in more wind. The fin is even more important in slalom boards for performance optimization and fine tuning than in most other board classes. Slalom boards are actually used in every wind range.
Freestyle Boards
Whether progressive new school power moves or the first freestyle basics,
If you want to learn moves like airjybe, spock, shaka, flaka, or even power moves, you can't get around the real freestyle board. These boards have an extremely thick tail, are relatively short, relatively beit and have very short fins.
The first riding attempts can be exhausting due to spinout. However, it is worth investing a few sessions, because no other board, goes with small sails so early into the glide, no other board, makes you the first Airjibe easier and no other board makes without larger waves in your area windsurfing in the long run to an exciting lifelong hunt for new moves, movement experiences and sense of achievement. No matter how often you go surfing and how fast you learn the next maneuver is still 1000 falls away ;-).
The main sail sizes are 4.0 sqm - 5.0 sqm.
Freestylewave Boards
The freestyle waveboards, are the most common group between 85-115L.
They are narrower and, especially in the tail, much less voluminous than freeride boards. In addition, the rocker is also much more pronounced than on freeride boards. These characteristics lead to the fact that they allow significantly more control in more wind and also in choppy seas. The range of use is huge. From flat water and 4-8 Bft, to bump & jump conditions in a similar wind range, in up to 2-3M wave at 5-8 Bft and for occasional freestyling at least for basic moves they are suitable.
The main sail sizes used are between 4.0sqm and 6.5sqm. For a main use from 6Bft you can choose the board similar to your own body weight, below that you should rather plan 10-20L residual volume. Freestylewaveboards give you an insight into almost every direction of windsurfing and are the perfect choice for the beginner who comes from the big freerider and has meanwhile learned safe gliding in harness and footstraps, first waterstarts and carving jibe attempts to expand his surfing horizons and to try out everything interesting once with one board. The first real jumps, storm surfing over 7Bft, and even the first trips into the wave, with the knowledge to learn everything already learned felt again.
Wave Shapes
The Supreme Discipline of Windsurfing.
The supreme discipline of windsurfing. The professionals conjure up in waves, up to 17m height and at Stormchase wind speeds up to 70Kn, up to 20 meters high jumps in the waves. In fact, the road to such achievements is a damn long one. Nevertheless, it is also possible for every ambitious recreational surfer to surf safely in waves between 1-4 meters with a few years of practice and also to jump a few meters high himself. The fascination is to experience an additional 3rd dimension compared to flat water surfing. Fast moving water masses that follow their own chaotic rules and a whole new intensity of nature experience and challenge.
The choice of the right board, meanwhile, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The boards have between 60-115L, extremely different shapes and driving characteristics. There are boards with 3-5 fin boxes, very rarely even large wave boards as single fin. However, the most common setups are Thruster (3 fins) and Quad (4 fins). Common sail sizes, are between 3.3-5.7sqm. The more rocker a board has, the worse it glides under wind thrust, but the better it remains controllable in sometimes enormous wave thrust and strong gusts.
Similar with volume distribution, a narrow tail with less volume and more radical rails creates more control in more radical conditions, a wider more voluminous tail allows effortless approach and glide through in less wind, or powerless waves.
Here in Northern Europe, one can generally form two useful categories:
Baltic Wave Board
The Baltic Sea, generally has smaller and less powerful waves.
The main wind direction that can be used for windsurfing in the wave is side-on. Real wavesurfing is only possible at 5Bft+, because there are only wind waves and no groundswell. That's exactly why it needs this light onshore part mostly, so that reasonable waves build up.
That's why good boards for the Baltic Sea are relatively planing. The radii in which you can move such boards on the wave are already very tight, only in powerful waves and very windy conditions they come to their limits in the controllability. So if you are going to be on the Baltic Sea a lot, between Rügen and Kegneas, you should pay attention to a relatively wide shape with not too big rocker and enough volume in the tail.
Whether you choose a thruster or quad setup,
is rather subordinate to personal preferences. Many boards also offer the possibility to try out with their 5 boxes. About 10-20L above your own body weight would be an ideal one-board solution for the Baltic Sea. If you weigh 90Kg or more, these boards are a good solution for most European conditions.
As strong wind boards for flat water, they have another raison d'être alongside the small freestyle wave boards for all weight classes.
North Sea Board
On the North Sea you can just in northern Denmark,
or Holland can enjoy waves up to 6m high, which can also have "real groundswell" components. Even 1-2 m high waves on the North Sea usually have much more pressure than Baltic Sea waves of the same size. Even days with very light winds can still have good waves for you - especially in Northern Denmark there are often so-called float and ride conditions, where the surfer only starts to glide with the wave. In addition, you can find all kinds of wind directions on the North Sea, from side-on to side-off.
In side-on conditions and rather smaller waves up to 2 meters, are usually the glide-strong boards of the Baltic Sea still very well kept. Up to a medium skill level, or for heavy riders, such boards still have advantages even in good conditions.
However, as soon as good driving skills with Side-Side-Off-.
Conditions and larger powerful waves come together, the requirements for an ideal waveboard begin to change. In float&ride conditions, it depends a lot on the wave size and the associated thrust of the wave and the rider's weight as to what type of board is ideal. The suitable shapes have more rocker, tend to have narrower tail sections, sharper rails, a slightly narrower overall outline and also the ideal board size tends to be around your own body weight.
Hopefully we could give a first orientation with this guide. If you have any further questions, we will be happy to help you individually by mail or phone.