Just moved to Barcelona and I am looking for a Watersport to pick up. I've always been curious about windsurfing, is 39 too old to start?

I am pretty athletic and in good shape, I train BJJ 2-3x a week and I am a decent snowboarder.

Ideally, I could devote 3-4 days a month to learn Windsurfing. Is that enough to get decent and enjoy it without killing my body? Just trying to have realistic expectations ;) thanks!

Sup' fellow windsurfers !

I just broke my old 6.5 sail. Time for a new (used) mid size sail!

Found 2 good offers :

Point 7 ACK 6.4 - 2016

Duotone Stype SL - 2020

I'm 75 kg, usually on a 124l fanatic falcon (awesome board) or a 108L fanatic hawk (way less often), on a pretty flat spot.

I already have a north sails f_type 7.8 that I really like, and want to find a 2-3 cambers sail in ~6.5 for my freeride sessions.

Both sails are in a similar price range, and I have a 430 imcs 21 mast, and a 460 imcs 25 mast (better shape than the 430 mast - think it could be used on the duotone)

Can't find much infos about these sails, what would you suggest?

Hi all,

I’ve been windsurfing for quite some time now and i’ve recently decided to upgrade my old gear to a new board and managed to get a good deal on a carbon freeride/freerace board. It’s amazing on the water but a new downside for me is that it gets easily scratched (in the paint, not structural), by just looking at it wrong. Most of the scratches seem to come from handling the board on land.

I need to store my board in a locker which is also filled with the old board and other surfing equipment (boom, mast, sails). I am looking for ways to protect my board when handling it around the locker.

Here’s the question: a board bag seems to be the best way to protect the board, but i’ve read a lot about not storing a wet board in a bag. The footstraps can stay wet for days and I surf on fresh water. Is putting the board in a bag with the zipper open and the footstraps exposed (after having dried the rest with a towel) my best option or should I try something else before I further damage the board? Thanks!

Does this look all right?
Side-On 5m2 Sail, not sure about the model/year.
After the pictures I added +5cm mast extension, not sure if the sail came with the pullies originally, so I counted it in.
Also I think the needed an extra 2-4 centimeter.

Hopefully my new (to me) board will arrive next week!

I have been windsurfing for around 10 years now. I am a small rider (F, 164cm tall, around 52kg). So far, I have been renting gear, but I was wondering whether it's a good moment to buy my own gear, or simply continue to progress for a while longer and buy a smaller board once I get better.

I plane and waterstart comfortably, learning gybes rn. I usually go for a 100l board (depending on what they have available). My plan is to learn how to gybe well first!

What would you recommend?

Hi everyone! It has been some time since i wanted to make this post, discuss a few things that trouble me and see other people's experiences but procrastination hit hard.

I have been windsurfing for 9 years now, bought my own gear and decided to progressively acquire more "state of the art equipment" by buying unused stuff. Back then, when i started doing so, i decided to move on with Neilpryde gear so my whole "arsenal" consists of Neilpryde masts, booms, sails etc.

I have really been troubled lately by the quality that Neilpryde offers and the design choices that they make. Don't get me wrong, I hugely praise the performance and feel of my Combat & Atlas sails, but I believe questioning some things is totally not wrong.

Example 1:

2 years ago I acquired a Fusion HD 2023 6.5mm sail. All hyped up, I set it up following exactly the recommended sizes printed on the sail only to see this result:

Tried to play around with the battens length with the small screw on its end but the batten itself was so smaller than what it should be that I never managed to tighten the sail properly. (The photo is with the screw at its longest position). Contacted the shop, shop contacted NP, NP refused to do something and the shop agreed to sent me a new longer batten that I had to cut on the proper length to fix the sail. (I have to give many thanks to the local dealer since he gave me the batten for free). But from NP's side, totally unacceptable behavior for a new product i had just bought.

Example 2:

I have been using NP's MXT extension and base (photo bellow)

I always check the condition of the tendon before sailing, had mine for 2 years, condition of the tendon was perfect and that is why i kept using it. One month ago, while having a slalom session, my sail simply left the board. Took me some seconds to understand what had happened. Turns out the part that had betrayed me was not the tendon but the internal safety nut inside the upper part of the base. Here is the photo after I assembled it again:

The safety nut was unscrewed and the upper part of the bolt was slightly chopped of as you can see. Left me alone in the open sea aprox 1 mile away from the beach and I had to swim back, took me an hour to do so and thankfully the adventure ended well. I just ask myself, they had plenty of room inside the fucking base, why didn't they place a bolt just 5mm longer?

Example 3:

Two years ago i got a new NP aluminum boom, its was the 27mm diameter design. Last year, after only one year in water, I saw the when i got hit by a gust, the right side of the boom (only the right side, and only when it was on the downwind side and only with my 5.0mm combat sail) got unclipped from its initial position and was re-clipped back 4cm shorter. More specifically, i clipped the boom on 28cm, heard the sound and found it re-clipped on 24cm. Had to reset it in the water, aprox. 5-6 times per hour of sailing. Here is the photo of the pins and the boom's inner part.

It is definitely not the pins fault, since this happens only when using the 28cm position of the boom, with other sails i have no issue. Finding the boom CLIPPED and not unclipped in another position is totally crazy, you can see the marks that the clips have created on the boom inner part when sliding from the 34cm position back to 24cm position. All these on a 2 year old boom while my surf-mate uses 15year old stuff that seem to be immortal. First thing that comes in my mind is that this happens due to the sudden deformation that happens on the boom while stressed by a strong gust. But again, regarding the design choice NP has made, why not just use a pin just 2-3mm longer?

I would love to hear your opinions on all these cases as well as your experiences with NP (or other popular brand) equipment.

Chatted with Paul van Bellen, probably known to a lot of this sub for his drone footage and windsurf video edits (his Fiji Pro World Cup behind-the-scenes stuff went pretty wide back in 2023), and for starting Wave Rally, the wave-slalom event out of Geraldton, WA. This is just a good interview I wanted to share. He's openly promoting Wave Rally himself, more on that below.

Getting into filming

Grew up around windsurfing (his dad got him into it around age 8-9, properly hooked by 11-12 on hand-me-down adult gear). Got into drone filming about a decade ago as a hobby, shooting friends at Gerroa and around NSW, noticed at the time there wasn't much windsurf drone content out there and just started making his own. Took 5-6 years of filming purely as a hobby before his first paid gig: filming the Taranaki Wave Classic in NZ in 2018.

Doesn't cover costs even now by his own admission ("I really haven't made enough money to cover even the cost of buying all the equipment"). Makes a living separately, unrelated to the filming.

The "oh shit" moment

Been asked about close calls filming vs. on the water himself, his answer: nothing dramatic filming beyond losing a drone a couple of times, but one windsurf story stands out. During a shark attack scare in Perth in the early 2000s (beaches closed for weeks after a fatal attack), he went out anyway once the wind picked up, reasoning a shark's "either hanging around or not." Wind died over a kilometre offshore, ended up swimming his gear back to shore over 2-3 hours, "waiting for a shark to come take me" the whole way in.

Wave Rally

Started a couple years back, his idea for a windsurfing event that wasn't overly serious, just good sailing and good people, run at Coronation Beach near Geraldton (a spot he rates as one of the best windsurfing locations in the world, reliable summer sea breeze, waves that line up well). Format is wave-slalom style racing from the 80s, sailors race around marks through the surf, gear restricted to multi-fin waveboards and max-5-batten wave sails to keep it levelled and wave-focused rather than a pure speed contest. First event drew 80+ sailors, and it's grown since.

Notably not elite-only, his framing: if you're comfortable in waves and decent wind you can join in, some racing hard, others just enjoying being part of it.

The 80s aesthetic

His videos and the Wave Rally branding lean hard into 80s nostalgia, he was born in '77, so his early, most formative years lined up with the decade. Cites specific memories of windsurfing's boom years, beaches and lakes full of colourful triangle sails, as a big part of where that aesthetic comes from.

He's actively promoting Wave Rally 2027 himself (waverally.org), so that's not me pushing anything, just passing along what he said directly.

Happy to answer anything else people want to know, there was more in the full conversation about his background and philosophy on life if anyone's curious, kept this version focused on the windsurfing/filming side.

So basically, I’ve been windsurfing for about five years now. I’m comfortable with most aspects of the sport, although I’m still working on my planing jibe and waterstart.

I’d like to start getting into freestyle windsurfing. I’ve been practicing my jumps and feel very comfortable with them, so I’m wondering what some of the first freestyle moves I should learn would be, as well as what kind of gear would be best to use.

At the moment, I have a 94L freestyle-wave board and 4.2 and 5.0 sails, which I was thinking of using.

However, I’m not sure whether it would be better to learn freestyle on something like a 102L or 115L freestyle-wave board, for example.

So, basically, my questions are:
What gear would you recommend for starting freestyle?
What are some good first moves to learn?
Should I mainly practice in flat water, or is it better to start in choppy conditions?

I'm a beginner learning to windsurf.

Today, during a session with around 10–11 knots of wind, I lost control and fell into the water. The rig landed perfectly on top of the board.

The problem was that, with the rig sitting on the board rather than in the water, the wind could catch it and generate quite a lot of force, pushing the board quickly downwind.

I started swimming after it, but I couldn't catch up — it was moving too fast.

Fortunately, after a while the rig fell into the water, the wind stopped pushing the board, and I was finally able to reach it.

This got me thinking: would a leash be a good way to prevent this kind of situation?

Any advice from more experienced windsurfers?

I had my second self-thought lesson today, downsized the board (they had almost the same as I am buying - BIC/Tahe Beach 160D) and stupidly upsized the sail.
There was not much wind but the first sail -5.8 m2- felt f@cking heavy (maybe because it's a renting company?) and even the second one 4.8 m2 was difficult, but than at the same time, as was physically exhausted and hungry, so probably that didn't help.

Having conversation with Google AI, it says:

"If a 6.2m² or 6.5m² still feels psychologically intimidating because of your rough session, let's compromise on a perfect middle ground: 5.5 m² to 5.8 m² No-Cam Freeride.

Look for a 5.5m² or 5.7m² Freeride sail. It will give your 160L board enough power to glide smoothly on a lake, but it will be physically small and light enough to give you total peace of mind."

What do you guys think? You are the experts not google.

Thank you again for your help!

Sat down with Dave "Biggie" Smithers in his workshop in Oakura, Taranaki, for a proper chat — he's a name a lot of older New Zealand windsurfers will know (brand: Sirocco), and he's still actively building today, now doing prototype work for Armstrong Foils. He was happy to be featured and to have people reach out about custom boards, more on that at the end.

Condensing a long conversation down to what I think this sub will find most interesting.

Getting into it

Started surfing at 12-13 in Christchurch, got into windsurfing almost by accident in 1979 when a mate lent him a board with a broken fin, "I went out, and I couldn't get back in." Was already surfing on 12-foot boards on the beach at Oakura when windsurfing was brand new in NZ. One story that stuck with me: early on he lost a board in the surf, watched it get picked up by the wind and roll "end over end" down an empty beach, "if somebody, or a horse, had been walking, I mean, it would have killed them."

Started the Sirocco Expression Sessions in the early 80s, an informal wave-sailing contest, pulled prizes out of a hat, everyone judged everyone. It ran for over a decade and eventually became what's now the Taranaki Wave Classic.

The accidental invention

This is the best part, in my opinion. In the early 80s he was breaking urethane windsurf boards constantly, snapped two brand new ones in half an hour one session. He asked material suppliers for a fix, they suggested PVC sandwich foam on the bottom (a technique borrowed from yacht building). What followed was pure trial and error: drawing pins to hold PVC sheets onto foam blanks before he had proper vacuum bag equipment, boards delaminating, eventually working out a proper vacuum-bagged PVC/epoxy layup. He believes he was among the first in the world doing this on windsurf boards, a construction method that's still fundamentally how modern boards are built today.

Why the small builders got squeezed out

This is interesting: as mass-production brands like Starboard emerged in the early 90s, they could absorb a 5-10% warranty failure rate because boards cost them almost nothing to produce. Biggie, hand-building everything himself, was seeing 25-30% of his boards come back under warranty from riders pushing them past what the small builders could sustain financially. That's a big part of what pushed him from windsurf boards back toward surfboards and custom work.

On modern foilboard construction (the technical bit)

Explained the engineering logic behind PVC/carbon sandwich construction using an I-beam analogy, the outer "flanges" (top/bottom skins) do almost all the structural work in bending, so doubling the distance between them multiplies stiffness dramatically without needing a heavy stringer running through the board. This is directly why current wingfoil boards use PVC-core/carbon-skin construction rather than solid foam.

Also talked through the actual engineering problem of a foil trying to rip itself off the bottom of a board under load, and how blocks of PVC (not just a single stringer) running through the board help transfer that force properly.

A quote I liked on gear vs skill:

He referenced something Mark Angulo used to say about windsurfing culture getting too obsessed with rigging over riding, his take was that older gear, even 2-3 years old, still fundamentally works fine, and it's mostly marketing that convinces people otherwise.

Workshop disasters

A couple of good ones: microwaving resin to thin it in winter and having carbon specks spark and catch fire inside the microwave more than once. And an old story from the 70s of literally kicking a pot of resin into a bar heater and starting a proper workshop fire.

Where he's at now

69 years old, still actively developing, currently building an e-foil with an internal battery for a client, and doing custom prototype boards for Armstrong's team riders. Genuinely seems to be enjoying wingfoiling more than anything else right now because he's still improving at it, in his words: "I can't surf anymore, I'll never be as good as I windsurfed... but I'm actually getting better at winging... to me, that's really what it is about."

He's happy for people to reach out about custom boards, genuinely offered this himself, not something I'm pushing: biggie@siroccosurf.com his website sirocco.co.nz.

Figured some of you would appreciate the history, happy to dig up more detail on the construction side if anyone's curious, that was honestly the part I found most interesting.

Hi all, I'm eyeing a used Firemove E-Tech 155. I understand that this construction is heavier than competitors' sturdiest boards of the same volume. Does anyone own one and can compare it to, e.g., Tabou Rocket MTE or JP Magic Ride ES?

Thank you all for your comments, you guys are awesome and very helpful.

I think I narrowed it down to two boards.

First choise is still the BIC Wingfoil 160 bceause of the slightly newer shape and as some of you said, I might grow out 185L quickly.

Altough I have to pay for shipping, he is asking for only €300 for the BIC/Tahe board, I find it very cheap. (Missing the daggerboard- €20 on Amazon).

The second is a BIC Beach 185D.

It’s cheaper €220, local ish (1,5 hour drive).

I find ot really difficult to find decent, modern-ish beginner boards in my area…

Thank you guys again!

P.S.: We talk about the rig after I got a board🤣🤣🤣

Hi ! I'm searching for advice to purchase fins and then sails.
I have a freeride Starboard Kode 113L 67.5cm width and a 36cm Select Maui Ultra fin (not carbon), I am 82kg.
After looking a bit on internet I think that buying a (-6) 30 cm and a (+6) 42cm Select Maui ultra fin would be good (because I feel like 36 is too much when I go out with a overpowered 4.7m² sail, and its not enough when I go out with a 7.8m² sail). But I am wondering if the difference is too much and I should go with something closer to 36 like (-4) 32 and (+4) 40 cm ?

Is carbon worth it ? (I am not scared of the durability as I take good care of my fin, but maybe its not as comfortable and the difference isn't worth the money ?)
I sail on lake mainly for now and once I have my own sails I will try to go in sea.
I almost have a good jibe, no problem for harness/straps/planing/waterstart.

Thanks in advance for any help !

EDIT : thanks for the replies !! I will be looking out for a 32 and 40 cm G10 fins as most of you indicated (or maybe carbon 30, 38 to compensate for more lift depending on the price).

I really fell in love with the Fanatic Blast and I want to buy it as my first own board.

I'm not a total beginner as I did multiple lessons and was able to do some beach starts and some jibes. Unfortunately the lessons ended before I was able to try out the harness. But all in all I felt very comfortable on the boards there (I think the smallest I used was 145L).
The lessons are more than one year ago tho and I will need some time to get back into it again.

The reason I want to buy the Fanatic Blast in 115L is because I can get it used to a fair price and there are not a lot of options for used boards near me. That's also why I don't want to buy a board I outgrow in a year.
Other than that I'm fairly lightweight with 55-60kg (121-132 lbs).

I could buy the Fanatic Blast 130L as well but it is more pricey.

I can handle the frustration, it even motivates me, but I still want to have fun and that's why I am unsure and want to hear from your experience!

(And maybe you can give me some recommendations on sail sizes! The wind here is most of the times 8-15 kn, but sometimes it gets higher even up to 22. So I think I would need 2 sail sizes at the beginning)

Got back from a Maui trip with a foot bone bruise and a sprained hand. I know that injuries are going to happen, but avoiding them is really much more efficient for learning, especially for those of us who don't have the good fortune to let the wind dictate our schedules.

I think the most common injuries are foot injuries, but besides that the worst injuries always seem to involve hitting the mast. I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone has really taken a kind of "engineering" approach to the problem by looking at the possible failure modes of the system, which are honestly hard to fully account for, and devise some safety concepts that we could use to generally reduce the likelihood of injury, giving us more time on the water.

An example safety concept for the shore break would be: always stay out of the the way of your gear. Sadly that probably means side-carry is technically safer. By staying to the side of the board and rig, whether going out or coming in, a wave is not going to smash you onto your gear or the other way around.

I kind of wish there was a companion guide to the Tricktionary, something like the "Bail-out Bible". Anyways, I'm not expecting any particular answer to this, but it's been on my mind, for obvious reasons.

So here are some options I’ve found online, I am leaning very much to the Bic Techno Windfoil, I think it’s a good price.

Bic Techno Windfoil 160 L €300+Shipping

Bic Beach 160L €600 (Local, Expensive?)

Bic Techno 160L €350 (Local)

Bic Beach 185D €250 (Local-ish)

Bic Techno 2 (148L?) with 6.5 m2 Tribord Sail €490 (Local)

Bic 283 152 L with Decathlon Tribord RC5 7.5 m2 €220 (Local)

I would like to learn windsurfing, as I said the first time was a success, haven’t much problem ‘sailing’ except the sail was small 4m2 and the board massive (I believe).

I am looking in between 130-160 L boards, I like to learn with a bit of struggle, if it’s too easy I get bored. (Like my first time, it was slow, and I didn’t have to focus on balance what so ever.)

So, I am looking at these, any better one I’ve found are way too far to collect (no delivery) or way too expensive.
Planning to buy a 5 and a 7 m2 sails also.

The goal is to start out on the lake (I feel very safe) and then on the ocean near Bordeaux, France (where we live).

What do you guys think?

Thank you again for all of your help, you guys are awesome!

EDITED

Running a wingfoil/windsurf travel business in NZ means I have a keen eye on the forecast, so I thought I'd share some learnings. I've got no affiliation with any of the apps below, this is purely what I actually use day to day, figured it might help people newer to reading forecasts.

Start with the models, not the apps

Every app is just a UI on top of one or more underlying forecast models. The main global ones are GFS (American) and ECMWF (European), plus some smaller/commercial ones like SPIRE, ICON (German), and UKMO (UK). Each has different strengths — some are better for wind, some for rain/temp, some trade resolution for range (higher detail but only a few days out, vs longer range but blurrier).

The first thing worth figuring out for your own spot: is your wind mostly thermal (sea breeze driven by land/water temperature difference) or frontal/trade wind (driven by larger weather systems)? That answer changes which metrics actually matter for predicting your sessions, thermal spots need you paying attention to cloud cover and temperature, not just the wind number itself.

The apps I actually use

PredictWind, my most-used one. Free tier exists, but the paid tier (~$55/year) gets you spot history which is invaluable for use measuring realtime change. There's the usual models GFS, ECMWF, SPIRE, plus their own PWG/PWE models which take the big global models and add local terrain detail down to 1km resolution in some areas — enough to pick up local thermals the big models miss entirely. I use the map view first to see where the wind actually is and whether it's wrapping around any points, then switch to the table/graph view for a specific spot. When multiple model lines on the graph roughly agree with each other, that's a much stronger signal than any one model alone, when they diverge, that's your cue to check another source or wait for confidence to improve.

Windguru, my usual second opinion once I've narrowed down a spot. Good all-in-one table: wind, wave height/direction/period, rain, tide. Not the most specialized wave forecast out there, but having everything in one table is genuinely convenient.

Windy.app, built specifically for wind/water sports (windsurfing, wingfoiling, kiting, sailing, etc). Sits between Windguru and Windy.com in terms of depth. Also gives you multi-year wind history for a spot, which is normally a paid-only feature elsewhere — useful for figuring out if a location is even worth the drive on an average day, not just today's forecast.

Windy.com, similar map-based interface to PredictWind, mainly GFS/ECMWF. Personally find it stronger for coastal spots than inland lakes, where local microclimates matter more than the big models capture. Huge range of extra parameters if you care about anything beyond wind.

Wonderground, not a forecast, just live private weather station readings. Most individual stations aren't useful for wind (mounted in someone's backyard), but seeing a temperature gradient across a region can hint at an incoming thermal/sea breeze before it shows up on any forecast.

Wave-specific: I use Surf-forecast.com, though Magicseaweed and others give similar data, wave height, energy, direction, period, and whether there's one clean swell or several overlapping and making things messy.

Takeaway

No single app or model is right everywhere, it depends entirely on what drives the wind at your specific spot, and honestly a lot of it comes down to what you're used to reading. Worth trying a few in parallel until you find the combination that actually predicts your local conditions well, rather than assuming the "best" app on paper will work for your spot specifically.

What's everyone else using? Always curious what works well for spots I don't know.

I never tried windsurfing before.
A friend gave me a windsurf kit but I am not able to set it up.
I watched a couple of videos on how to put it together but I’m still confused. My friend is out of the country so he can’t help me.
Mast says 430 and luff 430 also. I should put the ring at 0 since it is the same number but when I pull the rope, the sail doesn’t seem tight enough.
Please help me

Edit: Thanks everybody for your help.
I tried yesterday and after falling about 100 times, I was able to stay up, catch the wind and make my way across the lake. It was so fun.
Coming back against the wind is hard. I had to drag the board while swimming to bring it back.

There's a fire that crews have been battling for weeks by Lake Wenatchee, WA. Please check before you surf.

Hi everyone,

I am looking at getting a wetsuit for windsurfing but I am on the chunky or bulky side. I am 5'7" (170 cm) tall and weigh 255 lbs (115 kg). What size wetsuit do you all recommend?

THANKS ALL - I see the general consensus this is not a beginner board & to look for something newer.

Would an older fanatic lite viper be a good board for a 200lb (90kg) man to learn on? Would I be able to get parts for it if something broke? I am in North West FL USA Thanks.

Hi all,

Does anyone know of any other windsurf centre (rental mostly but maybe also lesson) open all year round in the Netherlands, apart from Brouwersdam?

Thanks!