Obviously I've been out of the sport for a few years and have missed out on some stuff. What happened to:

Jamie Hawkins?
Barrie Edgington?
Hollow boards?
Strapper boards?
ART Sails?
Sailworks?
BWA events?

not sure on others but I blieve Barry went into catamaran sailing and was quite successful.

Strapper - wern't they local to Australia? They may still be going but small production - note sure.

Ah, a nostalgia trip, but your list isn't going back that far:

Jamie Hawkins - no idea, but I still see his name mentioned in the mags occasionally

Barrie Edgington - wasn't he the one famous for windsurfing down the Thames to school (amongst other things). I think he is now the RYA's official coach or the Olympic squad - something like that. Still a player anyway.

Hollow boards - weren't the Copello's virtually hollow?

Strappers - the odd one appears for about £100 but you never see them on the beach any more. Were they made by Jason Polakow or just made famous by him sailing them? They were the most teardrop design boards around - real Turkish slippers. JP board graphics are mightily similar

ART sails - don't know, but no loss

Sailworks - still going. If you ever used to go on the Boards forums, US Pete was forever singing the praises of the Retro

BWA - didn't that fuse with something else to form the UKWA.

Here some for the real crumblies of the sport. Whatever happened to:

Hy Jumpers
Vitamin Sea
Chapter
Dolphin (the mail order kings before Gun)
not forgetting Chicken Rock!

Both Starboard and AHD bought out Hollow boards last year i recall (formula and a freesex varient)

ART Sails? Dissolved but Monty Spindler (Spelling?) the designer is in Tarifa and now makes Loft sails www.loftsails.com

Sailworks?
Still going well in US home turf
See www.sailworks.com

BWA = UKWA = www.ukwindsurfing.com

Wasn't it Tristan Boxford who sailed to school?
I had a bright pink Hy Jumpers Nappy harness when I was about 11.
I loved the ART Butterfly sails, I think the designer Monty someone now does Loft sails.
what about 'A+' boards?
I think Strapper only got famous due to JP riding them.

Also, how come Wayler never evolved?

You're right it was Tristam Boxford.

I think your answer to the Wayler question is The Chipper

When I was a kid my Dad had a Fanatic Club 360 and I thought it was the 'bees knees'. I recently saw one in the back of a friends garage, what a heap of s***!!! It weighed a tonne!!!

Also, how about these brands:
Vinta
Barnstormer
Hotwave (my 1st sail, a 3.9 which was really tall but 1 meter wide!!!))

Tad Ciastula (who amde Vitamin Sea boards) is now shaping kite-surf boards in the Canaries... My first ever short-board was a Vitamin sea 292.

Hy Jumpers... my final peice of Hy-Jympers kit (a 'Stubby' mast protector) met a watery end late last year along with the rest of my rig... It was certainly well-made as it was until that point still going strong after about 14 years of heavy duty service.

Chapter??? Did they make windsurfing kit? The only Chapter I know is the surfshop in Braunton.

Vinta!!!... Not too much of a loss really.

Heres some others:
Klepper (used to have some pretty cool graphics on their boards)
Alpha (Made some goods boards in their time)
Armstrong (With their checked wetsuits)

Al.

I had a Vit Sea 292 as well - my god it felt short getting on that after a long board. I was very proud of my pintail wingers! Mine was a factory second from some dodgy warehouse in Cornwall where they re-sprayed them with paint jobs on a par with this year's Gun boards. Still, had many a good session on the old fella until we gave it a viking burial in 2001 because it refused to rot after being left 9 years to the elements - traded up to a Mk1 screamer (now long gone too).

When I had the Vit Sea, all the hotshots on my beach had Chapter 290's and 270's - I think they were another Cornish custom house of the era.

ah the blasts from the past
Jamie Hawkinsis still on the PWA and a nice guy

Barrie Edgington yeah coach for the RYA

Hollow boards a guy in the gorge makes them and a couple of the formular boards tried last year but poss were banned

Strapper boards still going but only surf and kite they go thier fingers burnt with the production boards, they snapped

art went pop

Sailworks still going and very nice they are too no hype

BWA events see above

Chapter??? Did they make windsurfing kit? The only Chapter I know is the surfshop in Braunton.
you are right the same comp made windsurf boards mostly pop outs along with windjammer/newwaves/and others all in braunton in the 80's they had rent free industrial units in the area when the rent went up so did they ,the newwaves lasted the longest.Decent prod boards killed of the trade

Vitsea was cornish based the Isle of white then Tad went to Tarifa then worked for Proof a couple of years ago for a few months the went back to Tarifa

Vinta/hotsails went pop based in newcastle run by a couple of scandies

Dolphin based in Harwich went back to dingy/yacht sails top company

Klepper went pop to many warrenty claims

chicken rock speed boys from cheltenham rode the first speed wave then died

the mid 80's ther was so much crap about and so much buzz about the sport the hkit was not far off the same price then and was very poor some worked but some was real crap

time for my coco

pies

How about Tencate???

Al.

blasts from the past! - it certainly WASN'T better in the old days.

My first shortboard was a tencate (about 290) - plastic footstraps, plastic board - brought it cheap form my paperround money (im not actually that old although i sound it)

Chapter - another short board I got from cornwall - "Chapter Laguna" - 295 - bigtime concaves, cool graphics, thrusters etc Looked the nuts - wish I had kept it just for the bedroom wall. Yellow and blue if i remember right.

Cutaway sails - the marketing was on the lines of a birds wing wasnt it?

Dolphin - the only dolphin I know was based in St Albans - John Hall designs boards were sold there.

Chicken Rock - bl00dy hell! - i forgot about them

quote:

---

Originally posted by Shaka

Cutaway sails - the marketing was on the lines of a birds wing wasnt it?

---

John Hall he shaped vinta boards among others

alan Neighbour was another west country shaper still going strong making surf skis

other old uk boards

vallhala liverpool

opps wrong button

atlantis minehead

webb + mouseloft sails anglesea

mm ?

limited edition cornish

lodey boards and sails

magic touch danish shaper in cornwall had onr of these great shape poor construction fell apart in 6 months

elite now Tombstone surf boards same as above but lasted 13 months had lots of repairs

most from the early 80's

things are def better now and much cheaper in real terms

A friend of mine went to WAus. in 93 & came back with a Strapper,looked exactly the same as Polakow's on the front of Gaastra's Heart & Soul video(still a good windsurf film now with Polakow/Naish/Bringdal).Not being in the windsurf world for some time i assumed Strapper had moved on to become JP!!!silly assumption.

Spence...

Ps, i also knew someone who had a Chapter Wsurf board,that also had thrusters...thought Vit Sea was based in New quay?

We'll if we're reminiscing about the good old days......

My first board (back in 87?) was a 2nd hand Alpha 215 - as long as Oil tanker and about as heavy.

To complement this a one piece teak mast with quaint tie on boom - set off nicely when rigged with a shocking pink De-Vrees or something sail - I think it was a Dutch company.

Mind you, once it was going it didn't so much fly over the chop, just plough thru it.

Still, at the time I thought it was the business, and had all the time in the world to use it.

Happy days ;-)

Nick

ps I'm thinking of getting a new sail - is it me or has sail development pretty much stood still for the past 5-10 years.... like the windsurf speed record.

Anyone know what happened to Tommy and SHirley from Armstrong Wetsuits?

i was drinking with young tommy allday on sunday at a friends stag day, tommy living and breathing in and around the area of harlyn cornwall and he has some new projects up his sleeve !