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Got hooked in Dahab and now 'need' to buy some kit..
niko-time - 29-3-2010 at 14:31

Hello all, I'm new here. Briefly telling you about myself and my abilities, I am a university student studying philosophy at UEA and joined the windsurfing society (for want of a night out rather than windsurfing to be honest...) and have been 4 or 5 times since september, generally at the Norfolk Broads and also some SWA events (going to the BUCs nationals in Southampton...eek) and decided to go on a trip to dahab for a week with the society. Just got back (5am this morning) and am hooked and thus would quite like to get some kit to call my own.

I am 6"1 and around 11 stone. In Dahab I was riding a Shark 135/150 depending on conditions. Not sure what level I am although certainly improved vastly, no longer really need a daggerboard unless the wind was ridiculous in which I needed it to get upwind (and not get stranded and rescued by Egptian safety boat drivers which happened perhaps a little too frequently...) and managed to get into the harness planing but not into footstraps. I can beach start but not waterstart, and my fast tacking is fairly consistent, at least much more consistent than my jives which I need to work on.

Sorry for all that detail, but I figured too much detail was better than too little. Basically, I am looking to get a windsurfing kit so I can go out with my windsurfing comrades (living with 3 next year) and not just on university trips. Due to the student budget, this will have to be taken place over a period of time and I would much prefer to buy used to save money. Where are places I can look for these?

I also know very little about kit, what is good what is not etc. I would quite like a 135-145 litre board and probably a 5" sail to start me off. Which sort of areas should I look in, a quick google left me pretty perplexed (although it did find me this lovely site).

Thanks, sorry for the essay of a first post!

EDIT: Gybes, not jives...

[Edited on 30-3-2010 by niko-time]


justal - 2-4-2010 at 13:29

Hello, and welcome!

A board of around 135 litres should probably be ideal for you and will also be a useful light-wind board once you move onto smaller boards and bigger winds. a 5m sail may be a little small as your only sail though, especially over the summer so if you can only get one sail then you might be better off looking for something around 6-6.5m to go with that board. Ideally though you would need more than one sail.

Buying from eBay or somewhere is fine, but until you know what you are looking for it can be easy to get something that isn't really suitable. Most of the bigger windsurf shops have large stocks of 2nd hand or ex-demo kit though so it may be worth phoning around a few of them to see what they have. They should also be able to give you some good advice too.

Al.