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THE RETURN OF THE LONGBOARD
By Boards UK (28th. August 2006)
Bill Dawes look at the latest 'new' phenomenon to hit the market, and gives an early-day appraisal of the initial exponent of the group; the Exocet Kona…
What goes around, comes around, as they say - and it's never more true than in windsurfing. Nevertheless, the re-emergence of longboards onto the windsurfing scene wasn't something that many people would have predicted just yet. Indeed, as detailed in the main New for 2007 article, it looks as though 2005-2006 will be remembered as the year when windsurfers reached their very shortest lengths. So why have longboards suddenly started reappearing?
There are actually quite a few factors at play here - nostalgia being one of the biggest. Ah, those halcyon days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when every lake, harbour and beach was packed with happy windsurfers pottering around in light winds on longboards. Many of the older hands in the windsurfing industry look back on those times and wonder why we can't recreate it. Indeed, in some camps it has become the holy grail - if only we can reinvent light wind windsurfing as fun then people will flock back to the sport (and we'll all be rich!)
Unfortunately though, the world has changed. In those early days there was precious little else you could do if you wanted some good clean outdoor fun, in a portable format that didn't necessarily require other people to help you launch, crew or whatever. Attention spans were longer, too - the fact that windsurfing takes a bit longer to learn than most other sports was not an issue, as opposed to the modern instant-gratification MTV generation ways. But most importantly, in the early days of the sport windsurfing on a longboard in light winds was actually quite a challenge in itself anyway - and then in stronger winds it got really hard! Whereas nowadays, effortless planning is easily accessible to all, and with the best will in the world, drifting about in lighter widns just isn't quite the same once you've tasted the thrills of in-the-straps blasting. Unless you have somewhere specific to go, or other people to compete against…
Which brings us on to the other major factor behind the sudden revitalization of bigger boards. The current Olympic board (the RS:X) has manifestly failed to deliver the goods as a club racer for the wider market. It seems to be working well enough as an Olympic one-design, but wider hopes that it might stimulate a revival of grass-roots club racking, enticing large numbers of competent windsurfers back into battling it out round the cans on Tuesday nights and weekends - have clearly been dashed. Indeed, it has so spectacularly not happened that it's cast a big shadow over the whole 'hybrid' concept. The original idea was that these boards should fall somewhere in between the planning performance of the Formula racer, and the lighter wind performance of the longboard. Unfortunately though, the resulting compromise seems to be the worst of all worlds. The RS:X is really not that much fun in lighter winds (and vastly slower than a longboard), too heavy to plane early, and substantially slower than a Formula in the stronger winds.
However, hats off to the windsurfing industry for seeing this as an opportunity rather than a reason for gloom. Several other manufacturers have now brought out their own hybrid raceboards, looking to fill the gap (and who knows - maybe nab the next Olymplic board title?) The 2007 hybrid line-up includes the F2 Lighning (285 x 88), the Exocet Pacers (300x80 & 290x70), and the Starboard Hybrids (287x77 & 277x82). These boards vary between 'still quite short' (277 cm) and 'getting a bit longer' (3m) and between very wide (93cm) and 'a bit wide' (70 cm). Although still inferior to the best specialist planning or non-planing opposition, they reckon to provide reasonable crossover performance depending on their particular shape. Their main problem, though, is simply that they lack a forum. Few people are tempted to buy one because there isn't really anywhere to use it. They really need a strong class or club racing scene to slot into - the classic chicken-and-egg situation.
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