Hi, I'm new to windsufing and am so confused by the choices regarding equipment I am still yet to buy a rig despite having a new board sitting in my garage all Summer.

The problems I face are what goes with what, in terms of mast, boom and Sail sizes. How much I should be paying for this stuff (what is the standard price for a mast, boom and sail (new and second hand) and whether it's better to buy new or second hand.

I've gone to RPS and they're selling a complete rig new for $1200 but I don't really want to pay this much on top of my $900 for the board. Right now someone's selling their rig on ebay one piece at a time, but unless I win every auction I don't really see the point of bidding and the way the bidding's going it could end up costing more than $1000 to do that.

I'm going to post a wanted ad here for a rig as soon as I can get my profile to say VIC and not WA, that's if I don't get sucked into buying the gear off ebay first.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Gidday patchk!!
Steer clear of buying stuff off ebay as you can't see it before you get it . What looks good in a picture can be absolute trash in reality .. Uv'd monofilm , corroded alloy etc.. etc...
Go to your local shop or a few shops even if you have to do a bit of driving and peice together the rig of your choice.The newer the sail the better older sails can be easily busted.Being a beginer you want a strong sail because you will fall into it alot.
You should be able to put a rig together for under a grand.Once you have a complete rig you can upgrade indivdual peices and your outlay isn't as much as your first complete rig.Keep an eye on the seabreeze buy and sell ..much better than ebay.
Cheers

If you want to save yourself a lot of $, search around the shops and online for superseded sails.
You can pick up brand new superseded sails for as little as $300 which will bring down your overall cost substantially.
If you can't find anything locally try ringing Glascraft in SA, they've got Neil Pryde Combats going really cheap!
Otherwise you can do really well on the seabreeze buy & sell.


"Steer clear of buying stuff off ebay as you can't see it before you get it"..."Keep an eye on the seabreeze buy and sell".
Nice one!

RPS has second-hand stuff out the back - it often contains a gem or two.

Alternatively, SHQ are having a "swap meet" this Sunday - its possible to pickup a bargain if you get there early (which I think would be about 10am); the idea of the swap meet is for guys to take old gear there, with SHQ getting a small percentage of the sale price. The best part of the swap meet is that there will more likely to be someone there who you can ask questions (other than the sales guys).

You can definately get a first rig for less than $1200. However, my 2 cents worth of advice. Don't buy your mast 2nd hand, get a new one. You don't know how a second hand mast has been treated and may have hairline fractures caused from being hit hard or being dropped on a hard surface. These hairline fractures can casue the mast to snap.

As its your first rig, you can get away with 30% carbon mast and it won't break the bank.

a new mast, boom and extension with uni will set you back $650.00 to $700 pretty much from any store australia wide, thats entry level gear that will work fine for begginner to intermediate sailing, the biggest question you will have to ask yourself and be honest is , where you want your sailing to head in say the next 2 to 5 years, if you say for instence wavesailing, then aim to purchase wave sails, masts, booms are pretty much the same across all deciplines as well as uni's. you don't want to buy all freeride sails etc and sell them again once you want to head in the surf.

as the other fella said, try to buy a new mast if you can, then you will know the history and even though older gear will be cheaper even if it is brand new, try to keep your gear newer than say 5 years as it will be way better to use and your progression will be faster as gear is getting better each year and eazier to use, although there will be people saying it's all hype to sell gear, but it's actually true it is getting better..

basically you get what you pay for.