Select to expand quote

Gestalt said..
From Facebook greenough reportedly went from longboard to his spoon early 80's.

Are you still in touch with George? I sailed with him many, many years ago before he left the area. I still occasionally run into his brother around town.

Select to expand quote

Gestalt said..

Basher said..
I'm not one for nostalgia, but I'd point to the more recent waveboard shape changes as being more interesting, or better for the sport.

Which more recent ideas do you see as been more interesting

1) Boards becoming progressively shorter and wider, and easier to sail in real world waves. Starboard sort of started that with their original Evo. Their Evil Twin was then another classic, albeit one that many couldn't sail at the time of its release.
2) The mast base positioning coming way back on the board.
3) Better understanding of fins and fin positioning - to the point where waveboards are no longer single fin, and thrusters may use asymmetric rail fins.
4) Wave rigs becoming much more compact, with shorter masts and reduced diameter mast tubing being used for better leech release.
5) Wave rigs are also much lighter, and four battens is now the norm. The sails are set on pre-preg carbon masts and booms.
6) The new kit has benefited from a change of sailing stance, with an upright mast allowing much more turning looseness on the wave face.

Select to expand quote

jdfoils said..

Gestalt said..
From Facebook greenough reportedly went from longboard to his spoon early 80's.

That's just a couple of miles from here... sailed there yesterday!

Looks like Lake Lopez in California central coast. Are you there now, I thought you were a Floridian?

Definitely central coast.
I've never been a Floridian.

Select to expand quote

jdfoils said..

Gestalt said..
From Facebook greenough reportedly went from longboard to his spoon early 80's.

Are you still in touch with George? I sailed with him many, many years ago before he left the area. I still occasionally run into his brother around town.

Unfortunately not met him.

I was in the Byron McTavish store today. Notice a flextail surf board on the wall. Will try and get a photo of it and post here

Another one for the history nerds. Peter Nitschke's short board built in tasmania late 70's. Photo taken last week at his factory on the sunshine coast. Love this board

Originally a surfboard Peter mentioned he shaped and sold hundreds of this surfboard in the 70's

A bit more history... I asked Peter for the photos below. 1975 approx. Was his first windsurfer build. Enough rocker for waves. He's currently building a tandem windsurfer so I guess that's 50 years building windsurfing boards. Not sure who was first person to build custom windsurfers but Peter must be a contender in Australia and precedes McTavish. Peter had windsurfed and surfed with McTavish and Greenough in Byron during a roadtrip he made up the wast coast in the early days.

As a side note. Peter was the first person to import the windsurfer into Australia.

Like most of the early explorers of the sport Peter liked innovation and was experimenting with design ideas that are common place now

Below is one of his formula boards with deck recess. this board was built around 2012. He built me a formula board around 2000 and had been building them for a couple of years prior. Fanatic used something very similar to Peter's tail shape on their formula boards of that era . With his formula and slalom boards Peter explored nose shapes to keep the boards nose down to improve control. The recess and the nose shapes are 2 things which are common on boards from the past 5 years. Around 2010 I asked Peter to build me a 70cm wide x 210 cm long slalom board based on this formula shape after many conversations with him.. I recently saw someone had converted it into a foil board. That board preceded the move to shorter boards and was an interesting experiment

Think he started vacuum bagging boards in the late 90's

Fwiw.
Peter started making boards under the name manta before switching to nxs.

Select to expand quote

Gestalt said..
Like most of the early explorers of the sport Peter liked innovation and was experimenting with design ideas that are common place now

Below is one of his formula boards with deck recess. this board was built around 2012. He built me a formula board around 2000 and had been building them for a couple of years prior. Fanatic used something very similar to Peter's tail shape on their formula boards of that era . With his formula and slalom boards Peter explored nose shapes to keep the boards nose down to improve control. The recess and the nose shapes are 2 things which are common on boards from the past 5 years. Around 2010 I asked Peter to build me a 70cm wide x 210 cm long slalom board based on this formula shape after many conversations with him.. I recently saw someone had converted it into a foil board. That board preceded the move to shorter boards and was an interesting experiment

Think he started vacuum bagging boards in the late 90's

Fwiw.
Peter started making boards under the name manta before switching to nxs.

Heard him on the radio Australia All over with Macca, he was on his yacht moored somewhere in Tassie and he spoke about windsurfing trips he used to make. 4.14.54 www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/australiaallover/australia-all-over/105750942?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared

That was great. Thx for posting choco.
He's making the most of life bouncing back and forth. Sailed with him only a few weeks ago.

phone calls usually start with, so are you in Qld.

Grabbed these photos of the wall when visiting mctavish shop in Byron. Guessing the first photo is a flextail kneeboard.