I had a similar incident of Hillarys a few years ago and board was never seen again... but never give up hope!

dont worry mate it will be at the island up on the rocks
ring lano sea resc and the cops
as that is were my mate found his the nexted day
zed hows the new board

Yeah, I'm pretty spewing. have tried Lanno police, nothing yet, will give it a few days.

Shadow - it's an excellent board - has raised my down the line sailing up a good few pegs (so no longer totallylame). Planes very early, so good for Scarborough beach breaks, and lovely and stable rails for gybes and bottom turns at Gnaraloo. I'll be getting another if that one doesn't re-appear.

It doesn't like being really overpowered - I wasn't super keen on the stock Exocet fin. But as long as you downsize the sail before you're totally maxed, it's fine down to a 4.5 or 4.2 day (I was 83 kg before Xmas turkey and beer).

Only one concern - a mate had an identical board go really soft between the straps after 1 year - he should get it on warranty though, and could just be unlucky and got a bad one.

Moral of the story is be careful with euro pin mast feet with the lock inside the mastfoot. Nothing broke - I'm a serial tendon replacer - the b*gger just pulled the pin out of the locking mechanism. With those euro pin jobs, you can't see if the lock jaws are worn. I'm going back to the chinook two stud system - at least you can check the condition of the gear.

We live, learn, and keep the windsurfing shops in business as we go!

Couldn't catch it. Had a 30 knot wind behind it, and the b*stard just trundled out of reach. Chased it for 5-10 minutes, thinking better to have a board to paddle back with, but couldn't catch it and was exhausting myself too much. So swam back and saved the rig with the help of a cray boat when it was getting dicey.

But you can tell I'm a true windsurfer - got them to save the rig first!

Good news for all fans of happy endings. The board was found by some locals drowning it's sorrows down the north beach, and was pursuaded to come home for a reconciliation. The loose slapper of a mast foot who caused the split has been kicked out, and the rig and board are back together and will live happily ever after.

Cheers to Franko and Vladimir.