Thought I'd start my own thread instead of annoying the other boys with silly questions. No doubt this has been asked before, but goddammit the search function sucks on this site.

I'm attempting to put together a nice little setup on the cheaper end of the spectrum. I am a tad over a 100kg, however slowly on my way down to about 90kg. Sailing will mostly be done in the Brisbane area to start off with. I've already tracked down a nice beginner board which I'll hopefully be picking up tomorrow, 170L Starboard Go.

I would love to cover as much range as possible, well, as much range as a beginner would be sailing in. And would like to keep the rigging to around $1000, so I think that probably puts me in the Used range.

Sails wise. What sizes should I be looking at first? What style, wave/freestyle, is there a preference out of those two designs for a beginner? There doesn't seem to be a 'general do everything' sail?

Mast wise. From my readings a lot of people are suggesting a 430 size? I assume different sizes fit different size sails, but how do you tell what fits what? Carbon? RDM,SDM?

Booms.. Jeez I don't even know where to start with booms. Extensions? :O

Altogether am I better of keeping different components within the same family? JP sail with Jp Mast and so on? Or do most brands cross match fairly well?

I suppose the big question should be, anything I should be aware of in general?


Even if someone can find the time to answer one of my questions, it would be greatly appreciated.

If I was you I would go see Simon at Boardcrazy he will be able to help you out with everything u need best of luck and enjoy your sailboarding.

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Duane1010 said..
If I was you I would go see Simon at Boardcrazy he will be able to help you out with everything u need best of luck and enjoy your sailboarding.

Hey Duane! With my budget do you think it would still be worth seeing Simon?

Yes mate he's a good bloke he will do everything he can to help u out.

I'm just in the process of updating my gear from last century. I would try to keep the same brand for mast and sails, in my opinion booms and bases are not critical so far as brand. Simon will point you in the right direction and may have some second hand gear to help

Hey MrKN, to begin with just track down whatever you can find for as cheap as you can get it. Look for a 430 constant curve mast with standard diameter (SDM), nothing fancy and no RDM BS yet. This will suit most sails from 5.5m up to 7m. You will need a mast base (just buy the $120 Chinook one from Simon and you'll have it for life) and a mast extension. I can loan you a mast extension in the short term if you can't track one down easy, but Simon will have something down there.

Get someone to show you what they should look like when sails are rigged, Pete (Waricle) did this for me and it's worth it's weight in gold because as a beginner you're not chasing tenths of a second per km, you just want something that will work. If you know how a sail should look when it's rigged then it helps you mix and match a bit with different sails. If you come up to Sandstone I can show you what Peter showed me now that he has defected to the grubby southside.

Don't get hung up on different types of sails either, for learning, a freeride sail will be as good as a blasting sail or as a wave sail or as just about any sail. Avoid cams until you're ready to get serious, they're just something else to break and are a f$$k around when rigging, basic battened sails are the go for starting off.

I have a personal dislike of buying any sails more than say 4-5 years old, plastic perishes and old sails are a time bomb where you can be throwing good money after bad as the monofilm explodes when an ant walks on it. You should be able to get very good quality second hand sails for between $250 and $400 each.

I use cheap Sunshine aluminium alloy booms from Dieter up at Caloundra and have no problems, but Simon might have a cheap equivalent. When a boom is $200 new it's not worth messing around with second hand I reckon. Again, I have a spare boom with harness lines and uphaul you are welcome to borrow in the short term.

You will need to get a harness, my preference is a seat harness because that's what I got taught to sail with and they have the distinct advantage of making it easier to put mast foot pressure down. However if you've got a harness of some sort from kiting then you may be able to use that. Dieter has Mystic seat harnesses for a red hot price of $110 at the moment if you need to buy one.

As far as sail sizes go, I got a 5.5m Gaastra Matrix freeride sail with my board, I now only use this when the wind is ridiculous. My other sails for my 430 mast are a 6.1m NP Firefly freestyle sail which I use in 15-20kn conditions and a 7m Gaastra Pilot beginner freeride sail which I use around the 15kn mark. I'd suggest you get 2 sails, something around 6m and something around 7m to get going on. Next mast will be a 460 or a 490 to allow you to use bigger sails. Have you got the picture here? My sail collection is a mismatched one that still gets the job done, don't let anyone tell you any different for while you're learning.

Start looking through the for sale section on here and see what's available, I'll have a quick sticky beak myself now. Remember when we're learning this is an art not a science.

Thanks lads!

PBM, That's what I'm talking about. Muchly appreciated the time it would have taken to type that out.


Side question. What are people generally happy to post? Understandably boards would be a pain in the ass. But what about sails, booms, mast, are these things easy enough to post?

Mate, it's not so much the posting it's more the proper packing and then stuffing around with freight companies. Generally most private sellers don't want to mess around freighting anything bigger than a mast extension or a fin. Most businesses however have it down pat, I've had both a board and a sail sent over here to home from a shop in the west and they were fantastic, the sail cost $50 for freight and the board was $150. Hit up Adam the roofer to see what he might be trying to sell, he's been on a spending spree lately for new sails and masts so might have some of his beginner stuff that he'll let go at the right price and you'll only have to head over to Bribie to grab it.

Thee really is only one answer and that is to talk with Simon at Board Crazy. Everyone has an opinion on what you should and shouldn't buy. If you are a rank beginner, and by the sounds on the board you have bought you are, then you want a soft forgiving sail to learn on. Something in the 5.5 range would be ideal. Now you will not get planing on this, but it will allow you to really practice basics.

But before you spend a cent, and if you haven't done so already, go and get some lessons and learn how to sail. Do this from an instructor, not from just anyone. There are plenty of guys that think they are being helpful by giving you the benefit of their experience, but it may lead you to have a really drawn out learning experience, and the development of very bad habits. Simon has contacts this way.

Good luck and enjoy.

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DAM71 said..
Thee really is only one answer and that is to talk with Simon at Board Crazy. Everyone has an opinion on what you should and shouldn't buy. If you are a rank beginner, and by the sounds on the board you have bought you are, then you want a soft forgiving sail to learn on. Something in the 5.5 range would be ideal. Now you will not get planing on this, but it will allow you to really practice basics.

But before you spend a cent, and if you haven't done so already, go and get some lessons and learn how to sail. Do this from an instructor, not from just anyone. There are plenty of guys that think they are being helpful by giving you the benefit of their experience, but it may lead you to have a really drawn out learning experience, and the development of very bad habits. Simon has contacts this way.

Good luck and enjoy.

I thought I might have been able to save a couple of bucks. But I think in the long run I'll probably save money by doing things the right way from the start. So I plan on annoying Simon tomorrow morning as soon as his front doors open. God my credit card is going to hate me
Lessons are definitely on the agenda. Unfortunately I do need my own gear for the lessons.

You can still save a few bucks with the big cost items like a mast and sails but for all the little things like a boom, mast base, mast extension, harness lines etc sometimes the new price is not much more than what people are chasing second hand. It is expensive to set yourself up but good stuff will last a while. With regards to a 5.5m sail that DAM71 recommends, that was my first sail. I weigh 100kg, and it planed my 180L, 1m wide Express with me on it in 15-20kn wind so even though you'll grow out of it quick for everyday use as you gain experience, you will be using that 5.5 at least a few times a year when the wind gets right up so it's still a keeper sail. I used mine the other week when the wind was a bit silly and was still overpowered.

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Mrknownothing said..
Thanks lads!

PBM, That's what I'm talking about. Muchly appreciated the time it would have taken to type that out.


Side question. What are people generally happy to post? Understandably boards would be a pain in the ass. But what about sails, booms, mast, are these things easy enough to post?

I've bought boards from WA - Tassie and Qld. So long as they are well packaged it's fine. A beginners board would be more of a pain as they are larger. Most of the ones I got are under 90ltres.

Probably changing the topic a bit but there is a lot to be said about buying locally from your windsurf supplier as when you want that emergency spare, or advice, if we don't support them now, they won't be here in the future! Just saying....

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gregwed said..
Probably changing the topic a bit but there is a lot to be said about buying locally from your windsurf supplier as when you want that emergency spare, or advice, if we don't support them now, they won't be here in the future! Just saying....

Good point, but the retailers don't seem to carry a large quantity of second hand boards, nothing like the smorgasboard on SB used, not the shops in Qld anyway.

My second Hand range of boards is very much supply and demand, that is bigger boards suitable to get into the sport sell quickly but smaller and older narrower boards tend to sit around . For instance at the moment I have over 15 used boards in stock but not many above 120 litre.

Buying used gear on line has its pitfalls. There has been many occasions where I have had a customer come in after buying something online and it is totally wrong . the poor buyer gets the line "sure mate it will suit you " from a seller who is lets say very keen to move his old gear on .

So any time you are free Mrknownothing pop in and we can have a chat and try to educate you on what might suit which you want to head in this awesome sport

You're right OW, there's not a very large choice of second hand boards in the shops but I guess that reflects the state of windsurfing in general as a sport, the market is very small and arguably if SUP wasn't so popular (diversifying their income) there possibly wouldn't be many windsurfing shops left.

The online info available to beginners on how to start out in this sport, from the sport's peak body, is pretty minimal. The 3 main shops in our area (Board Crazy, Suncoast Sailboards and Surf Connect) all offer lessons which is fantastic. However if you google windsurfing lessons you will be drawn to the Windsurfing QLD page of Windsurfing Australia which only shows Peter up at Caloundra (is he still doing this?) and Surf Connect. It doesn't specifically detail the brilliant YA windsurfing lessons and training available at RQ, or point towards the lessons and learning opportunities available from all the local shops and it certainly doesn't have any "getting started" info for people interested in taking up the sport. I'm only a beginner myself having started a little less than 12 months ago, I was just lucky enough to track down Jeff and Pete to help me out locally which has rubbed off on all of us Sandstone/Bribie guys so we help out new people in any way we can. Basically Jeff's theory is if you want to give it a try and you make the effort to show up to the beach he will have something there for you to try out.

Hey Mr KIA, just make a few calls to check on the need for your own gear for lessons, I thought SurfConnect near you provided gear but I'm not sure about Sunshine Coast Sailboards whether they provide equipment or use the Golden Beach Hire gear, make the call to Simon too.