A friend and I just bought our 8 year old girls a windsurfing rig.



I

bought the vandal. My mate bought the ezzy. I checked out the severne and fanatic aswell. Here is my summary.

They are all around the $550-$700 mark for a rig including extension , mast, boom and sail.

The severne is a scaled down s1 with a flexing mast, full battens. Awesome construction. The penalty is weight. But when my kid is in the foot straps I'm getting one.

The ezzy has two sails at the same price. Nice. It's lighter than the severne.

The fanatic is light but has an alloy mast.

The vandal is the lightest. Skinny epoxy mast. That sold me.

Great!
Light, simple and easy to uphaul is key in the very early stages. My kids were 10 before they were really strong enough to be good at uphauling. The best equipment is a peer or three. Kids camps are great for that. Patience and make it as fun as possible.

I thought I completely failed. My boys play tennis and basketball. My wife does not like be captive at the beach, so windsurfing has never been a family activity. My kids attended a kids camp for a few summers at least. Then this Christmas holiday break, I was desperate to get out of the house and get a sail in. I had to drive 6 hours to get an afternoon windy coastal session in, and the 16yo shocked me and asked if he could come along. He was surprisingly good. Planing and self-sufficient on freeride gear while I was freestyle hacking. Truly, one of the best sessions of my life...

Nice story Wsurfn
Hey Yuppy, there is also the Gun rig.

My kids rigging vid! I think they would like to be presenters on ABC3 one day

Brilliant Justin. Definitely naturals in front of the camera although you need to educate Alex that it's rope not string
PS - Needs more downhaul

What size is that Gun kids sail too. I've got the Ezzy 1.0 & 1.5 but it's getting too small for my 11 y.o boys.

How come all the pictures of kids rigs are on their side?

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Yuppy said..
A friend and I just bought our 8 year old girls a windsurfing rig.


The severne is a scaled down s1 with a flexing mast, full battens. Awesome construction. The penalty is weight. But when my kid is in the foot straps I'm getting one.

Great to see plenty of options on the kids rig front.

As you say the XS-1 is more suited to advanced riders. A better comparison in the range would be the Synergy rig in the smaller sizes (Dacron construction from 1.2 to 4.3). This rig was updated for 2015 and the Kids sizes are the same layout as Big Kid size shown below.

Good to know severne.

As a massive severne fan I have the
S1 4.3
S1 pro 4.7
Blade 4.7 and 5.5
Gator 6.0
Gorilla masts and
Enigma boom.

Severne would have been my first choice. Pity the shop didn't tell me about this light weight version.

Bicsport supplied two complete kids rigs to the Junior program we have running at RQ in Brisbane. Very happy with them, thanks Bicsport.

The Ezzy kids rigs work great, no luff pocket to hold water, makes it light and easy to uphaul.

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JustinL said..
My kids rigging vid! I think they would like to be presenters on ABC3 one day

Great Video, Alex and Chloe. Presenters in the making for sure. Your Dad's camera work needs more work however. I think the Gun one looks the best anyway, with heaps of visibility being all monofilm.

Being visible for kids is more important for my point of view, they don't reach critical speed yet.
Hence hands down for the Severne sails, like always ;-)

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sausage said...


What size is that Gun kids sail too. I've got the Ezzy 1.0 & 1.5 but it's getting too small for my 11 y.o boys.

My 10yo pictured above happily uses the 3.2 pictured . His 1.5mtr is now to small. We have a 3.5 wave sail but the extra weight of the adult mast and boom make it to heavy for him but its still ok for older kids in their teens to learn with.

Hi,

You aren't looking to sell the Ezzy 1.0 and 1.5m sails are you? I am looking for something to suit a 5 and 7 year old.

Craig.

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cj1981 said..
Hi,

You aren't looking to sell the Ezzy 1.0 and 1.5m sails are you? I am looking for something to suit a 5 and 7 year old.

Craig.

I can say these ezzy packages are great ...we have had kids from 5.-7 use the Rigs 1.0 ..1.5 .so light and easy ..out of 20 kids only 2 failed ..some blew our minds how natural it was for them ..we also have the next two sizes up ..for the bigger kigs ..2. And 2.5 ..8-12 year olds ..
make sure it's a on shore wind ..they need saving .
me and a mate just brought two sets to teach a few school kids ..after work ..no charge ...try and get more people into the sport .they love it .
we got ours from surf and sail WA.

Out of interest...

Being an ex windsurf instructor and coming from an education department windsurfing coaching background and not from a father or mother trying to teach my kids.

What is the key factors you look for in a windsurf rig for a newbie or grommet??

Me and my brother have picked up a couple of hot sails kids 2.1. Which look so cool and will be able to take some abuse over the years we teach our boys to sail.

Had our first windsurfing session on Sunday with the 2 4year olds and my 2 year old had a go as well. It's a little heavy for the 2 year old but still stoked.
We grew the windsurfing population on the central coast by half in one day hahah

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JBFletch said...
Out of interest...

Being an ex windsurf instructor and coming from an education department windsurfing coaching background and not from a father or mother trying to teach my kids.

What is the key factors you look for in a windsurf rig for a newbie or grommet??



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I would go for light weight, durability ie Dacron and pvc window, and thirdly some softness in the rig, they are used mostly in very light winds and rigs with a reasonably loose skin tension allow the kids to feel the breeze

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cammd said...

Bicsport supplied two complete kids rigs to the Junior program we have running at RQ in Brisbane. Very happy with them, thanks Bicsport.

5 months on from the above pic my now 11yo sailed his first full size race on the weekend. It was a all classes start so he lined up with hobie 16,s lasers opti's and rsx etc and sailed on a techno using a 5.8mtr np alpha. They don't stay on the small sails very long. I did make him an easy up haul to assist him dragging what is a full size adult rig out of the water, he was shagged at the end but is already talking about his next race.

Reason I ask... North sails are about to release something that will totally change the idea of grommet or beginner windsurfing.

watch this space.

we are very excited about its potential.

Inflatable rig ??

My 3 and a half year old loves his RRD Kid Joy. Gets some extra practice, up hauling and flipping the rig in the yard.
RRD 1.0m KID JOY full rig, boom/mast/sail/cup/uphaul/carry bag,,, 215 Euro. ($345AUD) New not used.


P.s,,,, yeah I know it needs more downhaul.

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JBFletch said..
Reason I ask... North sails are about to release something that will totally change the idea of grommet or beginner windsurfing.

watch this space.

we are very excited about its potential.

The difference for our kids was the lightness of the rig with the alloy mast ..And having the 2 sails in one package ..
im a big fan of north ...still have a few old prismas floating around ...now have warps..I will be interested in what you have .