First board was a wally in '85 then also got a bombora tri-fin and then also bombora new toy. Then sold the wally and tri-fin and got 9'6"windaction slalom, then sold the new toy and got 8'6" windaction wave pro and the sold the slalom and bought 9'1" white light slalom...

Stopped winddurfing in '91 ......Restarted in 97 with starboard and carbonart and still got the old winaction wave

Mine was a Tyronsea 330. It was prebuggered so it didn't matter what I did to it. I could ride it onto rocks, drop it on the road, throw it at the dog. It didn't matter. It wouldn't make any difference.

It was polyethylene or similar over closed cell foam and very heavy. It had a bendy plastic wave fin and a centreboard like a formula fin in proportion but like a railway sleeper in composition. The bottom shape was as convoluted as a Pierre Nervi ceiling with I think 2 concaves merging into 3. When it climbed up onto the plane it was an event worth remembering, and I do remember it fondly.

I bought it for a song and traded it for the chorus. I don't know what became of it, nor do I care. But I'll say this for it. It wasn't a bad learner board - not a good one but not bad.

The rig (I almost forgot) was a Wild Winds 6.0 RAF. I just realised you don't hear the term "RAF" any more. Now it's "camless". It disappeared and I didn't notice. Lots of things do that...

force 8 windrush with 4.4 wave sail
had it until i ripped the sail and fin on the same session. went to windsurf shop after and saw another force 8 for 10 bucks thats when i realised the gear i was using was ****

Well I did it the hard way, decided I wanted to jump waves so at 14 (mid 80's) I sold my computer and went out a bought a board that looked like it could do that. My first kit was a Windtoys wave board (about 9ft or so I think) and a gasstra powerhead sail, very average tie on boom and super heavy mast. I can't even remember how much it cost me, but I am pretty sure I got well ripped off at the time.

I learnt to beach start and water start before I could uphaul, and gybe before I could tack, cause on this thing it was just easier.

I know it all got a bit easier once I bought a second hand 4 batten NP sail (can't remember the type) and a boom that didn't flop all over the place. That board got up graded to a 9'2" "Wind and Waves" slalom board and some JV sails. Not long after I got a 8'6" Wind and Waves wave board and went from there, all before I was 17.

Dufour Wing was my first board too. I had a 4m storm sail and a 5.7m "big" sail. I reckon that although it might be easier to learn on newer gear, there is still a lot to be gained from learning on an oldstyle longboard.

Good on you for getting on the water, dont think that because the gear is old that it is crap. Reading the boards mag this month I saw that a a Wally was on the podium for all races at the fatface festival (or something similar). Yep, the winds were light, so what, they were on the water.

JB

Alpha Chi-Chi

2 'pink' bombora wave (plastic) boards s/hand......5 sails with PJ (smokes) sponsors stickers, 2 alum masts and half a doz tie on booms.....

Bought for $150, from a jockey (60kgs tops), I was about 90-95kgs at the time.
Tried - sunk......2 yrs later....Tried - sunk. Put them in the loft of my garage!

14 years later, mate brings a 'floater (GO) and I loved it, obviously never made the connection between weight-skill-volume ratio!

My 'official' first board/rig;
JP Xcite 165lt
NP X3 mast/boom/extension blah, blah.
Gaastra GTX 7.5 sail.

Sorry for being the boring newbie!

there must be someyhing wrong with me started on a 155 go learnt the basics then went to a 133 carve thats when my wind surfing world took off but at 105 kilos dry the carve jars the hell out of me so i went and bought a old fanatic gecko 105litres it a solum board and i absolutey love this old board it flys through chop and have done a p b with the gps at 33 knots