We havent seen a quantum leap in windsurfing for a while, although the industry is still consolidating with the new boards and materials, and wide shapes. What's coming up? More tandems would be good.

I reckon we might see a freestyle board with foot straps at both ends. And maybe a one sided rig which can sail both tacks somehow. That one has been tried b4 (remember the hanglider sail?) but it may be workable in a different way.

Would be nice to have a sail which is re-sizable, so you only need to buy 1 or 2 sails to cover a wide range of conditions. And what about a variable volume board!

Seriously tho, a fin which turned into a prop for those lighter days, solar powered.

HOW BOUT A MAST THAT DOESNT GET STUCK!!!!!!

Tandems are coming back, though I can never see them becoming popular- maybe if they made them not quite so big so a person could viably use them singly as a good light wind board and chuck a friend and sail on occasionally.

One sided sail which you could sail both ways has been done before, but there would be a huge drop in performance.

Same with sails you could change sizes. An american company was making these about 10 years back- sail had 2 extra foot sections which you attached via zip? They where slalom sails and didnt perform too badly from tests I saw. Each section dropped 0.7m or maybe more.

I'd just be happy with stronger more durable gear for the weight. A moderation with wide gear, alot is too wide. Booms with inbuilt safety so when they break they dont seperate and you can sail back without damaging you're gear. And an industry decision to go with just 2 types of fin box so you can change boards a bit easier. Sails with inflatable bits which dont sink, it works for kites.

I want a board thats small enough so that when i get a car, it doesn't have to be a big one and have roof racks. But still has a lot of float.

A canard eh? That's a small lifting foil right up the front of the board, right? So if you get your vectors right it will work like a rail when you edge it, cos it always lifts more than the fin, am I going down the right track?

How did you attach it to the front of your board?


Thanks for the link Katapult, it's exactly what I was after. Pity they're not making them yet, I'd love to see some performance data on them...

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Originally posted by nebbian

A canard eh? That's a small lifting foil right up the front of the board, right? am I going down the right track?

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Not quite, your right about the small bit though. A canard is a device that increases the flow over the top of the main foil, ie the foresail on a yacht.
It's also the reason for the old slotted fins, the small section in front of the slot directs more water over the section behind, improving laminar flow and lift.
One version of my canard effectively had the front section on a hinge so it could rotate thru the thickness of the fin box.
Another way I tried was to mount a small flexible foil imediately in front of the fin. This was stiff vertically, but could flex from one side of the fin to the other as load shifted. Needs a longer fin box than I now use.