Rustle gives me the passion Stuff i recommend to bring if you want to give it a go -
- wave gear is ideal but not absolutley critical. The shorter and lighter the board the easier. Slalom board is ok but if it is too long you will need to jump higher. No longer than 260cm will help alot. If you are worried about damaging it then bring something else, as there is a risk of damage to the nose if u chicken out half way (no need to chicken out!).
- The lighter the nose of the board, the easier looping is. (fanatic wave / freewave etc. have really light noses and should be easy to learn on). An old Tiga 256 is tough but heavy as buggery and will make life harder, but still not impossible if you persevere
- A short fin helps (30cm or less) but once again not absolutely crucial (i'm using a 28cm freeride thats almost a dagger fin)
- A sail which you're not too worried about knocking around, as the tip will scrape along the ground when doing the beach rolls, and will also hit the water when actually attempting them while sailing. I found that i destroyed the top couple of panels in my older sails in the early stages as the panels were getting crispy. A newer wavesail will probably survive any of this.
- some padding for your back and maybe a helmet to protect your ears, and thats pretty much it.
once you get the nack of it, i've found you can pretty much do them on any gear. It's just a case of getting the technique right to begin with, and using ideal gear really only helps during the learning stage
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Although not absolutely necessary, it would be worth people bringing a floatcoat, wakeboard vest, or an old chest harness (something with padding on the back) to make the whole experience a little less uncomfortable (both on the beach and on the water) as they are likely to cop a few back slappings. A helmet which covers the ears is probably worthwhile too, especially after popping my own eardrum a few weeks back
