I dont see any Dunkerbeck sails or Dunkerbeck boards on the market?
In fact I couldnt even tell you what he looks like?
Honest

I thought I was ....


... although I was tucked up in bed and dreaming at the time

dunkerbeck has his own board brand. it's called proof

There is no doubt Robby Naish is the most successful pro windsurfer it terms of his 'branding' but I think to define the absolute 'best' windsurfer is hard to do. I think Dunkerbeck won a lot more world titles yeah? I think it's more appropriate to just name those you admire.

Naish - True legend of the sport
Dunkerbeck - As above and for the domination of the PWA for so long
Polakow - For pushing wave riding to new limits
Campello - Arguably took freestyle into the direction it's headed today

It's like asking who is the greatest boxer of all time, it will never be apples with apples.

Naish is certainly undisputed as the first great champion of the sport and is an all round great sailor. He won races against pretty much everyone, but is probably regarded by most as a wavesailor. I would certainly say he is a better wavesailor than Dunkerbeck.

But then by the time Dunkerbeck was dominating the PWA it could be said that it was much larger and therefore more competative, so maybe at thier prime Robby wouldn't have been a match? And there is no denying that Dunkerbeck is one of the few sailors to come close to being a household name (only throughout Europe mind you).

And this is only taking in account PWA and mainstream sailors, you then have the likes of Bruce Kendall from NZ in the Olympic divisions, and guys like Dave Kalama in the waves - A true pioneer but didn't really compete a great deal.

Too hard a choice, but Robbie would definatly have to be up there.

Elmo

For his Elmoism, Elmoing gear, Elmoing Elmo, Elmoing Hardie, Elmoing 40 knots etc etc!!

if you are talking about what they have done for the sport, then how about jim drake, and the howle schwalzer guy (i can't remember how to spell his name)

you can't do much more for windsurfing then them, seeing as they invented it.. aparantly

In pure ability Dunkie. However being recognised as the greatest is just as much about PR. Robby is/has been a great ambassador AND a great sailor, so I think he probably takes the win.

It has to be an all round sailor, if you start dividing up into disciplines then it could be any of at least 30 sailors. Besides ask almost any of the new gen of PWA stars who they look up to Robby is the man.

Dunkerbeck has the proof brand which predominantly make wave, and the Thommen boards are all T1 Dunkerbeck. So I think it s fair to say he probably owns part of this with Peter Thommen.

I'll vote for Robbie...

Isn't it eymhardcore? I'm he sure he said it was him.

SeanAUS120 said...

Apparently, he rides for Switzerland (SUI-11) now because of tax related reasons ...lol.

Wasn't that why he was sponsored by Andoraa, a tax haven or something like that?

Not sure about the Holden v Ford thing, but it is always hard to compare people from different era's in any sport. How do you compare the feats of Robby in the early days with 12 world titles from Dunky?

ka43 said...

Elmo

For his Elmoism, Elmoing gear, Elmoing Elmo, Elmoing Hardie, Elmoing 40 knots etc etc!!

Elmoing Hardie?
AAARRR!!!
I just had a visual

Dunkerbeck has 35 world titles, over a 100 pwa wins and still competing! who else can compare to that?

AUS4 said...

I also remember 1977 worlds in Sardinia where Robby's Windsurfer was so bad you could bend his fin from one side of the rail to the other and he had on one arm in plaster from his wrist to his elbow, no harness those days, won every race ( 10 ) to win the Worlds.

If you can remember that, you are too old to be using a computer :-/