Saturday, February 9, 2013

To have been at the nexus of a new sport.



Check out this blog post.





Wow this brings back memories. It actually has my first board I purchased new: The Magnum 370. I had a “Team Rider” discount because I worked at Sigsbee. Then we all upgraded to Mistral Equipes because all the Olympic Windsurfing guys were riding Fanatic Ultra Cats. God it was great; you had one board, maybe two sails, and you just went out in any conditions. It was so simple. Lenny “The Squid” was the king with his Puka necklace. He could rail ride, and do a head dip; the top tricks of the day.

One weekend he took me out to Napegue. He was waterstarting his Seatreand sinker, and I had to sail a borrowed 4.something. I think I had two feet between the clew and the end of my non-adjustable boom. My world changed that day. Lee was riding this custom Captain America board. I rode a friend’s Bic Electric Rock. Game over for me. Now I have no money, and live in a van down by the water.

1 comment:

McPhilly said...

Great post, but I drove by the other night, and it looked liek the van was out in the cold and you were warm in the house. Lol.

Terrible suction of money back then — wish I'd figured out how to pick and choose good "used boards" sooner.

Love those classic old boards, even if it did miss out on the really early days. Still got to ride a crazy round hulled olympic-class Whaler(?), and an old F2 Strato, and the O'Brien Elite was 40 lbs of unstoppable thermoplasticsomething.