VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

well I have saved up some cash and looking for some advice on purchasing windsurfin gear (board, sail, etc) for a beginner. I am looking for a board and gear that I could grow into and keep longer term. I understand that many of the entry level boards, one grows out of them rather quickly and I don't have a ton of cash to blow. do you guys have any recommendations out there for boards, sails, etc for Van Isle windsurfin? any comments are much appreciated.

Kus will chime in here I'm sure, but try to borrow or rent beginner gear until you can get to the water start stage. In fact, do yourself a favor and go to Maui or the Gorge in summer, rent gear and get to that stage as soon as possible. Then buy some gear, and you are off to the races.

nanmoo wrote:Kus will chime in here I'm sure, but try to borrow or rent beginner gear until you can get to the water start stage. In fact, do yourself a favor and go to Maui or the Gorge in summer, rent gear and get to that stage as soon as possible. Then buy some gear, and you are off to the races.

I would concur. Perhaps windsurfing parksville can provide a lesson or drop by and I can lend/rent you a beginner kit for a day (I have invested in some boards & stuff that needs to be paid off but happy to lend any rigs for free as long as they don't come back trashed).....it won't take you long with the right learner gear.....the problems come when you borrow someone else's crap old stuff which is either too tippy, small, old etc. and you never get to advance to the stage where you buy a decent mid size board to learn to waterstart with....once you got that milestone, it's all addiction from there.

Can't agree more with the previous posts. Spend $ on lessons at first rather than gear.

That said, things that you could purchase right away are good quality wetsuits (ask around, some people have one, others have two - a summer and a winter), booties, gloves, helmut, and I personally recommend a lifejacket as it significantly helps water starting and it does alleviate the bruising after the occasional chest impact on boom style crash, etc.

With winter fast approaching, get some lessons now, or perhaps consider a tropical trip to learn to windsurf. My youngest, now 13 years, loves going to the gorge because water and air is warm.

Then buy used gear for your current skill level. As your skill level continues to progress with that gear, you will have experience with the type of gear (board size, sail size) most of the sailors are using at the sites you will regularly be at. Most magazine articles recommend that you need to buy the gear for where you will be sailing at ~90% of the time, otherwise you'll be unhappy sitting on the beach watching. You'll also become familiar with fair pricing for gear.

After that it becomes personal preference. For masts, SDM (the thicker diameter ones) can be had for reasonably low $ and yet are still nearly mint condition if cam-sails (eg. race sails) were not used as many sailors are using RDM. Boom type, aluminum or carbon, but now many are purchasing the aluminum single piece booms.

French Pat is selling his Windsurfing Gear . He wants to get into Kiteboarding.
JP Gear in good shape' think he has a few sails.
I am not sure if it is a good beginner board but I know its a good deal.

thanks for the advice guys, appreciate it