"Today, foot straps belong to a strong wind board like wide tyres belong to a sports car," says boot in retrospect. However, the various fastening systems that the manufacturers had come up with seemed extremely fragile. Otherwise, the first series-produced planing boards were the big hit of the season, while the weight of the boards dropped to "only" 14 to 18 kilos. HiFly is showing the new "people's glider" 444, the new company Surflight has a model with an aluminium frame and a daggerboard that can be plugged in and adjusted from below. Manufacturer Shark mounts a third fin between the two fins with a small horizontal wing for stabilisation. Did someone say foil here? The Tornado 36, on the other hand, has a stepped underwater hull reminiscent of today's cutouts. What is striking is the number of small brands that are either completely new or are taking the step from custom to small series. At the same time, the self-build scene is growing: the legendary Speedmachine will be on public display for the first time at the surf stand and inspected hundreds of times, and many brands have self-build kits and materials on offer.
Meeting of lawyers at boot and unsuccessful self-builds
At times, however, the water sports trade fair turned into a legal convention: as was always the case back then, Hoyle Schweitzer's patent lawyers snooped around the trade fair in search of infringements and found what they were looking for at Mistral: There, a film (!) showed complete rigs that infringed the patent, and the film could no longer be shown. Alpha, on the other hand, got off scot-free because the lawyers had overlooked the stand. A supposedly patent-free rig with handle batten instead of boom was only allowed on the demonstration pool after the trade fair lawyer had obtained the green light from the Schweitzer lawyers. At the same time, a delegation from the EC in Brussels scrutinised Schweitzer and its seven licensees on suspicion of cartel formation. Accompanied by his wife Diane, the patent pope himself was also on site for the first time "to see the explosive German market with his own eyes". There was plenty to talk about.
The "Speedmachine" surf DIY project is also on everyone's lips outside of the exhibition halls: several readers criticise the long extension of the series, while one has prematurely continued building and "already disfigured the fourth blank". Concrete Wave advertises its own range of materials, but at the same time also refers to ready-made boards for failed "custom makers". Fittingly, the last section of the magazine features fin boxes, base plate bushings and foot strap plugs.
The windsurfer story
"In the beginning was the windsurfer" begins a great story about the board that gave the sport its name - or at least anchored it (despite the persistent and unsuccessful efforts of the German Sailing Association to establish the term "sailing surfing"). Why is this fossil, already twelve years old at the time, still the bestseller even in the inventive boom years? Despite careful modernisation - the legendary wooden boom has been replaced by aluminium, the daggerboard is now made of plastic - the board is actually hopelessly outdated. Its handling characteristics are not ideal either, at least in stronger winds: it turns into the wind and suddenly puts up the windward edge. Its success - more windsurfers were sold in Germany in 1980 than ever before, with a total of around 30,000 of the prehistoric PE boards bobbing around on German waters at the time - lies more in its average nature: "The windsurfer is nothing special, nothing extreme," summarises the surf author. Even those who learnt to surf in the mid-seventies will find the Dino easy to handle.
However, because what makes surfers in the Federal Republic of Germany happy at best elicits a yawn in Hawaii, a strong wind version has been available since 1978 in the form of the Rocket windsurfer. Developed against the backdrop of numerous individual conversions, it is a continuation of the tried and tested concept: "Nothing fancy, nothing revolutionary new, but solid, average, manageable by anyone." In view of the omnipresence of Hoyle Schweitzer, his name or the word "patent" thankfully only appears in the Brett portrait towards the end in the story of its creation. There, the invention is also clearly attributed to Jim Drake (surf had already revealed this in Jun 1977), but also concluded with a completely wrong prognosis: "The VW Beetle among sailboards has proven itself in practice for a dozen years now. It will certainly continue to do so for a number of years to come."
The United Arab Emirates as a surfing destination
Today an anything but original travel destination, the United Arab Emirates were still absolutely exotic at the beginning of the 1980s. surf author Elfriede Mederer travelled to the peninsula formerly known as the "Pirate Coast", where tourism was just beginning to take off at the time. The centre of surf travel is the sheikdom of Sharjah, where oil was discovered in 1974 and where Klaus Gahmig operated one of the first surf stations. In addition to modern airports and luxury cars, life in the Gulf is still characterised by strict customs: "This is not a country for holiday casanovas!" warns the author, women may not be photographed under any circumstances, men only with permission. "The Islamic punishments - chopping off a finger or hand - are still in full force." Alcohol is only permitted in hotels, and local taxi drivers earn extra money by picking up drunk tourists and handing them over to the police. At the same time, the locals sit in their cars and "enjoy" the sight of Western tourists.
You can click through the entire magazine in the gallery above!
And what else?
- Two Frenchmen make it possible to water ski behind a windsurfer. It's not easy, but for a long-distance pro and a junior world champion in water skiing weighing just 40 kilos, it's doable with a little practice. Only the junior will get bored at some point...
- surf shows two inventions that should make it easier to catch up with the sails: A folding rod at the base plate or a sheet to the top of the mast should significantly reduce the forces required to pull on the starting sheet.
- Advertising pearls: "In Ibiza the girls are beautiful, the nights are hot and the winds are favourable". The main thing is not to get confused...
- Hardly anyone believed his first Pacific crossing (see surf 11/1980), so Arnaud de Rosnay tried a second time at the end of 1980. Numerous journalists, including a surfing reporter, were there to document the event in full. But he had to give up after three days due to capricious weather and technical problems.
- In flawless aerobics aesthetics of the early eighties, surf shows twelve "gymnastics exercises" for training before the start of the season - including calf warmers
- surf presents the Happurger Stausee near Nuremberg as an alternative spot right next to the motorway. However, the lake is considered challenging by regatta sailors: firstly because of the many wind shifts, and secondly because of the "hard-drinking Nuremberg warriors, who often managed to weaken the competition at the beer table the evening before the decisive races"
You can click through the entire magazine in the gallery above!
More surf reviews:
- surf 4/1977
- surf 6/1977
- surf 6/1978
- surf 4/1979
- surf 9/1980
- surf 11/1980
- surf 4/1981
- surf 5/1982
- surf 6/1982
- surf 4/1983
- surf 10/1983
- surf 9/1984
- surf 12/1984
- surf 8/1985
- surf 8/1986
- surf 9/1986
- surf 2/1987
- surf 5/1987
- surf 8/1988
- surf 5/1989
- surf 7/1989
- surf 4/1990
- surf 3/1991
- surf 6/1991
- surf 3/1992
- surf 10/1992
- surf 9/1993
- surf 10/1993
- surf 4/1994
- surf 7/1995
- surf 6/1996
- surf 11-12/1996
- surf 7/1997
- surf 8/1998
- surf 4/1999
