Back in the day.

paulf. · Joined: 21 Mar 1996 Posts: 434

Who remembers when you could find the sailboards in a large sporting goods store by the smell of the plastics involved? Mistral F2 and Fanatic dominated.

donwh · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 139

I remember going into Ski Market and admiring the boards as I got new skis.

paulf. · Joined: 21 Mar 1996 Posts: 434

My first owned board(as opposed to shared) was a1989 F2 strato purchased at the Ski Market spring clearance sale they ran out of the basement every year.

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5279 Location: East Bay

Ah, F2.
Bud's 1st board, 3 days after initial lesson was Sunset, not S Slalom, in 1985. Rode it a full year.

NOVAAN · Joined: 28 Sep 1994 Posts: 1515

1982ish Big 5 had O'brien boards on display. By the 90's in southern California, we had lots of sporting goods stores with boards. Also, plenty of windsurf shop to choose from.
My first board was a HiFly and my friend had a Bic Wing.
BY the mid 90's, University of Riverside and UCLA had large windsurfing clubs.
Thursday night at lake Perris was club night. The beach area was full of vans and trucks. Boards of all shapes and sizes. There was informal racing, and beer drinking afterwards. The Pritchard family would show up and dazzle us all with their skills...

techno900 · Joined: 28 Mar 2001 Posts: 4136

My first board was a HiFly 500 in 1984 and I started to race in the area immediately, but a big heavy poly board is a dog, so I bought a 1985 Mistral Superlight, and kicked butt. I still have the board and the original regatta sail, and I occasionally go out with it with a long boom and a short mast. I raced it several times up until 2013 in light wind races. With the 6.? regatta sail, it was still faster than most longboards with 8, 9, & 10M sails.

I recall there were about 4 windsurfing shops in the Dallas, Tx area and a couple of large retail sports stores had some boards too.

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5279 Location: East Bay

Ha ha, in '84, they held a Hilfly National at Coyote Pt. and supplied 500's for all competitors. Like 64 boards for men.
I sailed around in practice with Bard Christman, who everyone knew as a possible top 5 contender. I was confident.
Race comes, I fall in a wind shadow while top 7, flail and flounder doing things I could not imagine, and finished top 60.
Bard wins.
Those results followed me around for 3 O'Neil Classics...

gvogelsang · Joined: 09 Nov 1988 Posts: 435

I'm pretty sure I owned an F2 lightning, Strato, Bullit and Sunset Slalom at one time or another.

NOVAAN · Joined: 28 Sep 1994 Posts: 1515

Anyone remember the Fanatic Bat? I learned all the skills needed to go to a short board on that board. Would be fun to get on one now. Just wouldn't want to carry it.

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5279 Location: East Bay

Bat was the best all-rounder fun board
Mini Malibu's were top end oriented.
Comets were a bit fragile for newbies.
Marker 111's were a bit heavy
I liked the original double concave Bats over the later tri concave, whi h were also wider.
Ventura's were useless over 18 moh breezes.

Swifts were flexible dogs.