As your husband is a beginner, don't buy it. Not sure what sort of board the Torpedo is but it sounds pretty old, along with the sails. Does your husband have any windsurfing gear now?

wait for it......wait for it........
























is that you brucie?

Buy an x-excite ride or a starboard go!! doesent matter, but old gear was very frustrating when i was learning, the gear these days is so good for learners, amazing !!
Old gear will put you off for learning, get the new stuff :)

( long board is the worst for learning (unstable) !! :)

um, do you not like your husband??

cause on your current path your future looks something like this.

You will be poor. Every year you will notice thousands of dollars vanishing from your bank account and windsurfing equipment turning up in the shed that looks the same as last years gear...well maybe a different colour.

You will be lonely. Unless you decide to windsurf as well - read twice as expensive - you will not see him in the afternoons and weekend during summer. He will also not commit to any more social events for fear of missing a good seabreeze, and may well leave family gatherings - yes even Christmas day - to get his fix.

He will be moody. This mood will last most of winter, except on the odd occasion he gets out in that steamer you bought him so he can now sail year round.

You will no longer drive a nice car. No you are destined to own a rust riddled, salt water bathed van capable of holding all the gear he needs to fuel his passion. Actually it will become an addiction.

On the up side though, you didn't think of getting him a kite which entails all the above and a need to be the centre of attention and wear boardshorts over the top of any other apparel at all times.

Don't say you were not warned

Jokes aside, head to your nearest windsurfing shop and get some sound advice on what gear he might need. Maybe even buy him a lesson or two for Christmas. Buying the wrong gear is both an expensive and very frustrating mistake, which will most likely end in turning him off the sport for good.

pay heed to Nebbian. He's very wise. Kinda like the guy on the TV show Kung Fu. (except a windsurfer instead of a kung fu'er)....

Yes BUY IT. We're in a recession. BUY BUY BUY.

please dont buy it, go to the shop and speak to the guys there,
I took the advice of a mate who was stuck a while back in things and time. 14 months later am regretting it big time. I should have gone to the shop got a couple of lessons and then bought my gear.
I thank my mate for getting me into windsurfing big time but the gear advice was a little out of touch.
JP Xcite ride is good advice , have one now and its very good.

Firstly, this guy with the longboard is out to lunch. Waters were crowded long time ago, and every single one of them had learned on longboards. So surely it's doable, even easy. Not saying it's the best or only option, but do consider.

Don't buy Go's, this and other forum are replete with people getting bored with them after a few outings. Feels like standing on a cricket field.

Lessons and rentals: of course, that's the right advice. Get to know what you wanna do. Try a few planks, and so on.

Advice from shops: you gotta be kidding me. They sell stuff, preferably multiple gear. Often with young sales guys that look about 14. Don't start there until you have a pretty good idea what you wanna do.

Buy a couple of current magazines to get a feel for the huge variety of gear on the market.

Be aware that with windsurfing, you can learn a lot from books, mags and videos but this theoretical knowledge takes a LOOONG time to translate into physical ability. It's easy to read a few mags and think you're ready for the hard stuff, like small boards, waves, high winds, etc....

Lessons and rentals first. And talking to windsurfers at the beach. Don't buy yet!

pierrec45 said...

Advice from shops: you gotta be kidding me. They sell stuff, preferably multiple gear. Often with young sales guys that look about 14. Don't start there until you have a pretty good idea what you wanna do.

You must be going to the wrong shops. The two shops I frequent these days have guys there that do what they do for the love of the sport, in one case hold down another job just to keep the place running. If they wanted to make real money they would have closed up and gone elsewhere. In my experience 90% of the shops I have been to in the country have been the same.

So quite simply, pull your head in. Without these guys we wouldn't have a sport.

BTW I do not work for a windsurfing shop, or have any association with a windsurfing shop.

Perhaps the board actually sinks...

Lizg must be stoked with all these responses.

Good one DL, you missed out the 'lessons or self-abuse' sub-set though.

....and Lizg, your intentions are great, but the lesson path, then advice from the instructors is probably the safest way to go.

Jez

Have to love 'TORPEDO' as a name for a windsurfer though...

hmm it seems we are presuming that Liz and hubby live in an area where there are windsurfing shops and schools... and there are plenty of places in Oz that don't.

In which case I suggest a holiday to a windsurfing mecca where they do lessons.