pierrec45, my apologies.

Speak to Mike Waltze he will tell you the real story. Stop reading history books written by Americans. Why is it so hard for you to believe that Mark invented shortboards? Is page 26 correct? How did windsurfer come up with the rocket then what is the story behind that? Get that story and I'll tell you the real one.

i'll have to make a phone call to get the year. By the way Mike Waltze told the the guys that made the WM11 and they cut it, interesting huh.

Did you sail at balmoral back in the day pierre?

i wanna know who invented boardshorts?

mark paul?

peter nitschke built the first short board in australia in 1976 in tasmania. it wasn't mark paul but i will ask him when i see him.

not sure when the US guys were doing it? may have been the same time or earlier?

hi fast eddie,

well i do believe you that's for sure. i'm not questioning that mark paul did that. i'm as keen as everyone else to understand the history of it all myself.

i rang peter and got the story. this is how it goes.

peter started importing tc windsurfers in 74 from europe. the first batch sold out and they went to import another batch but drake and co wanted to charge another $150 per board patent rights which made the figures not stack for pete and co.

so......

around 76-77, pete who had been making surfboards decided to build his own windsurfers to keep the cost down.

the boards were 9-10 ft long because that is how big the blanks were. the first 10 boards were sold around australia, (i am going to get photos of them in the coming weeks) pete thinks the photos have dates on the back of them so i will confirm dates.

from what i understand, all of the pioneers in australia all knew each other at this time and it was at the 77 national titles that they all met up. mark paul was there also.

pete also tells me that he didn't really tell to many people he was building shortboards as drake and co were aggressively suing people for patent infringment. however a couple of his first short boards went to NSW, some to WA and 1 to QLD etc.

pete said he is certain he built the first short boards in australia but doesn't know what was happening in the rest of the world. after he built his first 10 boards he stopped and then started building them again around 1980.

he also says the first person to windsurf in australia was his brother wh did it 7 days before he did.

i would be good to know what board mark paul took to hawaii? whether he built it himself or whether it was one of petes or someone elses. i have recently gotten the opportunity to come in contact with mark paul via work and if i get the chance i will ask him. but if someone that knows him personally could ask that would be better. it would also be good to know when mark went to hawaii?

Sounds like a conspiracy to me fast eddy. But at the end of the day who cares. I looked at the movie as the history of windsurfing thru the eyes of the Hawaiians, still a good flick regardless the making of the movie was also interesting.

I pretty sure the movie stated:

"Maui Centric version of windsurfing history"

So put it back in the holster dudes

Is that the same Peter Nitshcke that is renowned for euthanasia? Quite a pioneer that fella!

Mark Paul is also a pioneer, the original KA 1 and guru extraordinaire....One of his boards might have blown off the ute into the canefields in Hawaii....it might have been short and piglike - several survived and probably none would have been able to be bottom turned at Hookipa?

I've got a copy somewhere of a US magazine in the early 80's of Mike Waltze riding a 7'?" surfboard gun at Hookipa with a Windsurfer storm sail. Was that the first moment of windsurfers actually riding waves..... rather than just outrunning them?

that would be a NO hausey, you're thinking of a completely different person with a different christian name.

Fast Eddy said...

sounds like it hausey, was up your way just recently, lost my phone in belingen, lost your number, hows the shire?

lots of people lose lots of different things in Belingen!

Fast Eddy said...

Not a conspiracy, those guys knew and did not put that in on purpose. I not knocking the footage it was amazing those guys rip. Credit where credit is due.

Isn't that typical that 3 hours of material end up 10 minutes, like you removing parts where the guy on cam was picking his nose and boring parts and bad falls and all that? Hardly sounds like a conspiracy or "on purpose" yet.

As to shortboarding, you call it an explanation but sounds more like an anecdote of the day, no? (which I totally believe, by the way). I mean, is Waltze totally it, I do no know that. Hawaii being the mecca, that nobody thought of screwing the 4 little Windsurfer u-joint on a surfboard sounds straight impossible.

When I was in Tampa (thought it was 1981, could be wrong), there were plenty of seasoned wavejumpers, mostly makeshift equipment. They said at the time they had been doing it many years already.

But anyhow, this is was a good thread. I was interested in that I saw both countries at the time. I sorta lived the beginning of it all (and to an extent, the end).
I would care more if I really thought there was a collusion in there, but I'm just not there yet.

Mike gave Mark paul the wrap for staring shortboarding which is a very important moment in our sport. They didn't show that part. Mike said to me tell me what you think when you see there edit. Giving Mark a wrap didn't take 10min more like 30 seconds. Mark never told me that story after working with him for 7 years.

As I said credit where credit is due.

^^ i believe it was mark angulo that did the first forward, preceeded by ceasere cantagalli (spelling) doing the cheese roll and preceeded by the push loop and the back loop respectively.