What can you do with a bike? You can roll it around the neighbourhood and if it stops, it falls over. No, you can't do anything with one wheel. The greatest invention was, of course, the second wheel! You can use it to build a cart, load it, push it, harness an animal to it, etc. And the next huge coup was, of course, the spare wheel. If one breaks, then ... but never mind, we can do that later ... Applied to windsurfing, was the all-important brainwave the gimbal? It made the rig freely rotatable, swivelling and the device steerable, not bad at all. It was also an excellent way of crushing metatarsal bones if you got under the mast when it tipped over. However, this rarely happened because the base plate, a small wooden board that was stuck in the board at the time, slipped out so often that the feet were relatively safe. The genitals less so when launching the sheet.
So not a gimbal. So perhaps the laminated US fin box and the fixed connection between the board and rig using a simple rubber motor mount from the Renault R4 are the racer? As far as squashed feet are concerned, yes, otherwise no, there is still room for improvement, as we are still in the development phase. The boards are long and armed with a daggerboard that can't be overestimated. My favourite specialist and non-fiction author noticed this at the time and wrote: "You only realise how important the daggerboard is when you forget it at home!" What a light ... Sure, the daggerboard was and is important, but the greatest windsurfing invention? Not really.
You have to be cleverer than that. Perhaps every windsurfer has a body of water on their doorstep? There you go. Transport is necessary, preferably by car. As the boards are bigger than the interior of most vehicles, we need ... well, what? That's right: a roof rack! And that brings us very close to the greatest invention in windsurfing. Board on the roof and off we go? No way, we'll arrive at the spot without a plank. The really clever ones have probably already figured it out: the lashing straps! Bravo. Without lashing straps, windsurfing would simply not be possible. What an invention! So it is only right and proper to take this opportunity to thank the inventors Dr G. Spann and Dipl.Ing. J. O. Gurt at this point. It's often the little things that make great things possible.
More from Tommy Brandner:
- Under-80s or over-80s? Diets for windsurfers
- A visit to the tuning workshop for windsurfers
- Motorhome for beginners
- Attention drone!
- Through the shorebreak
- The avalanche of traffic jams is rolling again
- Happy B-Day, King!
- Used is still too expensive
- That was 2023
- To foil or not to foil
- Faster, faster, faster... or: Who is this Lüderitz anyway?
- Windy stories
- The handsome Hansi
- AI hysteria
- News from the Spocht
- Get fit without training
- Madhouse on the beach
- What do fish actually think about windsurfers?
- Loop into the headline
- Great season!
- Afternoon at the (windsurfing) museum - tidying up made easy
- Djinn Drake, the windsurfing genie in a bottle
- The meeting of the "anonymous climbers"
