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The patent judgement
There was hardly a surf issue in the early eighties without news about Hoyle Schweitzer's patent: "Hoch gezockt, hoch verloren" (gambled high, lost high) writes surf about the trial in Munich, which was to cement the supremacy of the iron co-inventor for the next few years. With a considerable number of lawyers from all camps and wild haggling behind the scenes, the scene is eagerly awaiting the decision on the appeal by some patent opponents. The dispute had been going on for over ten years, and Schweitzer and his licencees had even offered ever larger sums of money in the run-up to the case to get the opponents to withdraw their complaints. However, the court ruled in favour of the US American. Only licence holders are now allowed to build a rig with a boom in the familiar shape and a flexible base plate. According to the judges, this combination is sufficiently "inventive" to be protected by a patent. A rig with a fixed base plate or only a boom on one side ("spreader gaff" in the judges' parlance), on the other hand, is free. A curious moment in this battle of legal quibbles: A lawyer places a chicken breastbone on the table to demonstrate the origin of a "wishbone". After the judgement, several manufacturers announced that they would nevertheless offer licence-free material. The patent was still valid until 1987, but with the funboard craze, its significance dwindled noticeably.
Psychological aspects of the intoxication of speed
In 1980, the speed records in windsurfing were just over 40 km/h - today it's almost 100 km/h, but back then 50 was the magical, almost unattainable limit. In an essay for surf, psychologist and windsurfer Allen Parducci tried to fathom the appeal of speed. And even if every freerider today surfs faster than the top riders of that time, some aspects can certainly be transferred. Parducci writes, for example, that the same speed feels much less spectacular on his catamaran than when windsurfing - of course, you are closer to the water and feel the elements much more intensely on the board than on a large boat. Another point: "Windsurfing probably seems the fastest when you are experiencing strong winds for the first time and are constantly in danger of being catapulted out in a catapult." This is also easily transferable to every single surfing career. Parducci also describes another paradox: when the leech flutters or the daggerboard hums, many surfers feel particularly fast. In reality, however, these phenomena tend to slow you down, so that the actual speed without turbulence can be significantly higher. And, according to the psychologist, those who get faster and faster can no longer enjoy their previous speeds. "In this respect, high-speed surfing is not very different from the rest of life."
The best combos for surfers
Today, Bullis are the standard; in 1980, estate cars were still the car of choice when boards and accessories had to be transported. "The cars that are cut off at the back like a sausage" still have a craftsman's image for many notchback bourgeois. Together with the ADAC, surf tested seven estate cars for their windsurfing suitability. They include unadorned beasts of burden such as the Ford Granada, Opel Rekord or Passat Variant, but also the Mercedes 123 T as a classy option. The real eye-catchers are the Volvo 245 and the exotic Talbot Matra and Mazda 929, the latter of which "comes across like a brewery galley, [...] confidently disregarding modern aerodynamic findings", the testers grumbled. In typical Japanese fashion, the lavish equipment "temporarily makes you forget the coarse Frankenstein face". When driving, however, "the drivers had to row like a Rhine boatman when encountering traffic at the Binger Loch". The Talbot Rancho with its pre-SUV look was also not well received, which was less due to the testers' taste than to design limitations: The GRP body, reinforced with steel brackets, can only bear a roof load of 30 kg, and the beams are just 90 centimetres apart. So strapping a four-metre plank weighing more than 20 kg onto it becomes a balancing act.
And what else?
- Advertising pearls I: HiFly advertises directly with an In & Out list. Out are party bunnies, yachts, open classes, boatyards, Der grosse Brockhaus and standing violinists, while In are blowing technology, aquariums, sharks, club passes, polythene and various HiFly models.
- "Windsurfing in the year 2000" is the motto of the surf carnival party "Catapult"
- "All the big names in the industry, plus some interesting newcomers and outsiders" in four halls: boot 1980 has plenty to offer. The "best windsurfing film ever made" will be shown several times a day at the surf stand. surf will of course be back in Düsseldorf in 2026, but unfortunately the rest looks very different now.
- A Hamburg court had to deal with a collision between two surfers on the Baltic Sea for over a year. The plaintiff was the one who believed he was in the right according to the rule "port bow before starboard bow". However, the judgement was that both parties were partially at fault, as the maritime code did not apply to surfboards. A "unique judgement in its absurdity", surf fumes.
- "I bet that 90 per cent of readers are of the opinion that these boards are at best useful for the inhabitants of the islands of Sylt and Hawaii and otherwise only something for show-offs," complains one letter to the editor against the reports on custom mades. His name is Peter Brockhaus.
- The great-granddaddy of the WindSUP: With "Pesked and "Windair", a French company is launching two inflatable surfboards onto the market. Visually, however, they still look more like an air mattress than an iSUP
- Windsurfing will become an Olympic sport in 1984, but before then the "women's problem" has to be solved: Should men and women compete together? And will there be weight categories? Official Hajo Fritze, one of the brains behind the inclusion of windsurfing in the Olympics, explains the background.
- After a fatal collision between a surfer and a swimmer on a lake near Regensburg, the surfer is sentenced to a fine for involuntary manslaughter. However, many details remain unclear and an appeal has been lodged.
- Egg dance: the displacers with round underwater hulls dominate the open class world championships. Scandal in the final: one driver deliberately dropped into the water and caused chaos at the buoy to give his team-mates an advantage - disqualification!
- Ice surfing: surf showed a few of the wildest constructions used to race across frozen lakes in winter. These included "the 'Starfighter' covered in carnival wire or the 'Jaffa Queen' made from orange crates".
- A man who keeps jumping in at the deep end: surf introduces Klaus Gahmig, who fled the GDR as a young man, was bitten by the windsurfing bug and opened a school in Scharbeutz. It was a success, but he was still drawn away again and again, including to Fuerteventura and the Bahamas. Eventually, the passionate windsurfing instructor ended up on Tenerife.
- Advertising pearls II: Racing driver Jochen Maß, who died in 2025, enthuses about the special "Porsche design" model in the sailboard advert: "For me, surfing only really starts at 3 wind forces. [...] And what's right for me on the road can only be cheap for me on the water!"
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