Review: These were the highlights in surf 11/1978

The patent killer

In the Netherlands, Kees Radius has developed a round rig - in keeping with his name - that holds the infamous patent (see surf 6/1978). A circular cloth is attached to a semi-circular aluminium mast, the leech is tensioned by several battens. The highlight of the whole thing is the spar-like handle, which is designed to stand out from the patent-protected boom. Ten Cate had secured the rights to the Radius rig and spent a year developing it further together with the inventor, including the creation of a teardrop-shaped offshoot. But now Ten Cate has jumped ship and Radius is looking for new partner companies that want to circumvent the patent. He admits that his development is more expensive due to numerous small parts and that the board is more difficult to control due to the low pressure point. The most important message of the whole story: "In any case, his rig shows that development in surfing is far from over!"

The big grump

At the "Spoga" trade fair in Cologne, all manufacturers are in a frenzy following the confirmation of the patent. While many boards are becoming more expensive in anticipation of long lawsuits and uncertain future prospects, manufacturer Akutec, for example, is proudly displaying the last page of the contract with Hoyle Schweitzer on its stand to convince customers of its legality. Schweitzer's lawyers, meanwhile, are curiously looking around the trade fair to find new ideas for circumventing the patent. According to insiders, they "were particularly surprised by the replacement designs for the boom" in Cologne. Mistral and Solar-Star, both of which had developed unconventional handle solutions, were seen by the lawyers to be on the safe side. However, these solutions never caught on.

And what else?

• The windsurfing world mourns the loss of Gerd Falk. The major publisher of the folding city maps of the same name was Germany's second windsurfer, having been taught to surf by Calle Schmidt on his favourite island of Sylt. Falk was the driving force behind many projects, including co-founding the VDWS. At the age of 56, he died of a heart attack while sailing on the beach.
• There are around 10,000 surfboards in Germany, the Netherlands and France, Austria has between 5,000 and 10,000 boards, Switzerland and Belgium between 1,000 and 5,000, according to Professor Heinrich Schoop, Chairman of the DSV Sailing Surfing Committee.
• "We don't even talk to you arseholes!" was the response of a sailor who first disturbed a wind glider regatta on Lake Möhne and drove through the field several times, then later ran over one of the participants despite shouts and warning signals. The result: charges of assault and damage to property.
• A "blue-eyed, red-nosed bondhead" called Robby Naish was on tour in Europe and gave courses in trick surfing at several locations. surf shows the highlights from Robby's repertoire in amazement, and a riding technique series will start in the next issue.
• surf organised a major reader photo competition, and the ten prize-winning pictures are still impressive today. Without digital photography and technical aids, some of them are downright breathtaking from today's perspective. By the way, you can see which pictures we have honoured this year here!
• Belgian Jan Lapere sets a new record in one-man endurance surfing. He travelled back and forth between Nieuwpoort and Dunkirk for 25 hours and 19 minutes, six hours downwind and six hours cross.
• While travelling through the USSR, two windsurfers from Cologne meet a group in Abkhazia who have built five boards themselves with union support. There are said to be around 8,000 windsurfers in the Soviet Union.
• The retort band "The Surfers" is formed in the Netherlands, the first single is called "Windsurfin'":

• Chaos at the European Open Class Championship in Sardinia: an incompetent race committee was unable to lay out the course and organise correct starts until two officials took over and managed to get things running in a reasonably orderly fashion. Later, Peter Brockhaus from Mistral and Windglider boss Ostermann got into a fight on the water because they wanted to give their riders an advantage and attacked each other with the boom. Last but not least, two men, "who presumably belonged to the organisers' team", beat up a sponsor at the award ceremony.

You can click through the entire magazine in the gallery above!

More surf reviews:

• surf 4/1977
• surf 6/1978
• surf 4/1979
• surf 9/1980
• surf 11/1980
• surf 4/1981
• surf 5/1982
• surf 4/1983
• surf 10/1983
• surf 9/1984
• surf 8/1985
• surf 8/1986
• surf 9/1986
• surf 5/1987
• surf 8/1988
• surf 5/1989
• surf 7/1989
• surf 4/1990
• surf 6/1991
• surf 3/1992
• surf 9/1993
• surf 10/1993
• surf 4/1994
• surf 7/1995
• surf 6/1996
• surf 11-12/1996
• surf 7/1997
• surf 8/1998
• surf 4/1999