Hookipa - The birth of a myth
"Hookipa - the name will soon have a similar ring for surfers as the Eiger North Face for mountaineers or Cape Horn for sailors" predicts surf in a large photo story and, as we all know, is spot on. Every windsurfer knows the small beach on Maui, almost everyone has studied the area on Google Maps, even little things like the crash barrier or the lifeguard tower are familiar without ever having been there. Mike Waltze discovered the spot in the early 1980s. "Only very few super skiers go out here - and what they show is the pinnacle of our sport," surf writes about the "most difficult spot in the world". Malte Simmer impressively describes what Hookipa is like on close-out days when he doesn't go out either. However, when the wave breaks in a controlled manner, it allows for spectacular jumps, "but to get a super flight, it usually washes you twice", so difficult is the timing. Jürgen Hönscheid also has respect for the waves, the rocks and the narrow channel: "All of this together makes Hookipa one of the most brutal surf spots. You're constantly riding at the upper limit of what's possible here."
You are constantly travelling at the upper limit of what is possible here." (Jürgen Hönscheid about Hookipa)
How do you recognise a good sail?
The sail is not given the attention it deserves, surf thinks. At the beginning of the eighties, most boards were bought "complete", meaning that the manufacturer simply added a sail to the desired board. surf asked six well-known sailmakers how to recognise a good sail. They philosophise about seams ("double zigzag stitch" is the most important point here), the number of cloth panels (minimum five, maximum ten) and Mylar as a sail material ("not yet fully developed"). Somewhat alarmingly, many of the experts only give a sail a lifespan of one season, depending on use.
Women's boom in surf schools
Women are "not as limb-centred as men", according to a major report on the female rush to surf schools in the summer of 1981. What exactly this means remains unclear, but not the chauvinistic tone of the male authors. They are happy about the low average age of the female students ("Matrons avoid the board like cats avoid water anyway"), while at least one surf instructor believes he knows the women's true motivation: "It's just self-affirmation for women who aren't satisfied with their looks," is his judgement. He is also disappointed that only a few "extremely pretty" women come to his school; instead, his female clientele is made up of "not exactly ugly, but somewhat plump ladies" who are mainly looking to socialise. The boom in windsurfing women has been fuelled by lighter material and the "trend towards second boards", according to the authors' razor-sharp analysis: When the man is travelling with his new board, the woman can try out the old cucumber.
Speed Machine series: The curious stories of self-builders
One year after the start of the legendary DIY series on the "Speed Machine", surf takes stock. "They were initially ridiculed as lonely weirdos, mocked as perm producers or pitied as social surfers," it says at the beginning, but no one could have imagined what the series had done to "the shops, the accessories trade, the wives". Some self-builders tell their stories: There's the Frankfurt hobbyist who couldn't get the finished board out of the cellar and ended up having to saw through it. There is the manager of a department store who - apparently against the background of a halfway realistic assessment of his craftsmanship - took the precaution of buying two kits. There is also the eight-year-old who invested his pocket money in materials every week. One converted his living room into a shaperoom and had to finish within a week to avoid being thrown out by his wife, while the other laminated in the children's room, which was unoccupied during the holidays, and cautiously enquired whether the smell of resin could be dangerous for his offspring. Several hobby shapers started a small series at the same time - so apparently building it yourself was addictive after all. Incidentally, the next series focussing on lightweight construction started immediately afterwards!
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And what else?
- Sailboat manufacturer Laser has been granted a licence by patent sponsor Hoyle Schweitzer and is preparing three boards for the German market. The "Surf-Sprint" is to have a daggerboard that is reinforced with steel grids (!).
- Jürgen Hönscheid sets a new speed record. 45.837 km/h is less than half the current world record.
- The Innsbruck Water Rescue Service raves about how helpful a surfboard is in quickly rescuing drowning victims. Almost every lifeguard station now has a board at the ready
- A reader confirms the problems reported by surf with Klepper foot straps. His remedy: "Mum's mayonnaise bucket" was cut into strips and wrapped in neoprene.
- Jürgen Hönscheid again: In a letter to the editor, he states that he did not switch to F2 because of a transfer fee of "almost Bundesliga format"
- Hollywood star and sex symbol Bo Derek allegedly trained to compete in windsurfing for the USA at the 1984 Olympic Games. Nothing came of it, instead her film "Bolero" was released in the year of the Olympics - for which she at least received the "Golden Raspberry" for bad acting
- Just before Christmas, surf shows "what surfers can always use". From sex wax for the board and an Asterix-like wing cap to daggerboards and sails, the range is huge
- "Small wood orgy" at the European Tandem Championships on Lake Veluwe: the Ostermann daggerboards broke in rows, so a load of plastic daggerboards had to be smuggled across the border overnight
More surf reviews:
- surf 4/1977
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- surf 11/1980
- surf 4/1981
- surf 5/1982
- surf 6/1982
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- surf 9/1986
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- surf 11-12/1996
- surf 7/1997
- surf 8/1998
- surf 9/1998
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- surf 7/2001
- surf 5/2005
- surf 3/2006
Tobias Frauen
Editor