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Still going?! Afternoons in the (windsurfing) museum - tidying up made easy

Tommy Brandner

 · 22.03.2025

Still going?! Afternoons in the (windsurfing) museum - tidying up made easyPhoto: Bernhard Förth
"When are you going to clear the clutter out of the garage?" Do you know that? Man, when I say I'm going to tidy up, I'm going to tidy up. No need to get on my arse three years after moving in. But well, I'll have a good clear-out after lunch.

Our previous tenant, a windsurfer from the very beginning, was quite practical and simply left his old cucumbers in the spacious double garage when he moved out. Mounted horizontally on top of each other, the sports antiques had been used as shelves for all sorts of junk for decades. Dragging down the broken inflatable boat - but hello! A yellow "Ten Cate Original Windsurfer", built in 1971, with wooden centreboard, base plate, teak boom, PE fin and triangular sail.

That's what they learnt to windsurf on back then! First you have to haul 22kg of board to the water, that's the end of the day. Attach the boom to the mast with a sheet and special knots, trim it somehow, don't forget the daggerboard. I was told that you slipped on the deck more often than you stood on it, and the base plate was more outside than inside. The 5.6 rig was twice as heavy as today's 7.5 and the thing was just luffing. In short, it was real fun. That someone stuck with it!

Oh, what's that? HiFly 444the kerb. 50 cm square tail, 20 cm thick, two brake fins, 18 kilos, never glide. A series funboard made of PE. This idea alone was a criminal offence. Oops, level three, a raceboard, Cobra 366 Equipe. Racing, exciting, in a triangle, with strict rules, rankings, trophies. Important people and association fuss. A Gun 320 above, from triangle pumping straight into straight thundering, that's what I call a flag in the wind!

But there, on the top floor, the fun returns, a Sunset, the father of all fun boards. So he's made it this far, our board collector. Great, a garage full of memories, a windsurfing museum. You don't throw something like that away. "How far have you got with the junk?" calls the woman's voice from the house. "I'm on it. Torn bags of leaves, road salt, 40 metres of garden hose with holes in it, rusty barbecue and so on, all outside." "And the old surfboards?" "What? I don't understand you!" "The old surfboards!" "What old surfboards? But tell me, do we really need the second car?"

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