1983 Video of Mark Paul, Kevin Wadham and others in action some slow motion and cool film photography. I remember being mesmerised on seeing this at the Perth boat show and by the high tech Bombora and Gaastra gear. I believe this was a series of Peter Crawford film sessions spliced together from sailing at Long Reef, NSW but someone else may know for sure. Thanks to Greenleader for posting this on you tube. You can see Mark Paul sailing with many different sails and boards at different times and with his trademark custom made chest harness (pre-spreader bar) with exparrot design. Also see even earlier 1982 shot below from Peak including the board (not shown in the video) being the Bombora Proto on which the plastic New Toy was based.The Gaastra advert also below confirms the New Toy proto was a jumping powerhouse as it was for those days even when made in plastic.
Good memories Richard 
The glass New Toy Protos were cool boards. I got one in early 1982, used it mainly at Long Reef and Wanda.
Took it to Bali in July 1982, had a couple of ok waveriding sessions at Nusa Dua.
Select to expand quoteazymuth said..
Good memories Richard
The glass New Toy Protos were cool boards. I got one in early 1982, used it mainly at Long Reef and Wanda.
Took it to Bali in July 1982, had a couple of ok waveriding sessions at Nusa Dua.
Thanks JJ. Lovely shots !
Chest harnesses with harness lines miles apart and the vulcanized boom grip that tore the skin off your hands, Those were the days.
Select to expand quoteHardcarve1 said..
Chest harnesses with harness lines miles apart and the vulcanized boom grip that tore the skin off your hands, Those were the days.
I think the earlier Bombora boom using the cut down windsurfer original stock alloy boom with extensions had softer grip than the later Bombora boom. I did not use that later one. Gaastra chest Harness with spreader bar worked fine at the time. Also wide harness lines worked fine as I recall enabling the kind of reactive stance needed to promote speed and to avoid spin out and for optimising rig geometry given volume forward due to board and in light of sail design and mast track forward. Kind of like in some cases a prone kangaroo stance as subtlety shown in this video by Mark Paul. The Gaastra powerhead horizontal panelled rainbow sails of 1983 setting on blue Gaastra mast were light and good sails even though fully Dacron (stretched earlier than Mylar) and had shorter booms, more refined design and higher aspect than the Gaastra Bombora vertical panel sails.
Good that this sort of stuff hasn't been lost. But wasn't shot by Peter Crawford - he only ever did stills.
They say never meet your hero's as you'll only be disappointed, I was 14 when I brought my Bombora tri at the sailboard show in Melbourne in 1983 , and for years Mark Paul was my hero ( Australian wave sailer can't beat the god of our sport R Naish), years would go by and finally I would compete in national titles ,and to meet Mark and from day one he was always friendly helpful and a true ambassador to our sport .So never be afraid to meet your hero even if he did invent the rope universal that needed re doing after every session and gave you a fin shaped like a kangaroo penis!! In the past few years I went on a nostalgia trip and hunted down some old Bombora gear which is now hanging rigged on the roof of my garage , to remind me of where we started
