Old School

Just had to share my journey as an 80's wave sailor in Victoria, I had a blast at places like Pt Leo, Rye, Sandy Point.but you know life gets in the way and at some point in the early 90's I stopped sailing. 30 odd years later as part of my retirement I decided to have another go. Bought relatively new gear but a combination of a lack a fitness and not really vibing with these new boards and sails I was ready to give up. Enter my wife's ancient Bic 250 long board and pin head sail, voila I'm sailing and having fun. Now 4 years after my failed initial attempts I have a set of 80's Mistrals (Maui, Take-Off, Garda, Competition, Malibu) and about 30 sails (mainly 84-91 Neil Pryde RAF sails in sizes from 4.5 to 6.9 with lots of duplicates.no loose leech in this bunch)..and I'm having a blast 5 knots or 25knots, waves or flat..and even at 83kgs I can uphaul the Take-Off if I am feeling a bit sharkey and don't want to waterstart. Just putting this out there because old gear gets a bad name, but for at least one sailboarder it made it possible to get back into the sport and have fun. Side-note : most of my sailing is in off shore conditions with multiple sandbars that might only be 20cms deep. These old boards with retractable center boards and small fins are brilliant for heading home and blasting across shallow water.heck the Take-Off even has retractable fins..and no this gear is not suitable for doing loops (although there is videos of Robbie looping a long board) but this old guy is also not capable of that anymore either, some blasting, tuning, and a few jumps and that's it for me..LOL.keep on sailing.and don't forget to share some love for the gear that made sport in the first place

You'd probably really enjoy an Exocet Breeze.