You finally got to a level where you are a windsurfer. You did all your lessons in a windsurfing school, you fell in love with windsurfing, and now you are ready to buy your first gear! What to buy, what do you need, and how much money will it cost?
These are all questions which could be impossible for yourself to answer, as you are new to the sport and never bought windsurfing gear. Windsurfing is technical, there is huge variety of gear for the different disciplines with multiple combinations, and a range of pricing between new and used gear. You can choose to buy from the shops who sell online, or from the physical shops, but when you are new to the sport, the best is to not take chances, but to visit a good windsurfing shop, and start asking for advice. Ask your windsurfing teacher advice as well.
Once you start windsurfing you need masts, booms, sails, fins, boards, accessories and not only in one size, but in different sizes. In average, windsurfers own 2 boards and 3-4 sails, plus all the necessities needed to have it all rigged. If you add up the total cost, it is not a little amount of money, and this is why you need good advice and a good plan before starting to spend money. Why a plan? What you buy today, having just started, you might not need and use anymore after 1 year. Therefore, a good plan makes you save a lot of money.
What does this mean? It means buying smart. The first thing you need to examine, is where you will mostly windsurf. From this you will know the conditions of wind strength and water surface you will sail in. This will already help you know which size of gear you will need according to your weight, the amount of sails and boards you will want to have, and therefore which components you will need to rig the equipment. As you will start buying the first board and sail, you might actually buy exactly only 1 board and 1 sail. Will this be the right move, or is it a short vision decision? What is meant by this? If you buy a 5.8m sail, you will need a 430 mast and a 160-220 boom. Are we sure we that the 160-220 boom is the right choice? Maybe better a 140-200 boom which can rig all the smaller sails too, or a 180-240 boom which can rig all the bigger sail sizes too. Is the 5.8 a good compromise to learn to have 1 sail only, or better to have a 5.4 and 6.5 for bigger wind range condition, and not having to sell the 5.8 after 6months, to have what you could already have from the beginning? Better to buy a used mast for a good price, or a little less carbon percentage mast which is recommended by the sail brand, with 2 years warranty?
These are all questions and answers that you need to pay attention to, when choosing your first gear. You might even spend some hundreds of euros in the beginning, but on the long term you will have less hassle in updating the gear and, you will end up saving money and time long term. Windsurfing is a sport which has a cost like any other sport which needs gear to practice it, but apart from the first heavy purchase, for the rest of the years, if the right gear is bought, and it’s changed before it needs to see the rubbish, the yearly update of few parts which are most used, does not add up to a big yearly expense as thought, plus… … It’s a great healthy sport in the nature, filling up body and mind with positive feeling, a unique lifestyle, dreams and emotion that will keep you young!
To be sure you make the right choice, select a shop which is happy to take time to help you out with all the above advice. If you see that it’s pushing to sell you what he has in a dusty corner, be careful! Used or new, this is your choice and relates to your budget. Important is that you buy gear and rig components that you know you will be using also in future!
If you need any technical advice, especially on our Point-7 products, do not hesitate to contact our customer service, they will be happy to support you with advice. [email protected]
