POINT-7 BORN IN 2005

FOUNDATION

Point-7 was the idea of Andrea Cucchi back in 2005 when he saw an opening in the market to create something new and re-launch windsurfing to a new generation.

Andrea saw a new personal challenge; to create and introduce a new brand on the market, a contender capable of competing against the market leaders, and for top PWA rankings.

After not being allowed to jump on a plane to fly to Turkey for an event, as the aircraft was not able to hold his gear due to a last minute change of aircraft model, Andrea took this free time to start the project. He called 3 persons to see if they would support his idea. Not everyone joined in but all gave their support to create the brand. Especially Roberto Cucchi, Andreas father jumped in to support and give guidance to the newly established company. Roberto is still active behind the scenes, supporting new ideas and the continued development of the company.

FIRST SAIL BORN

In 2006 the first sails were presented during the summer. A full range of sails were on display, except for racing sail. The brand quickly received the interest of many people as Andrea Cucchi from the start was able to win the Italian national slalom event on the AC-0 Slalom no cam. An online store was introduced to ensure availability to customers around the world until an international distribution network could be established.

AC-1: THE FIRST ONE

2007 saw the introduction of the AC-1, a full blooded race sail and with great thanks to one of the founding brothers Massimo Masserini, Jose Bahadour joined the racing team. During that first season Jose won the speed world cup in Karpathos with the very first series of the AC-1. Standing on top of the podium, Jose was joined by such big names as Antoine Albeau and Finian Maynard who were finding themselves in 2nd and 3rd position. The impressive result launched the P7 brand onto the world stage, and overnight became a household name.

The AC-1 sails were the first black sails to be made, and would since spread across the entire range.
Since then black sails and Point-7 have become synonymous. Seeing a black sail is seeing a Point-7.

WAVE EVOLUTION

In 2006 the first sails were presented during the summer. A full range of sails were on display, except for racing sail. The brand quickly received the interest of many people as Andrea Cucchi from the start was able to win the Italian national slalom event on the AC-0 Slalom no cam. An online store was introduced to ensure availability to customers around the world until an international distribution network could be established.

LAKE GARDA HEAD QUARTER

2010 marked the year that the first Point-7 store was opened in Torbole, Lake Garda in Italy. The development had moved from Sardinia to Tenerife have a wider variety of conditions to test under and to speed up the development of the wave sails. Lake Garda remains to this day the summer location of the team and for light wind developments. Pascal Toselli joined the team as the first international French rider and started off by winning 2 races during the famous Defi wind long distance competition that year, reaffirming once again the excellent performance of the sails.

SAILS EVOLUTION

A great base was established for 2011. A new sail designer joined the team and brought a new level of know-how to the table which brought the development and products to a new level once again. New products were introduced to the Point-7 range such as extensions, booms, accessories and branded apparel. The Point-7 range of products was complete. Andrea Cucchi between his daily duties won the World Formula Championships in the master class in Denmark. Highlighting to recent progress for the formula sails. A fan group established themselves on Facebook called the Black Sheep, now counting over 1200 dedicated members and followers of the Point-7 brand.

ITALIAN STYLE

2012 saw a reinforcement on the media side of Point-7 with Sean O’Brien and Alessandro Giovanelli taking over the graphical appearance of products and media services. Josh Angulo joined the team and Point-7 had finally reached their first top 5 results in PWA slalom and the first 0.7 victory. A goal was reached. The same year, Adam Lewis entered top 10 of the PWA wave tour with a 7th place in Sylt, Nicolas Akgazciyan finished top 10 in freestyle on PWA world tour. All disciplines were now manned by Point-7 riders in the top 10 of the PWA and the brand was finally recognized as one of the top brands in the world.

BLACK TEAM

2013 A new structure was introduced when Point-7 founded the Black Team. A real team which would work together thought-out the winter to improve their results. A professional structure was implemented to improve their skills on the water with full scale racing simulations and a dedicated training program on land. The followers of the Black team have been enjoying a massive amount of media. As a clear result of these efforts, Black team athlete Alberto Menegatti managed to win the first PWA event for Point-7, a cementation of the success the Black Team program has proven to me. More international results followed with all members of the Black Team winning at national events and scoring big at many International events. The Black Team is also directly involved with the future development of new Point-7 products, and giving constant feedback to Andrea Cucchi on all product lines. This structure have already resulted in a very a very detailed clean up any small issues which could have been better.
The international distribution network have grown immensely and now Point-7 is available in over 40nations. than ever before.

RESULTS

2014 was time to prove that the wave products were ready to bring top riders to victory and back on podium. Ricardo Campello happily jumped on the Black Team with one goal in mind: winning. Point-7 accelerated the development to bring out the Salt Campello edition sail with all the requested needs for Ricardo’s goal. At the first event Pozo, Gran Canaria, Ricardo finished second, and managed to win his first PWA event at La Torche in epic conditions. This was another important happening for the timeline of Point-7. Ricardo finished on the podium in the overall ranking. Another great achievement was done directly from Andrea Cucchi who managed to win the other important international event in France, the Defi wind. Showing that the boss of Point-7 is still highly active in the sport, and winning on his own products that he also personally develops with the rest of the Black Team. There was an upset with Alberto Menegatti, who had to quit the PWA slalom tour after his great result the year before due to injury. Pascal Toselli from the Black Team decided to change his mind set and take over the chance to show the speed of Point-7 in the PWA slalom. Jumping from 16th place in 2013, to 5th place in 2014, showed and confirmed again, the value of our brand in this discipline. The Black Team dominated also at the come back of the indoor event, which took place for the first time in Warsaw. Winning the freestyle discipline with Nicolas Akgazciyan, and with 2 second positions, always by Nico in slalom, and in the jumps with Ricardo Campello.

Motivated by the wave results the new wave boom WC100 was launched. 25mm diameter, octagonal tube shape, lightest and stiffest boom on the market.
An introduction of the new apparel fashion line was a big success for the brand.

THANK YOU ALBY.

2015 was a rough start for the Black Team, Point-7, but also for all the PWA riders. In February, Alberto Menegatti left our world, leaving a sad empty space around all the windsurfers and his family. It took a while before anyone could get back to the routine, understanding that the challenge had to be continued also for Alberto’s goals.
There were 2 main projects for the year: bringing more attention to the windsurfing girls and the new freestyle era for Point-7. There are more and more girls windsurfing now days, and a need to put more attention in supplying dedicated gear, information and excitement. Lena Erdil, Esther De Geuss, and Amanda Beenen were recruited on the Black Team to work on the #point7girls project. Their great results, had brought Point-7 to be visible between the ladies, with Amanda finishing third in the PWA wave in Tenerife, and Lena third in the PWA Slalom Overall. Their great articles which can be found on the Black Team academy, gave useful tips, not only to the windsurfing girls, but also to the men!

Point-7 was feeling that the freestyle discipline had been left behind, after the great results of the slalom team, and of Ricardo Campello in the waves. With a very motivated Nicolas Akgazciyan, Point-7 worked on over 50 prototypes to bring in 2016, the new Slash freestyle sail, completely reviewed. Nicolas trained hard to prove the quality of the new product, and for the first time, at the age of 30, Nicolas scored his first top 5 PWA Overall final ranking result, by finishing fourth, by being for the first time on the PWA podium in one event, and by being the first rider ever, to land in a competition, the new move called the Shifty.

The Eurocup Slalom Circuit was newly introduced in 2015. A new circuit for slalom racing with 4 different events around Europe. The first edition was won by the Black Team Member Vincent Langer, who has also won for his first time for himself, for the brand, the IFCA Slalom World Championships 2015. To continue on the racing scene, Argentinian Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, had join the team, bringing top 10 results in slalom at the PWA, and to introduce Point-7 in South America. Gonzalo implemented a lot of his knowledge for important feedback in the development of the 2016 AC-1. If Nicolas Akgazciyan had his best result at the age of 30 in PWA, also our CEO, Andrea Cucchi had his best result in PWA, by finishing fourth in Sylt, proving once again to be on the water making sure he knows what’s happening, outside the office.

At the end of 2015, an apparel range for biking, was introduced by Point-7. Ride the road like the oceans, and prove to be windsurfers also when biking in windless days!

PWA WORLD CHAMPIONS

2016 There is no luck behind results. Working with hard with passion to every detail and knowing that dreams are daily goals to achieve. Showing high level results in racing was one of the main targets for 2016, to prove the performance of our sails against the competition. We started the year by proving our AC-X Slalom no cam on the training race courses, against other PWA riders on race sails. We proved our sail to be winning races against the cam sails in 4 races out of 5 that we entered with 2 different riders. Later in the year there was an amazing PWA slalom world tour, where Matteo Iachino and Lena Erdil proved Point-7 to have the best slalom sail. The 2 riders from the Black team became respectively PWA Slalom World Champion and PWA Slalom Women Vice- World Champion. The only race sails on both class podiums. Point-7 in the PWA slalom tour had also Gonzalo Costa Hoevel, and our CEO Andrea Cucchi, in the top 10 of the ranking. Making this the only brand with 3 riders in top 10! This automatically made Point-7 being the brand to win the slalom sail brand constructor PWA world championship title.

The new masts were introduced with a cleaner layup, making the average weight drop by 300 grams, without changing the winning curves and quality. We introduced a new automatic system to the wave harness Matteo used the whole season to become world slalom champion, and whole line of new items in the accessory range for those who like travelling and race, such as the utility bags, rig bas, flex fit caps and more that you can discover on our site.

THE FIRST INTEGRATED RIG

2017 has been an important year for the Point-7 rig. The introduction of a detailed boom range, has brought the chance to have the full integrated rig branded Point-7, taking the performance of each component to its max.

A new 8.5 AC-ONE was developed to be used with a 460 mast for the lighter people, to be like the 9.2 for the heavier windsurfers. The 3.3 slash and the 3.6 Slash were included in the sail range to allow to be radical in further stronger winds for our clients and Black Team! For second time in a row, the PWA Slalom Podium was took from our AC-ONE.

Kurosh Kiani joined the Point-7 squad taking over the media and communication side of the brand, and Sara Cucchi the strategy and commercial of the Point-7 business.

2018 & 2019 NEW POLICY AND RESULTS

2018 ALMOST!

It was only about winning a second final out of 3 to have Ricardo Campello brining the PWA Wave World Title with our Salt pro, but it was missed for few points. Vice World Champion makes us anyway very proud, as well as the same results from Lena Erdil in the women’s PWA slalom. Thanks to Bruno Martini our AC-One set the One-hour record; a classic race on Lake Garda, where the person who crosses more times the lake in one-hour wins. This is the second time that Point-7 beats its own record. First time with Alberto Menegatti, and second time with Matteo Iachino. Yentel Caers has proved the quality of our newest version from the Slash Freestyle sail, by winning EFPT events, and jumping on the PWA podium in Fuerteventura. Our CEO, managed to become IFCA Slalom Master World Champion, as well as our Basil Jacquin with the same result in the PWA slalom Youth. 2018 was used to prepare lots of news for 2019, as sometimes good projects cannot be done over one year.

NEW POLICY AND NEW TITLES

2019 had Point-7 take off with a new sales policy. The idea was to have our clients be as most comfortable as possible in purchasing Point-7. Either through their closest dealer, or their favourite stores, on an online shop from one of our selected dealers, or directly online on our site. The common thing would have been the same price everywhere. A fair and transparent price to allow to purchase high quality gear, at the best price, not where the price would be lower, but finally where the client would feel more serviced and comfortable.

Thanks to Yentel Caers from our Point-7 Black Team, our Slash Freestyle sail managed to earn 2 important titles. Pwa world Freestyle Champion and European EFPT Freestyle Champion. Practically dominating the whole freestyle scene!

Another great result was achieved by our young Slalom rider Basile Jacquin, who took the AC-One to win another world title. The IFCA world slalom championships.

Taty Frans joined the Point-7 Black Team, bringing new feedback to the sail’s development, and great vibes & smiles to the Point-7 world.

The new QR harness lines were introduced. A safe, fast and easy system to bring fix harness lines to give advantages and safety to windsurfing.

THE COVID YEARS...

THE GAME CHANGER

2020. The Covid-19 the gamelife changer for everyone. Changing lives, habits, and our windsurfing world too. Almost no events, little expos, few test days, but what we missed the most was to travel to windsurf and meet with friends. We had just the chance to take part at the Boot in Duesseldorf, the first Super Star Defi Wind in Japan, and organize a Point-7 Holiday Camp with our followers in Fuerteventura. March came, and lots of parts of the word went in lockdown.

This unfortunate situation gave though the chance to many windsurfers to re-discover their windsurfing home spots. It also gave time to new people to start or re-start windsurfing. The numbers of windsurfing went up.

As Point-7 we took time during the lockdown to organize 2 real competitions on-line.  A virtual freestyle contest, and a drawing contest for the kids.

Looking at new products, the introduction of the new AC-Z was another success in the Point-7 sail range. A first 2 cam race sail below the boom and a no cam sleeve over the boom. Combining the advantages of both a race sail and a no cam.

After presenting the QR harness lines, there was a request for a Vario version, which we have also launched during this year. Safety and Vario system all in one.

Collecting more centres using our products, and seeing how much pressure mast bases were undergoing, we developed a new mast foot completely made in Italy. The P7 Pro Base. Best tendon quality on the market, one-piece pin structure, rope going on 4 sides. All components to make it as strong as ever.

Covid-19 is not over, we hope after this winter the situation will be back to normal, and that we can all travel meeting friends and windsurfing in our favourite spots around the world.

Stay strong.

ENTERING THE SPEED TUNNEL

2021 has been close to a normal year, events, travels with some hick ups and the word being dynamic has been very important to be able to make the best around the different restrictions.

Point-7 has strongly entered the foil market by presenting the new line of foil products: From the F1 racing line, F1 Hybrid sails for fin and foil, to the F100 dedicated foil masts and thanks to the F4 foil collaboration, an ultimate quality of foil line going from freeride up to VMG racing.

The Luderiz speed challenge was back on the November calendar, and this was one of our goals. Having Point-7 show its true speed was a box to click in our timeline. To achieve this Twan Verseput was excited to join the Point-7 Black Team, and Point-7 developed a full range of speed sails from 5.0 to 6.2, calling it of course the AC-1 Speed. After a month in Namibia with speeds over 100kmh, Twan was able to close in second position.

Jacopo Testa, our freestyler, close the EFPT tour in third position and the PWA in fifth on the Slash freestyle.

We have lots of new products for 2022 to come, we are going to organize an amazing Blacksheep meeting this spring, so stay tuned and will do our best to keep you on the lip of the wave in any discipline!

A NEW DUNKERBECK OF RACING?

2022. Point-7 has been always focused in looking for young talents and bringing them to the top. It’s hard nowadays not to see one of the top 10 riders who was not in Point-7 at the beginning of his career. Johan Soe from Denmark joined Point-7 in 2018, where he met with Andrea Cucchi in Alacati during one of the IFCA World Championships. This year at the age of 19, in his first 2 PWA World Tour events he managed to be in top and one of the few guys able to do most of the finals. Johan has also been crowned IFCA Youth World and European Champion 2022. Generally riders who have shown important results have been managing to be top 10 only after many years of racing. Most had their first important results not before the age of 23. Johan has been one of the very few to have gained these results under the age of 20. Will he be the new Dunkerbeck. Let’s cross fingers for him!  In the freestyle discipline, Jacopo Testa became European Freestyle Champion on our Slash, and was only 0.1 point to become PWA World Freestyle Champion, where he finished second. We are super proud as Jacopo is the second rider who in our team in the row, who has brought our Slash to such success. 2022 has brought to the market the new 023 F1x. The Foil slalom no cam, taken from the direct base development of the F1Sl and the AC-X. To complete further our foil products, we have presented our XXL Foil Slalom Vario Harness lines, and a complete new line of accessories including back packs, harness and more. It has been an amazing year as we were able to organize events as the Blacksheep meeting, Slalom clinics and Point-7 holidays with our clients. We started the P7 Life Project where we have gathered a staff of professionals to give a stronger structure to our windsurfing clinics.

FOIL ERA

2021 has been close to a normal year, events, travels with some hick ups and the word being dynamic has been very important to be able to make the best around the different restrictions.

Point-7 has strongly entered the foil market by presenting the new line of foil products: From the F1 racing line, F1 Hybrid sails for fin and foil, to the F100 dedicated foil masts and thanks to the F4 foil collaboration, an ultimate quality of foil line going from freeride up to VMG racing.

The Luderiz speed challenge was back on the November calendar, and this was one of our goals. Having Point-7 show its true speed was a box to click in our timeline. To achieve this Twan Verseput was excited to join the Point-7 Black Team, and Point-7 developed a full range of speed sails from 5.0 to 6.2, calling it of course the AC-1 Speed. After a month in Namibia with speeds over 100kmh, Twan was able to close in second position.

Jacopo Testa, our freestyler, close the EFPT tour in third position and the PWA in fifth on the Slash freestyle.

We have lots of new products for 2022 to come, we are going to organize an amazing Blacksheep meeting this spring, so stay tuned and will do our best to keep you on the lip of the wave in any discipline!

BOOSTING DEVELOPMENT ON ALL GEAR

023 was proving the racing soul of the brand in the foil discipline. Did not matter at what level, but the foil sails of Point-7 have gained an important market share. 3 years of development of the F1SL lead the young talent of Johan Soe, from the Point-7 Black Team, to obtain podium results in both Defi Wind and PWA World Tour. From the F1sl development, an evolution with no cam was introduced to the market called the F1x. A proper foil racing sail with no cams. Just like its fin sister AC-X Slalom No Cam. After being tested by the first clients, the sail immediately gained amazing feedback that just pushed owners to get the next size in the range in no time. Three newcomers in the team: Nils Bach. already in our team rider as You Tuber specialized in speed sailing and has now taken the role to help the media team, and sales, in important European countries. Mario Kuempel known on YouTube as ‘Surferzyzz’, has joined the Black Team and has converted his channel lately to English language from having it popularly only in German. Do follow him in his adventure and product explanation. Did you notice the new apparel line? It was out from the taste our model, third new Point-7 hero of the year, Marco Vinante. Marco not only being our Freestyle development head chief, has dedicated his time in providing Point-7 a total new adventure in the apparel products. The focus of 2023 was though working in 2024 development which will bring a total new sail range in each model, new masts, and new booms. Stay tuned to discover each part!

What’s next?

A lot of more work is waiting there for Point-7.

Point-7 is more than just a brand producing products; it is a brand working towards promoting the sport, supporting new young riders, and spreading a strong, free and healthy lifestyle.

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