r/windsurfing

Hello all, I have 3 weeks of time to kill before I start my new job and was thinking about going on a windsurfing holiday ( one option I'm thinking about is Gran Canaria). It's a 7 day holiday with 2 lessons per day for 5 days. It looks really fun but I'm not sure it will be worth the money ( approximately 1000 euro all in with flight etc). I reckon it's probably the fastest way to learn windsurfing, so that in the future I can just rent a board for a day and go on the water solo. Should I do this? What do you think? Or are there any better things to do?

Hey, looking for some outside perspective on trip ordering.

Quick background: I last windsurfed about a year ago during a school block — that was basically my first and only time. I can uphaul, sail across the wind and tack, done a heli-tack on a 5m sail but not sure that counts. Never planed, harnessed, used footstraps or waterstarted. Competitive athlete so fitness isn't the issue, just haven't had structured coaching.

This summer I have two windsurfing trips:

1. A solo trip to a proper windsurf destination — somewhere like Alaçatı, Fuerteventura, or similar — with a certified school, good conditions, and the explicit goal of breaking into harness, footstraps and planing.

2. A school trip to Lipno reservoir in the Czech Republic. Light, unpredictable wind, flat water, beginner-oriented. Our teacher is apparently quite advanced at windsurfing though, so there's potential for some one-on-one feedback if he has time.

Two ways to think about the order: go to Lipno first, shake off the rust and get technique corrected by someone who knows what they're doing, then arrive at the proper destination with cleaner fundamentals and get more out of the coaching. Or go to the proper destination first, crack harness and planing, then come back to Lipno where the teacher can actually work on something useful with me rather than just running me through stuff I already know.

What would you actually do, and why?

Hello folks! I’m looking for a family board that would allow me to enjoy fully powered planing while the kids learn the basics.

Storage space is limited, so I’m looking for an inflatable option. What do you think about the 2026 Starboard Airplane 242? I haven’t been able to find any feedback about it, but it seems that many of the issues from previous model years have been addressed in the new version.

https://preview.redd.it/q9dzc2fctxah1.jpg?width=990&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=686109dbe48ecd782b8f6255fb51fdb94b873ca8

I know that old gear is generally a bad purchase due to technological advancements in recent decades. But what would you say is the cutoff year for gear? What year did the boards or sails become "modern" in your opinion?

long story short I’m just learning, live 2 hours from the gorge and got a flat tire on the way and got there super late.

not wanting to not get to go out that day,, I went it super light wind with my brand new sail, and new to me mast.

not enough wind to water start practice like I wanted to, I decided it would be a good time to learn self rescue, by taking rig apart and piling on the board and paddling to shore. I was only like 50 to 100 yards offshore in 12 to 15 foot deep water.

mast and sail drifted apart from board, and sank and I stayed with board because wind and current were opposing, so the board being above the water caught the wind, and the mast and sail caught the opposite current, and sank.

it was close to a metal piling sticking out of the water, so I have a fairly decent idea where it went down. local search operator wants 300 to find it, but I already spent my money on gear so that’s no go.

how do you think I can find it myself? just snorkel it?

https://preview.redd.it/x0to62nevsah1.png?width=966&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad0d107daa8f1e7d0c0048bcc8def49fbd99b032

I’m a big lump of a beginner. Smallest board I’ve managed on is 155L
Just wondering amongst the advanced guys out there, what is the smallest volume board you can sail? I’ve heard of something around the 65L mark?

Hello! My husband is an 8-year windsurfer and got a stranded for the first time this weekend in the water but was able to self-rescue (phew!). He has a birthday coming up - does anyone have a good recommendation for a windsurfing radio or a smart watch that can call for help? He also likes to sail out of the country (we are based in the US).

I’m looking at the Standard Horizon Handheld VHF Radio w/ GPS & Bluetooth – HX890BT but it has some mixed reviews.

Thank you for any advice!

hey guys
Is there something like a windsurfing camp in Europe similar to all the Surfing camps existing? Any advice is appreciated :)

Edit: I recently broke up with my gf, so Im searching sth where its a bit more social then to book everything by yourself. I live in Switzerland

Hello. I have a 2025 Duotone F-Pace 7.4 Ride, which requires a 460 RDM mast. I heard Duotone recently changed its sail bend curve but I'm not sure if that's true.

I'm looking to buy a used Ezzy Hookipa 460 mast. Has anyone used an Ezzy mast with a recent Duotone sail? If so, how does it perform?

Also, does anyone know why the Duotone Platinum mast is significantly more expensive than other brands?

I couldn't find a wingsurfing subreddit. So I assume this is the right place to ask..

I have a 5m slingshot wing I acquired from a friend, I also have an unused 100L foam SUP.

is there a way I can merge these two to work together to learn wingsurfing or foiling?

I don't mind installing a keel or whatever it's called on the SUP.

I'm on the West Coast so we have waves and flat bays with plenty of windy days

I'm 17, based in Prague, and I've got one week free between late July and 8 August next summer (have to be home by the 8th). The whole point of the trip is one thing: improve as fast as humanly possible. I want to break into the powered stuff — getting into the harness, footstraps, planing, and ideally start waterstarting.

Where I'm at, honestly: rusty. I windsurfed about a year ago and that was basically my first and only time (a block with school). I can uphaul, sail across the wind and tack, and I've done a heli-tack but only on a 5m sail so I'm not sure that even counts. Never planed, used a harness/straps, or waterstarted. I'm a competitive boulderer so fitness/balance/core aren't the limiter, and I pick things up fast — I reckon conditions and coaching are what matter for me, not how fit I am.

Constraints: travelling solo, flying out of Prague, can't rent a car (17), and I need to be able to book lessons/rental myself with a parental consent form, since some package operators want the lead booker to be 18+. So ideally somewhere I can reach car-free — walkable base + a pre-booked transfer. Budget isn't unlimited; I'm trying to keep it reasonable rather than a luxury package, but I care more about learning than saving a couple hundred.

I've been leaning toward Vassiliki / Club Vass, mostly for the coaching reputation and the all-day kit setup — the light-morning / thermal-afternoon thing sounds perfect for drilling moves then sending it. But I keep going back and forth, because the bay's deep, and part of me thinks a flat, shallow, standing-depth lagoon (Alaçatı, or somewhere in Egypt like El Gouna) would rack up way more clean reps with fewer long swims, which feels like the actual driver of progress at my level. Also looked at Naxos (worried the meltemi's too strong/gusty in peak August) and Sardinia / Lake Garda.

Questions for anyone who's been:

- For someone rusty-but-keen at my exact level, is Vass really the best place to crack planing + harness in a week, or am I overrating the coaching vs just needing flat shallow water and reps?

- Anyone done Club Vass as an improver — how fast did you actually progress, and did you get enough water time and end up in the right group?

- If not Vass, where would you send me for the fastest week given the dates and the car-free / under-18 thing?

- Anything I'm not thinking about?

Cheers — genuinely want the honest take, even if it's "you're overthinking it, go here instead."

Hi everyone, over the last months I have been tinkering a lot with a local predictor for wind at alpine lake walchensee.
I knew that normal weather models are not working here and so I tried to establish a rule based model. Further explanations on it can be found on the site.
I also tried to fit one or two machine learning models, which look promising.

Nonetheless, prediciting this remains quite hard :D.