BodyBoarding

BodyBoarding has been around before the first man ever stood on surfboard. It it sometimes called BoogieBoarding, because of Tom Morey who made the board popular in the 1970's.

Before 1971 the Bodyboard was made of mostly of wood & sometimes fiberglass & foam, they were called Paipo Boards. The Paipo board were made of koa wood. Modern Bodyboards is made of a foam core surrounded by a plastic bottom. The core is made of either dow/polyethylene or polypropylene. The difference between the two is the amount of flex and control that rider has. Also, the core is dependent of the water temperature that the board will be ridden. Dow/polyethylene is better for colder waters, were in warm waters the board is too flexible and may result in loss of speed on a Wave.

Some boards have channels which give the board better hold and control. Some boards have "stringers." A stringer is a rod that runs either down the center of the board or 2 rods running parallel to Rails So boards come with fins, which are used to decrease slipping out on a wave, but because of their lack of maneuverability they are exclusively used by stand up or drop knee riders. Besides a board, other equipment is a leash, a Rash Guardor a Wetsuit, and a pair of fins.

There are three basic styles of riding: Prone, Dropknee, & Stand-Up.

Prone Riding

Prone Bodyboarding is preformed lying down on the board. The standard tricks are preformed on the face of the wave. These tricks such as spinners, a 360˚ spin, cut backs, coming back to the curl of a wave, & El Rollos or barrel rolls, which are when a rider hits the lip of wave of uses that power to roll the board 360˚ overhead.

Modern Bodyboarding tricks are focused aerial maneuvers & riding in big heavy surf. Amazing feats such as aerial spinners, reverse 720s, Air Rollos, Air Back Flips, & anything open the imagination & skill of a rider.

Riding deep in the tube will forever be a pursuit of any wave rider. Bodyboarding is no different. Getting deep in the tube is far less complicated on a bodyboard than on a Surfboard.

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Jet Ski - Inventor Clayton Jacobsen

A relatively recent but immensely popular addition to summertime leisure activities in the United States is the personal watercraft (PWC). Such vehicles have made it possible for people from all walks of life to enjoy fast-paced recreation on the open water without the encumbrance or expense of a full-sized boat.The invention of both major types of PWC is usually credited to Clayton Jacobsen II of Arizona, originally a motocross enthusiast. The general public was introduced to such vehicles with the mass-marketing of Kawasaki's Jet Ski® in 1973. The original stand-up model, with a powerful 400cc engine and handlebar steering, allowed a person virtually to waterski without need of a boat. However, staying aboard the device was a challenge, especially in choppy water; so for some years, despite improvements in control and stability, PWCs acquired a very loyal but also fairly limited following.
A double breakthrough came in the late 80s, with the development and production of two-person watercraft in a sit-down style. Besides affording greater comraderie and comfort, these PWCs were more stable, safe, and user-friendly than their predecessors. By the early 90s, futher improvements in technology, from cockpit and hull design to engine and exhaust efficiency, had made sit-down personal watercraft quite easy to use. Their popularity skyrocketed---to the point that the Sea-Doo®, a sit-down PWC made by Bombardier, Inc., became the largest-selling boat in the world.
Today, there are PWCs capable of carrying three persons and reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour. The racing of souped up models, stand-up and sit-down, is an organized sport supported by competitions throughout the US. At the same time, personal watercraft have helped expand the concept of the waterside vacation, earning reserved areas on the country's lakes and shorelines. Being thrilling but safe, and easily accessible through rental as well as purchase, PWCs will continue to become more popular every year.

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What is Wakeboarding

Wakeboarding emerged from Waterskiing and Surfing in California and changed the World of classic Waterskiing as fast as Snowboarding did with snow skiing back in the 90's. The idea was pretty simple: being pulled by a boat while riding a surfboard.  

But the regular surfboards were too long so they developed the so called "Skurfer" that established a mix of a waterski and a surfboard. The "Skurfer" was OK for a dynamic ride but it was very hard to ride these heavy boards.

1990 was the real birth of Wakeboarding.

Herb O'Brien the owner of a waterski company built the prototype wakeboard - the Hyperlite. Compared to the "Skurfer" it was a flat board with small volume that was more easy to control. The natural form of the "Hyperlites" was developed to a symmetric Twin Tip Board with fins at both board ends. The new generation of boards was more similar to Freestyle Snowboards than surfboards. In 1990, too Jimmy Redmon the guru of wakeboarding founded the World Wake Association (WWA) in Winter Park, Florida. Two years later wakeboarding became an official sport as a sport promoter from Florida founded the "Pro Wakeboard Series". This professional series grew from year to year.

Beginning 1994 wakeboarding splashed all over the Europe. Several events were held behind the boat, mostly sponsored by boat, board and equipment companies. British guys were the first organizers to test bringing wakeboarding to the cable. They were first to produce a rule book.

The dynamic growth of wakeboarding was also watched by the International Waterski Federation. More and more young skiers looked with an interest and curiosity to this new sport with a board… In 1997 the European Wakeboard Association (EWA) was founded as a council within the International Water Ski Federation. Without doubt EWA was the voice for wakeboarding including boat and cable around Europe.

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About Windsurfing

Windsurfing or boardsailing is a sport that combines sailing and surfing and uses a one-person craft called a sailboard. The basic sailboard is composed of a board and a rig.

In 1948, twenty-year old Newman Darby first conceived of using a handheld sail and rig mounted on a universal joint, to control a small catamaran. Darby did not file for a patent for his design, however, he is regonized as the inventor of the first sailboard.

Californians Jim Drake (a sailor and engineer) and Hoyle Schweitzer (a surfer and skier) received the very first patent for a sailboard. They called their design a Windsurfer. The early Windsurfer boards measured 12 feet (3.5 m) long and weighed 60 pounds (27 kg).

Later in the 1980s, Newman Darby did file for and receive a design patent for a one-person sailboat, the Darby 8 SS sidestep hull.

According to Newman & Naomi Darby in their article The Birth of Windsurfing: "Newman Darby found he could steer a conventional 3 meter sailboat by tipping it fore and aft enough to make turns even without a rudder. This is when (late 1940s) Newman got interested in steering a boat without a rudder. Several sailboats and 2 1/2 decades later (1964) he designed the first universal joint to go along with a flat bottom sailing scow. This sailboard was fitted with a universal joint mast, a centerboard, tail fin and kite shaped free sail and thus windsurfing was born."

Naomi Darby, Newman's wife, was the first woman windsurfer and helped her husband build and design the first sailboard.

Jim Drake's and Hoyle Schweitzer's patent for a sailboard was granted in 1970 (filed 1968 - reissued 1983). Drake and Schweitzer based the Windsurfer on Darby's original ideas and fully credited him with its invention.

According to the official Windsurfing website "The heart of the invention (and patent) was mounting a sail on a universal joint, requiring the sailor to support the rig, and allowing the rig to be tilted in any direction. This tilting of the rig fore and aft allows the board to be steered without the use of a rudder - the only sail craft able to do so."

Hoyle Schweitzer began mass-producing polyethylene sailboards (Windsurfer design) in the early 1970s. The sport became very popular in Europe and by the late 70's windsurfing fever had Europe firmly in its grasp with one in every three households having a sailboard.

The first world championship of windsurfing was held in 1973. Windsurfing first became an Olympic sport in 1984 for men and 1992 for women.

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