Surf Today Windsurfing

Boujmaa Guilloul conquered the 2018 Pistol River Wave Bash, in Oregon.

The second stop on the International Windsurfing Tour (IWT) season attracted sailors from a dozen countries flocked to Gold Beach for yet another splendid contest.

The entire fleet took time to pay tribute to a fallen IWT campaigner, Attila Tivadar, who lost a battle against melanoma. He was a genuine and kind person, and will forever be remembered by his friends.

Sailboarding and windsurfing: why are there different names for a single the same sport?

In 1964, S. Newman Darby not only invented the sailboard, but he also opened the way to a new wind and water sport - windsurfing.

Sailboarding is the original term used for describing the outdoor activity in which someone stands up on a board that is connected to a mast and sail.

The Windsurf Project is an ambitious film series that aims to document the most radical and perfect windsurfing from around the globe.

During the 2017/2018 winter season, French windsurfer Thomas Traversa focused his efforts on tracking every storm in Europe. His agenda led him to the notorious Portuguese big wave break of Nazaré.

"Nazaré, right now, is definitely one of the top spots for big waves in the world. It is one of the scariest waves, and it was intimidating to sail it," notes Traversa former PWA World Tour champion, and winner of the Red Bull Storm Chase.

Steven Van Broeckhoven claimed the 2018 EFPT Sardinia, at Porto Liscia Windsurf Club, in Italy.

The European Freestyle Pro Tour is back to the stunning shores of northern Sardinia, eight years after the last event. At the time, windsurfers were greeted with both light breezes and howling winds.

This time, and despite the shifting conditions, the thermal westerly winds allowed the completion of the event. Pro and amateur sailors delivered a fantastic show of style and creativity.

Ricardo Santos conquered 2018 RS:X North American Windsurfing Championships in Cancun, Mexico.

The Brazilian windsurfer dominated the competition and won eight of the ten races. Santos imposed his Olympic experience over Ignacio Berenguer and Geronimo Nores.

The event attracted 57 athletes from eight countries, and they all fought for a place in the Pan-American Games and Youth Olympic Games.

The North Shore of Fuerteventura is a magical place, and when the right wind and swell align, it produces ideal conditions for wave sailing.

Julien Taboulet is a quiet, yet busy windsurfer. He's not a social media fanatic, and he runs the Wesh Center in Leucate, so it's hard to follow some of his secret adventures.

Nevertheless, recently, he's had the time of his life in the Canary Islands. With winds of up to 40 knots and double mast-high wave sets, the French delivered a stunning wave sailing lesson.

Vincent Langer claimed the 2018 IFCA Slalom Windsurfing European Championships, in Westerland, Sylt, Germany.

The seven-day event had five eliminations and a broad range of wind and ocean conditions, from light breezes and flat waters to gusty winds and pumping swells.

In fact, on day three, competitors were greeted by three-meter waves and 30-knot plus winds. The good news is that Germans love windsurfing, and they are willing to sacrifice comfort for an exciting competition.

Niclas Nebelung has taken out the first event of the 2018 German Freestyle Battle (GFB) series, in the Fehmarn Island.

For the fifth consecutive year, the German freestyle windsurfing elite gathered for the Mercedes-Benz Surf-Festival 2018.

Despite the lack of wind on the first day, there was enough breeze on the last day to start a single elimination and crown a champion.

Nicolas Warembourg has taken out the 2018 Défi Wind, in Gruissan, France.

It was one of the most exciting editions of all time with 1,200 windsurfers in the starting line speeding up powered by epic 35-knot plus winds.

After two days without wind, the Tramontane returned to the regatta field and allowed the organization to run two epic races won by Warembourg.

You don't need to be a beginner to get caught by a three-wave set or closeout wave. It happens to the best us. Here's what you should do when getting washed by waves.

In windsurfing, potentially life-threatening wipeouts are especially dangerous in wave sailing. If you're freestyling in flat waters, the risks are significantly lower.

Waves do not wait for us. They keep coming and hitting everything they encounter with no mercy at all for windsurfers.

In 1964, a young woman named Naomi Albrecht became the first ever woman to stand up on a sailboard.

It was summer day like many others. But what was about to take place in a Wyoming Mountain lake, in Pennsylvania, would change the course of water sports forever.

Naomi Albrecht and her boyfriend, Sidney Newman Darby Jr., were testing an innovative board controlled by a simple sail. She was a canoe racer and photography student. He was a talented 36-year-old amateur inventor.

Hailed as the largest wind sports events on the planet, the Défi Wind and the Défi Kite are a sum of impressive facts and figures.

Every year, between April and May, the windy waters of Gruissan welcome thousands of windsurfers and kiteboarders for a unique, exhausting challenge.

They are all invited to face the elements along the beautiful beaches of Occitania, and complete a 40-kilometer sailing marathon.

Tonky Frans has taken out the first event of the 2018 European Freestyle Pro Tour (EFPT).

The windsurfer from Bonaire claimed the Surf Worldcup, in Neusiedl am See, Austria, after beating Sam Esteve in an exciting super final blessed by howling southerly winds.

The 20th anniversary year of the Austrian competition brought plenty of action into the local cold waters. Esteve and Frans were probably the most in-form sailors of the entire contest and fully deserved their spots in the decisive heats.

The inaugural 2018 eSailing World Championship will kick off on May 10.

World Sailing, the world governing bodyboard for the sport of sailing, announced that the first eSports sailing season will feature a series of challenges and live events with different levels of importance.

The digital competition will get underway at Virtual Regatta, an online platform with one million players created in 2002 by Philippe Guigné.

The 2018 OBX Wind was a huge success. The event attracted over 200 racers and had wind nearly every day.

On the final day of competition, cold, 25-30 knot northeast winds invaded the Hatteras Island regatta field, and slalom fleet completed their last races.

Despite the cold air and water temperatures Tyson Poor imposed his experience and stole the show in the slalom category.

Windsurfing is a relatively new sport. When it evolved from a cruising pastime to a high-performance outdoor activity, new doors opened, and freestyle windsurfing quickly became a hit.

The idea of performing exquisite, and sometimes slightly uncomfortable and unnatural tricks, started to take shape in the late 1970s, early 1980s.

Windsurfing pioneers understood that the sail pivots around the mast and that their boards could actually spin, turn, revolve and rotate. The discovery changed everything, and the water sport conquered new participants.

The professional windsurfing circuit is about to revolutionize the freestyle competition.

The Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) announced the introduction of the Freestyle Qualifying Series (FQS), in association with the European Freestyle Pro Tour (EFPT)

The new system will allow any windsurfer to make it to the 2019 PWA Freestyle World Tour, where only the top 20 sailors compete.

The world's largest OEM manufacturers of composite equipment for the water sports industry announced the launch of the Windsurfer LT.

Cobra International, a Thailand-based company that produces gear for windsurfing, kitesurfing, surfing, and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), developed a new windsurf board that hopes to take the sport back to its roots.

The creation of the Windsurfer LT has been supervised by former Olympic windsurfer Bruce Wylie, and by the Windsurfer Class Association, who is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

She is not just a pretty face. South African pro windsurfer Karo van Tonder is comfortable in all types of conditions.

Whether she's competing on a downwinder, a speed sailing event, or slalom race, Tonder always pushes herself to the limit.

In September 2017, the athlete from Langebaan became the first woman on the planet to complete an 80-kilometer race - the Défi Wind Mauritius.

Dire Straits were one of the most successful British bands of the 1980s. Between 1977 and 1995, they sold over 100 million records worldwide.

But what many didn't know was that two of their members - Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher - were avid windsurfing enthusiasts.

According to a 1990 TV news story by ITV, the duo started sailing when recording in the Caribbean. Whenever on tour, they always managed to find time to get out on the water.