Windsurf: Blow up windsurfing performance boards – the inflatable revolution!

It started with Starboard‘s Airplane inflatable planing windsurf hull. Towards the latter part of 2015 a vid landed showing a blow up windsurf board planing, full power, across the azure coloured waters of Maui.

Not long after we saw first glimpses of RRD‘s Airwindsurf Freeride (which we currently have on test). And just recently John ‘Skyboy’ Skye posted a vid to Facebook showing him hurtling down a speed strip on the latest RRD inflatable windy board – the Airwindsurf Speed.

 

You can see this is totally legit. Skyeboy flies along clocking 34.8 knots with his 7.0m Firewing providing the ‘engine’. Impressed? Yep, we were too!

So does this mean a raft of blow up performance windy boards are going to land on our doorsteps? Yep, we’d assume so. And does it signal a mini revolution in windsurfing? Again, most likely.

But it isn’t just windsurf boards that are causing a stir. The whole package, including rig, is being tweaked for convenience, storage and travel. As already mentioned Windsurfing UK has gotten its grubby mitts on RRD’s Airwindsurf Freeride board to test. But we’ve also got the Airwindsurf 7.0m rig accompaniment. Including five piece mast, three piece boom and compact travel bag it’s certainly a whole new ball game for windsurfing.

And let’s not forget Arrows Inflatables iRig which we reviewed a few weeks ago. (See write up here).

We’re sure other brands are working on their own designs and would estimate seeing these pretty soon.

Stay tuned for the in depth look at both RRD’s Airwindsurf Freeride board and 7.0m rig in the very first issue of Windsurfing UK, dropping October, 2016.