End of a great day at the Toronto Windsurfing Club
18/10/2026

iSonic 107
Select Fins V-Max 37
Point-7 AC-Z 6.8

This coming weekend it's Labour weekend and spring conditions are sweet in Taranaki.

Anyone coming to the region to kick their heels up for a wave 🌊

I kite on France's Atlantic coast and kept seeing forecasts that disagreed with the beach. So I compared the hourly forecast of six models with what 17 coastal weather stations actually measured (2,800 hours).

What came out:

• The high-resolution local model won almost everywhere. In France that's Météo-France's AROME (1.3 km grid): average error 3.3 km/h, vs 5.0 for ICON and 5.2 for GFS. It won at 16 of the 17 stations.
• Coarse models under-forecast coastal wind. ICON (11 km grid) was 3 km/h too low on average. A big grid cell mixes land and sea, so it can't "see" the coastline.
• "Best match" isn't a blend. On several forecast sites the default picks ONE model per location, and on the whole English Channel coast it picked ICON. Worth checking which model your app is actually showing you.
• Averaging models made it worse. Averaging AROME with ICON and GFS gave a bigger error than AROME alone. It also mixes wind directions into a heading no model predicted, and on/off/side-shore decides a session.
• "Gusty" warnings are often false alarms. A model's gust is the max over an hour; a station's gust is over 10 minutes. Mixing the two scales flagged "gusty" on 80% of windy hours, and more than half were wrong.
• When models agree, the forecast really is better, up to a point. Error dropped steadily as agreement rose, then flattened. Past that point, more agreement told you nothing.

Caveats: French coast, summer, max wind about 20 kn. I still need to rerun it in winter for the strong-wind regime.

Happy to share the method. Disclosure: I'm the developer of Tide It, a tide + wind app. This audit is how I picked the model it uses, and it shows the measured wind next to the forecast instead of blending them.

Hi, I’ll be in Lokken next week and would like to go windsurfing. I don’t have my own kit and have mostly been to Westwind in Ringkøbing Fjord. I haven’t been able to find any windsurfing centres around Lokken. Could you recommend a windsurfing centre that’s still open and nearby? Or perhaps someone who rents out kit privately? Thanks

I'm learning to foil at the moment and had a pretty bad catapult crash at the end of my session. Am I just absolutly incompetent or is this a common thing? Also how bad do you guys think it is?

I'm travelling to Holland from 25th to 31st October, without gear. So, I am looking for a spot where I can rent slalom (or freerace) gear. I'm mainly in the vicinity of Amsterdam but am mobile, so also willing to travel to Zeeland, if necessary.

Please advice me.

I am trying to get rid of some old gear. I got this stuff used about 7 years ago. Planning on windsurfing in Galveston during the fall/spring/summer and Long Island in the summer.

1. Should I get rid of everything and get a whole new setup? If so, what's a good price? I'm not looking to make any real money, I just don't want to give it away unless there is someone who really wants to get into the sport and is strapped for cash. I am all about paying it forward.
2. Should I ditch the board and keep the sails and hardware?
3. Other ideas welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, to the surfers in the group, how does surfing ability translate to a beginning windsurfer and where does one start? Thanks so much

I built an Apple Watch app which allows to track windsurfing sessions in detail. It works together with the https://upwind.community website where the session can be uploaded and analyzed in detail.

It is completely free to use. You will have to pair it with the website by entering a code.

The analyzer detects wind direction, reaches, gybes, tacks and stops.

The website which i promoted in an earlier post also includes an inventory of windsurfing spots all over the world. AI has been used to build this inventory, but the idea is for users to create entries for spots that might still be unknown. The website now also features an "Awards & rankings" section. If you upload and publish your sessions, you will automatically enter those statistics.

The app can be found by clicking the "Connect watch" menu item on the left hand side. If you don't have an apple watch, you might be able to use the "Upload GPS recording" action on the recordings page. This feature is experimental and not very well tested.

Hello yall.

I am an avid outdoorsman who recently moved to the Carolinas. Windsurfing started popping up on my feeds over the summer and I decided to start to look at getting used gear, hopefully with offseason prices.

What exactly will I need to get started, and what is nice to have as I get more into it?

I noticed a sail on marketplace, but it looks like it might need a rod to stand up. Are these connections universal, or would I need a certain type of sail with certain types of board?

Hi all I just took a lesson conditions were light and calm and I was on a big board so it went well. I went one other time after on a windy day and it was challenging. I’m looking on advice as to what to do.

I found a 120 race board vivace 295 I think it was that comes with everything needed to windsurf all for 200$. I’m about 5’10 x 185 lbs. Should I shell out 500$ for a beginner board to learn, or should I just take the cheaper option?

Note: I have water experience have surfed all my life.

Bit of a workout as we relocate some gear.

Current stack includes 17 boards from wingfoiling, windsurfing, sup and surf... There's even an ironing board tucked in there 😂

Not much room for us!

Heading to Bonaire again and wondering if anyone has experience with sail sizes in the season from February till may. I know I've used mostly 6.0 and 7.0 in may till July this year but not sure how the wind is before that. I'm 80kg ish

Follow the journey on Instagram - DM me your email for beta invite code!
Openwaves.world

Most recent upgrade to my 80's hulls - a way to securely hold my early 90's (at best) sails. The "Windglider" (diy) doesn't have a mast track, just the hole and outside thread, but the HiFly 750CS has a brass thread mast track, which itself works fine, however the U joint retainer has proven very annoying, so I replaced that part of the slider with an M8 nut. Should spend more time planing and less time trying to get the rig into the board now :)

The ugly windglider adapter has been tested through various catapults already, and it takes a pretty nasty one at 30km/h to break the 3d printed nut, which is easy to replace.

The older update of a 3d printed fin and reshaped(hardened) aft rails of the windglider work great so far, both with the soft sail and a more modern sail. It's an upwind monster.

Hey everyone! I'm Brazilian, from Rio originally, and I used to surf a lot back home. I recently moved to the Richmond area and since there's obviously no surf here, I'm looking for a watersport that gives me a similar feeling. I'm thinking windsurfing, kitesurfing, wingsurfing, or stand-up paddleboarding, but I'm open to anything in that same spirit. Curious what you all would recommend as closest to the surfing feeling, good beginner spots around Vancouver or Richmond, whether there's an active community for any of these, and if it's realistic to practice through the winter too. Any advice or pointers to a local group would mean a lot. Thanks!

Hey guys! Found a deal: one week at Caribbean World, Soma Bay beginning of Nov, gear rental at Element Watersports. Intermediate, working on planing.

How's the wind that time of year, and any feedback on Element or the hotel? Thanks!

Hi guys, i am looking for a new ws board rn. I search for a fast Board with good handlig around 130L. I am just a good surfer with not enough budjet for a brandnew board:(

Which boards from the last years can you recommend?

Today i’m proud to introduce upwind: an online platform for windsurfers. I firmly believe that windsurfing is an exceptional sport and that the windsurf community needs and deserves something like this. Here’s why: 

• We don’t take a good session for granted. We heavily depend on the whims of mother nature and have to take into account our duties in private/family/work life. Finally getting on the water always feels like a win that should be celebrated.
• We are technical. We want to perfect our technique and deeply understand our gear. It’s something we can’t do alone, so we always look for advice from others.
• We like to explore new spots. To do so, we need to understand the local conditions. What’s the right season? Which weather forecast should be considered and how reliable is it? How many planing days does one get per year? Is there sufficient parking? Is there a place to rig?
• Windsurfing is considered the hardest-to-achieve discipline in watersports and we are competitive. We want to go fast, we want to measure, we want to break our own records, we want to beat others.
• Last but not least, we want to connect. While on the water, we embrace the tranquility of solitude, but once we’re back on land, we want to share our experience.

The platform features the following:

• It is free to use.
• It has a community-driven inventory of windsurfing spots worldwide.
• It allows to track windsurf sessions.
• It shows yearly windsurf session stats per spot.
• An app for apple watch is in the works which will allow to record a session and upload the results (distance, speed, gps path) to a session report.

The central goal is to gain deeper knowledge about windsurfing spots worldwide, and to share experience with gear. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could go to this page, look up somebody who owns board “xyz” and ask them about it? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could look up a spot and see exactly what the chances are to get a good session? And of course, it is all about connecting: i’m already working on a feature that allows to share plans for a session - then, fellow windsurfers can join in.

The page is currently pretty empty. For now, i did not add an initial dataset of windsurfing spots, because i believe these entries should be contributed by individuals who fully understand the local conditions. 

Obviouly, a platform like this will only come to life with your contribution. So feel free to create an account, share your secret home spot, and start logging your sessions today!

Here’s the website: https://upwind.community

Looks like DaKine doesn't make anymore. Anybody know of another make? I'm looking for half-finger gloves for use in warm water.

Chris La Francie sends it Labour weekend 2024

Pungarehu New Zealand

just got this board from my neighbor for free he had it sitting for a while and lost the mast but had the sail and everything else so I was wondering is it still possible to find a mast with this joint or is it possible to change out to the newer universal joints

Hi all, Felix here, windsurfer from Amsterdam. For me finding windsurf event dates meant checking 10 club sites and Facebook pages, so I put everything in one calendar on geartogo.eu (my side project, free, no account needed): https://geartogo.eu/windsurf-race-calendar It covers professional events and recreational, mostly NL/DE/BE. What am I missing? Club races, foil events, anything in your area. I'll add them.

Hi all, i am Eddie a aspiring photographer from the Netherlands, and 2 weeks ago I shot windsurfing for the first time. It's a sport i dont do but i do like.

Does anyone know how or where i can hook up with riders. I went to Scheveningen last time, which was great but from my skateboarding background i always feel that looking up with a specific rider and talking through the shots will deliver better results.

My insta is o_gringo_careca

I've added some photos for context