I hold the distinction of being one of the first 25 people to windsurf (link to Newsletter quote).  Most of the people mentioned in Diane Schweitzer’s 1981 (check date) article are no longer with us.  I am on the cusp of 80-years-old!  As such, I will be writing my memories and commentaries in a new column, “A Pioneer’s Perspective”.  I welcome you to join me!

My introduction to windsurfing was in 1969.  From atop a hill in Santa Barbara, CA, I viewed the sight of a sail flailing in the ocean.  I believed a small sail craft to be in distress, and I rushed down the hill on my motor scooter to assist.  Upon my arrival, I made the acquaintance of Diane Schweitzer, who was on the beach with the apparatus later to be known as a windsurfing rig.  The person was Bob Peffley, a potential dealer.  I was already well-acquainted with sailing and owned what was known as a Sailfish “Flattie”.  The “Flattie” was the precursor to a Sunfish, as it was lacking a cockpit.  I was immediately enthralled and hooked with the intricacies of the emerging sport of windsurfing.

Gazing upon the Baja Board for the first time, I instantly grasped its transformative nature. Here was a vessel lighter, more manageable; a contraption that didn’t just acquiesce to the ocean’s whims but harnessed its energy—riding the surf with a flexible rig, liberated from the tyranny of a fixed rudder. It demanded no cumbersome tending, only the mastery of balance and wind. This innovation echoed the very essence of freedom we had pursued aboard the Sailfish, where my mate Gary and I would coax the boat to plane on Channel swells, standing in defiance of tradition to surf the kelp-smoothed waves. The Baja Board’s lack of a rudder wasn’t an omission; it was a revelation, giving birth to a stand-up control position that was revolutionary. I saw a kinship in its form to its era’s Hobie Cats, which, as their adverts boasted, could fly. This wasn’t just a step forward; it was a leap towards the future where the staid yacht club’s grasp loosened, and the exhilarating realm of free-sailing beckoned. There was no need for club affiliations, storage fees, or adherence to schedules. I could taste the freedom on my lips, the salt in the air as I envisioned launching from the beach on a whim, unfettered by anything but my own desire to ride the waves. The Baja Board was not merely a step up from the antiquated Sailfish; it was its successor, a vessel that promised to redefine the very nature of sailing and surf as I knew it. To me, a free-sailor with an unyielding quest for the superior ride, it was clear—this was the wave tool I had been searching for, the surf terminator, the zenith of sailing evolution. I needed no convincing; I recognized its supreme attributes immediately, as palpably as the rush of a perfect south swell breaking off the rocks by Hobie’s house in San Clemente. This was the future, and I was ready to embrace it.

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This how I found myself at the forefront of a new movement. 

In my time off from college studies, I taught myself on the first dealer’s demo equipment. It was a Baja board with sail # 22, and I don’t recall falling in the water. Soon, the developers, Hoyle & Diane Schweitzer, began calling upon me to be a Free-sail model.  They were making a huge effort to promote the Windsurfer.  I participated in photo shoots at the Schweitzer’s request. I was happy to help as I believed the sport would soon take off and I wanted to be a part of the coming revolution.

I was Windsurfing International’s (WI) volunteer, go-to sailing model for photo shoots.  This included for periodicals such as Sports Illustrated, Popular Science, Sunset Magazine, airline magazines, and newspapers (see attachments).  A photo shoot that was more significant and memorable than others was on March 20th, 1970, at the Malibu Pier. I remember that date so well because I was getting married the next day in Santa Barbara, one hundred miles further up the California coast.  An image of me from that photoshoot ended up on the cover of the DuPont magazine in August 1971.  (Link to DuPont Cover story) The cover title proclaimed: “Windsurfing: no waves needed.” The cover photo was the photo of me taken on that fateful day at the Malibu Pier seventeen months earlier. I’ve learned recently that this photo was Windsurfing sport’s equivalent of “the shot heard round the world” akin to the battle cry in America’s Revolutionary war!  The magazine’s arrival in Europe brought attention to this new Southern California sport.  Inside was a several page article with images depicting young people enjoying a sail on a Windsurf board.  Next was the technical part for the chemical engineers about the roto-molding process.  This was very advanced technology at the time.   Say something here about surfboard creation process.  machines popping out yellow free-sail boards. (Link here). In the meantime, Hoyle & Diane had formed the legal entity of Windsurfing International, Inc. as the manufacturing entity. Along the way, the Schweitzers also formed the first formal group of windsurfing enthusiasts, the Windsurfing Association (WA) ARTWORK HERE.  The mission of the WA was to represent the interests of the growing numbers of enthusiastic free-sailors.

The earliest windsurfing competitions were informal sailing and social events on the beach.  The first participants were families with young children who were friends with Hoyle, Diane and their three kids: Matt, Tara, and Teddy.  This included neighbor Allen Parducci & family; and the Waltze and Beek families.  Matt Schweitzer and Mike Waltze were similar ages (11 and 12) and enjoyed each other’s camaraderie.  Markie and I were newlyweds and did not yet have kids.  We became friendly with Hoyle & Diane and took navigation classes with them in San Pedro. They would drive down from Pacific Palisades (location of their home and garage factory) and Markie and I would drive up from Long Beach to meet them for the class.

For context, in 1971 I was 27 years old, newly married and at the top of the heap in Windsurfer competitions.  I was in college at California State University at Long Beach under the GI Bill.  Richard Nixon was president of the United States, and the USA was entrenched in the Vietnam War.  I witnessed peacenik demonstrations and the conflicts with the police; a continuation of the 1960s Hippie Movement.  Bell bottom jeans and platform shoes were new fashion trends.  Europe was in the height of the Cold War, and Joy to the World made it to top single Stateside.

In the summer of that year, my new wife, Markie, and I were enlisted by Hoyle Schweitzer (show letter here) to be the first traveling sales team. Markie and I did a cross-country, introductory tour for the free-sail, stand-up sail craft called the Windsurfer. As payment for our generous dedication, Hoyle offered to give me an entire Windsurfer rig. We traveled 6500 miles and visited many boats show leads from a list provided by Hoyle. Hoyle had given us strict instructions to only sell to dealers willing to establish a windsurfing school.  None of their dealer “leads” panned out as these retail operators were not in the school business and had no interest in this commitment. Unfortunately, we did not sell a single rig!  Upon our return, we had a meeting with Hoyle & Diane at a regatta at Huntington Lake, CA (VW photo here).   We were seeking reward for our travails.  Because we had made no sales, Hoyle made good on half the promise and rewarded us a windsurf sail, but not a board.  Such was my introduction to the “precursor” of Hoyle’s business persona.  Later, Hoyle developed a certain notoriety in Europe while attempting to navigate the intricacies of international patent law. (INSERT “KING HOYLE” PICTURE HERE.) However, this is an entire story in itself, perhaps best addressed by the Europeans!  But I digress.

In August – September 1971 the DuPont magazine with my image on the cover was published and distributed in Europe.  The idea of windsurfing became an immediate hit in Europe (see Bruce Matlack & the DuPont cover video.) Around this time, I was asked to demonstrate windsurfing to Martin Spanjier, who was there to represent WI’s future licensee, Ten Cate.  I agreed to these assignments because of my love for the sport.  I received no financial compensation, nor credit for my work or photos in their newsletters.  Surprisingly, I am not mentioned in the DuPont magazine nor the WI Newsletter about the new-found recognition.

In 1971 and 1972  I won nearly every race in every regatta I attended. (Include 1971 regatta schedule and my finishes). The first National Windsurfing Championship was held at San Diego in 1972. I competed and won.  (find & show results). There was no serious competition.  I quickly became bored as few new faces were coming into the sport.  I was (and still am) very competitive and was looking forward to the competitive spirit of other racers to hone my skills.  I remember expressing my disappointment to Hoyle and Diane that no new racers or families were coming into the sport.  I was the mentor to the kids.  At the time, Matt Schweitzer and Mike Waltze were children interested in play more than learning competitive racing strategy and moves. Nonetheless, they followed my every move and grew up to become 1980s “stars” amongst the first generation of young people who grew up with the new sport of windsurfing. 

Virtually undefeated, I left the Windsurfer circuit for a year and raced sit-down boats.  I returned to Windsurfer racing in 1973.  Hoyle was struggling with quality control standards and was rejecting boards from his contractor.  Hoyle did not know that his contractor’s employees were budding entrepreneurs selling the reject boards out the back door! The reject boards ended up at a garage sale in Long Beach near to our apartment.  I bought three of them for ten dollars each and passed two of them off to my friends.  The original boards were known for cracking issues problems.  A discounted board was a huge deal at the time for a struggling college student like me.    

Windsurfing International scheduled a1973 National Championship event at the same venue as the prior year.  I learned from Diane’s Newsletter of April 1973 that competitors from around the world were being invited to compete in this repeat event.  As defending National Champion, I was concerned about the implications of international competitors at a US National event.  I asked Diane, “What would happen if a German won the U.S. Nationals?” Diane quickly replied, “Okay then, we’ll call it the Nationals / Worlds!” Apparently, the Schweitzers had been marketing the regatta to the Europeans as a world championship level event right from the beginning!  Windsurfing International had agreed to pay plane fare to San Diego for the top three European competitors from the September 1973 contest in Sylt, Germany. Members of the local fleet were being enlisted to help sponsor visiting participants (See Testimonial section-Derk and Tor).  The Organizers were expecting scores of foreign competitors to show up. Diane easily announced her newly coined name, “on the fly”, that satisfied me: Nationals / Worlds. (See 1976 Newsletter report by Diane / CANCUN?). 

I ended up winning the 1973 Nationals / Worlds with one of the reject boards.  I probably shot my mouth off about it, which understandably would have irritated the Schweitzers. They had committed their lives and business model of mass production to rotomolding boards.           

In the dual role of manufacturers of the Windsurfer rig and founders of the Windsurfer Class; the Schweitzers called their events what they wanted to call them, changing the names of events when they wanted to.  They called the 1973 regatta the “Nationals” before the event,  the “Nationals / Worlds” at the event, and they continued calling it either the “Nationals/Worlds” and/or the First Windsurfer “World Championship”, off and on, all the way up until 1992.  They promoted me as the first World Champion until it no longer fit their marketing agenda.  By 2020 I discovered they had changed the event name yet again.  I didn’t change the names of their events, they did!  All I did was I show up to race and offer my passion, time and effort to help promote the sport that I loved and that I still love.

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As I cast a glance over my shoulder to the waters that have carried me through both triumph and tribulation, I can’t help but feel a surge of gratitude for the winds of fate that propelled me into the heart of windsurfing’s genesis. It was more than a sport—it was a revolution of spirit, camaraderie, and innovation. I am proud to have ridden the early waves of this movement, to have contributed to its legacy, and to have been crowned its first champion, even as the titles ebbed and flowed like the tides.