Windsurf · One design boom
1975
The harness arrives from Kailua
A small group in Kailua, Oahu, starts rebuilding the Windsurfer for strong wind and waves; the harness comes first, footstraps and high-wind sails follow.
Kailua Beach, Oʻahu · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
The original Windsurfer was built for light wind and flat water. In Kailua on Oahu, a group of sailors around Mike Horgan, Larry Stanley and sailmaker Pat Love began to change that. Horgan put one of the first sailboards into Kailua Bay in 1973 and named his business Windsurfing Hawaii in 1974; late that year Stanley and Ken Kleid bought it.
In 1975 they introduced the harness: a hook worn on the sailor’s body that clips into a line on the boom, so the pull of the sail is carried by body weight instead of arms. It let sailors hold on in strong wind for much longer. High-wind sails followed in 1976 and footstraps in 1977.
The Kailua group was not tied to any big manufacturer, and its photographs of Windsurfers in big wind and surf travelled to Europe, where magazines paid well for them. Hawaii became the sport’s laboratory and its advertising image at the same time.