Windsurf · One design boom
1977
Footstraps, and the pictures that sold the dream
The Kailua sailors add footstraps so they can stay on the board in wind and waves; their photographs turn Hawaii into the sport's promised land.
A board in the air off a wave, the footstraps on its deck
After the harness, the Kailua group around Mike Horgan, Larry Stanley and Pat Love kept rebuilding the Windsurfer for higher wind and bigger waves. In 1977 Windsurfing Hawaii added footstraps, loops on the deck that hold the sailor’s feet, alongside new board shapes and high-wind sails.
The pictures travelled faster than the boards. In 1978–79 the German Surf magazine paid 10,000 dollars in cash for 120 high-wind photographs of Horgan, Stanley and their friends. Its editor later said this set off a boom; between 1977 and 1982 the magazine’s readership grew sixfold, and big-wave images became a favourite way to sell the sport.
From 1981 innovators in Hawaii and elsewhere put sails on short surfboards. Shorter boards with footstraps became the norm, harder to learn and at their best in strong wind.