F2 and the funboard

Peter Brockhaus had built up the Windsurfer business in Germany and helped found Mistral when he started a new brand in 1979: F2, based in Wals, near Salzburg in Austria. He teamed up with Jürgen Hönscheid, a German sailor who had raced in Hawaii at the 1978 Pan Am Cup.

From 1981 F2 sold a range of funboards, among them the Lightning, the Strato and the Sunset, with footstraps for jumping and wave riding. What the sailors in Hawaii had done on their own boards now came off a production line. From 1982 F2 built its boards in Kirchdorf an der Krems, and F2 and its World Cup team became one of the leading names of the decade. By 1987 F2, Mistral and BIC were described as the industry leaders.

The founding year differs between sources: F2’s own history gives 1979, the book Hooked! gives 1980 and a 2024 history of the sport’s spread gives 1981. F2 first showed its products in Paris in 1980.