Windsurf · Funboard revolution
1980
A sailboard passes 24 knots on Maui
In special speed trials at Maalaea Bay, Jaap van der Rest sails a Ten Cate Special at 24.63 knots.
24.63knots
Jaap van der Rest, Maalaea Bay, Maui, 1980
Three years after sailboards were first timed at just over 19 knots, the Dutch sailor Jaap van der Rest raised the mark to 24.63 knots, about 46 kilometres an hour. That is the figure in the WSSRC record list; some accounts give 24.45 knots.
He set it in 1980 at Maalaea Bay on Maui, in special speed trials held in Hawaii, on a Ten Cate Special, a small board.
The place says as much as the number. Hawaii, where the harness and footstraps had come from, was becoming the testing ground for strong-wind equipment. Boards were getting shorter and more specialised, and every new speed mark was as much a result of the gear as of the sailor.
Three years later Fred Haywood became the first windsurfer to pass 30 knots.