The first professional World Cup

In 1983 the World Sailboards Manufacturers Association, the makers’ trade body, started a professional World Cup. It was a different kind of competition from the one-design championships of the seventies. Professional events set minimum wind limits, and when the wind blew the World Cup produced the spectacular pictures the brands and magazines wanted.

Women’s professional titles followed in 1984, in the three disciplines of the time: wave riding, slalom and course racing.

The riders soon wanted a say of their own. They set up the Professional Boardsailors Association, which from 1988 laid down its own conditions for World Cup events, such as minimum prize money. After the PBA was wound up over its debts in 1995, the professionals founded the Professional Windsurfers Association, which has run the world tour since.