Windsurfing
This brand-new film about old-school windsurfing might just make you want to grab a board, a sail and go catch the wind.
Everyone knows what ‘surfing’ means – it’s deceptive in the straighforwardness. Take a board, grab a wave. We all know it’s not actually that easy, but the idea of it is.
That seemingly simple act – moving through three-dimensional space over water, aided by an external force such as gravity, wind, swell, or even an engine – is at the core of almost every watersport there is. That’s the central thesis behind Broken Molds, the new documentary from Maui-based Poor Boyz Productions, which explores the meteoric rise of one of the first ‘action sports’ – windsurfing. From the first days of a raggedy crew of surfers experimenting in bays and harbours to contests with windsurfing rigs covering Europe’s biggest beaches – the idea of catching the wind in their hands captured people’s minds and took over their lives.
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01
How did windsurfing start?
While a couple of different people around the world had experimented with sails on boards, Broken Molds focuses on the people who actually turned it into a sport with millions of participants – the Schweitzer family from Southern California. What’s incredible is not just the invention and production of the boards and sails –but also the effort that they put in to create a community around the sport. Local regattas turned into massive races with thousands of participants. In the sports’ early years, windsurfs were fanatical about the sport. It took the spirit and soul of surfing beyond the waves. Lakes, bays – it was all rideable water and people couldn’t get enough of it.
Ultimately, the sport grew so fast that it reached far beyond what the Schweitzers ever imagined – and finding out what happened next is a great reason to watch Broken Molds.
02
How did it evolve?
Windsurfing’s big breakthrough came when ’shortboards’ became a thing. These were boards small enough that they needed wind to keep them moving, or else they would almost sink. These highly manoeuvrable boards let riders catch air, do tricks and rip waves to shreds in a way even the most talented surfers never dreamed of. The never-seen-before, high-flying, high-wind action ushered in windsurfing’s golden era, making it one of the fastest-growing sports in the world (but definitely not the easiest).
03
What windsurfing disciplines are there?
The first disciple was certainly racing, as back then windsurfing was considered to be as related to sailing as it was to surfing. Light-wind freestyle windsurfing came next, where balance and sail-handling tricks ruled. The advent of shortboards brought on true wave riding and then high-wind freestyle. Now, the newest trend is to ride the wind and water with a foil – but there are even a few different ways to do that!
04
Who are the windsurfers to watch?
Some of the sports’ biggest legends are still riding – Robby Naish just scored a massive session on Maui’s South Side, while Björn Dunkerbeck is busy sailing with his son in the Canaries. Leading up the new pack are names like Philip Köster, Marcilio Browne, Thomas Traversa, Jaeger Stone, and Kai Lenny.
05
What’s the best windsurfing to watch now?
One of the coolest things in windsurfings in the modern era is the arrival of high-wind specific contests like Red Bull Storm Chase. Rather than occurring in a fixed competition window, it's all about finding the best windsurfing conditions. Red Bull Storm Chase only happens when the wind and waves align to produce an epic arena for the world’s best storm windsurfers. Of course, since no one knows when or where that happens, they’ve got to be mobile and reactive. Be sure to keep an eye out for Red Bull Storm Chase’s competition window opening up this coming winter.
06
Why watch Broken Molds?
For Director Jace Panebianco and Executive Producer Scott Shoemaker, it was a 'chance to hide a windsurfing movie in a surf film.’ "The stories of surfing and windsurfing are so tied together in ways that people don’t realise and we really wanted to that explore that relationship,” says Panebianco. For Shoemaker, a lifelong friend of the Schweitzer family that feature so prominently in the movie, it was an opportunity to give something back to the sport that changed his life. But you don’t have to be a windsurfer to enjoy the film. If you love watersports of any kind, Broken Molds is deep-dive into the history of one of the world’s most revolutionary sports, one that sparked a whole slew of other on-the-water adventures. The movie is the perfect mix of yesteryear nostalgia, compelling personal stories, and of course, the most progressive and evolved wave-riding happening today.
For more windsurfing action, be sure to keep an eye out for Red Bull Storm Chase – or classic films like The Windsurfing Movie II on Red Bull TV