This site is designed to help begin­ners get started wind­surf­ing by choos­ing the right wind­surf­ing gear. Even inter­me­di­ate and advanced enthu­si­asts may pick up some tips they can use when shop­ping for wind­surf­ing equip­ment. Choos­ing wind­surf­ing equip­ment that is safe, durable, and appro­pri­ate to your skill level is the essen­tial first step in get­ting started with this sport. If you are look­ing for the best price, be sure to shop around online as you’ll find the prices are much cheaper than buy­ing from a local retail store.

The Basic Com­po­nents of Wind­surf­ing Equipment

• Wind­surf­ing boards: These are typ­i­cally con­structed of poly­eth­yl­ene foam which is then coated in epoxy. The size and weight can vary depend­ing on the wind­surfer, their wind­surf­ing style as well as wind con­di­tions. Many peo­ple choose to have more than one wind­surf­ing board.
• Wind­surf­ing sails: You won’t be get­ting any­where if you can’t catch any wind.
• Wind­surf­ing booms: The boom encir­cles the sail and con­nects to the mast. This is what you hang onto while windsurfing.
• Wind­surf­ing mast: This is want con­nects the sail to the board and may either be two sep­a­rate parts or one com­plete mast.
• Mast bases: The part where the mast meets the board allows you to actu­ally steer and is a crit­i­cal bit of wind­surf­ing equipment.
• Adap­tor: This is what con­nects the boom to the mast.
• Wind­surf­ing fins: These keep your board from drift­ing and can be found on the bot­tom of the board close to the stern.
• Wind­surf­ing Har­ness: While not tech­ni­cally required, this rec­om­mended bit of wind­surf­ing gear will allow you to spend more time on the water by con­nect­ing you to the boom, thus reliev­ing some of the weight from your own muscles.
• Foot straps: These keep you in con­trol of your board by secur­ing your feet onto the board while you ride.

Choos­ing the Right Wind­surf­ing Gear

In addi­tion to learn­ing the basics of how to wind­surf we will also be giv­ing you point­ers on choos­ing wind­surf­ing boards. You should know what size you need to get and what to look for in build mate­ri­als. When shop­ping for wind­surf­ing sails size is also a big con­sid­er­a­tion. We’ll also talk about what mate­r­ial you should look for when you’re con­sid­er­ing a boom for your sail. And we will dis­cuss safety too. Adding a har­ness to your wind­surf­ing equip­ment pack­age could be an impor­tant step in keep­ing your­self safe while par­tic­i­pat­ing in this poten­tially dan­ger­ous sport. You will also find some infor­ma­tion on wet­suits. It’s true that you may not need a wet­suit through the whole year. When the water is warm, it is not nec­es­sary. But for the cooler months you will def­i­nitely want a wet­suit to keep your­self warm and extend your surf­ing season.

Wind­surf­ing is a really exhil­a­rat­ing sport! When the wind is strong you can really fly around and even catch some air while hav­ing a great time. Unfor­tu­nately wind­surf­ing can be a pretty expen­sive sport. When you’re just get­ting started don’t feel like you have to buy a bunch of dif­fer­ent boards and an assort­ment of dif­fer­ent sails. You really only need a lit­tle bit of wind­surf­ing equip­ment to get started.

Begin­ners should def­i­nitely check out our how to wind­surf page. It cov­ers the basics and gives you a good idea of what to do when you’re first start­ing. Like any­thing, it can be frus­trat­ing when you’re try­ing to do it for the first time. Really the best way to get started is to look for lessons from a local instruc­tor. That way you get hands-on feed­back on what you’re doing and they can get you up and surf­ing on your own faster. Another rea­son it’s a good idea to look for an instruc­tor is because you can often rent wind­surf­ing gear from them or bor­row the gear they already have. This allows you to get started with­out a big invest­ment. Once you know that wind­surf­ing is the right sport for you, then you can begin to pur­chase your own wind­surf­ing gear.

Dif­fer­ent Wind­surf Styles

• Waves: This style has two sep­a­rate parts which are “wave rid­ing” and “wave jump­ing”. Rid­ing is sim­ply cruis­ing along an unbro­ken wave by mak­ing cut­backs and top turns. While jump­ing involves catch­ing some air from unbro­ken waves and exe­cut­ing var­i­ous tricks. Obvi­ously the two go together as you will gen­er­ally be wave rid­ing and then wave jump­ing. Since you will be leap­ing from the water you’ll want to make sure that all of your wind­surf­ing gear is as light as pos­si­ble so that you can jump higher. Wind­surf­ing gear tip: choose a car­bon fiber mast and boom to cut down on weight.
• Freestyle: Freestyle wind­surf­ing is sim­i­lar but doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily require any waves. You can even ride on an open lake. As long as there is enough wind it’s still pos­si­ble to per­form jumps and tricks. Wind­surf­ing equip­ment tip: you’ll need a board that is light, short and a bit wider.
• Regatta: It’s sim­i­lar to tra­di­tional sail boat races and involves going both upwind and down­wind sev­eral times. It requires expert skills at read­ing the wind.
• Slalom: If you like to race then slalom wind­surf­ing is for you. Have you ever watched slalom ski­ing in the Olympics? It’s sim­i­lar. You’ll be wind­ing around buoys and try­ing to be the first across the fin­ish line. It requires a lot of con­trol and expert steer­ing skills. This is best prac­ticed on windier days.

Tips on Buy­ing Wind­surf­ing Gear

When you’re ready to take the plunge and get your­self set up with your own wind­surf­ing equip­ment, you might want to talk to some friends that also wind­surf and see what kind of equip­ment and which brands they are using. It’s always bet­ter to have a rec­om­men­da­tion before you invest a lot of money into equip­ment that might not work out well for your needs.

Should You Buy Used Wind­surf­ing Gear?

Since it is a large ini­tial invest­ment. Some peo­ple think it’s bet­ter to buy used wind­surf­ing gear rather than new equip­ment. While used wind­surf­ing equip­ment can be a good deal, the prob­lem is that you really don’t know how the pre­vi­ous owner treated that equip­ment and there might be prob­lems with it that your untrained eye won’t notice. Also, older equip­ment doesn’t tend to have the tech­no­log­i­cal fea­tures that the newer gear does, so the used gear might make it harder for you to get started.

Shop­ping for Wind­surf­ing Equip­ment Online

Instead of buy­ing used, if you want to save some money, try shop­ping for wind­surf­ing gear online rather than at a local surf shop. Online retail­ers cater to a larger audi­ence and can have lower over­head rates than retail estab­lish­ments. Wher­ever you do your shop­ping, just make sure that the staff is knowl­edge­able about the prod­uct you’re buy­ing and has a read­ily avail­able cus­tomer ser­vice lines so you can speak to some­one if you need help. You should also review the return pol­icy just in case equip­ment is defec­tive or doesn’t suit your needs as you thought it would. A lot of online retail­ers offer wind­surf­ing pack­ages. By get­ting your wind­surf­ing board, sail and boom all in the same pack­age, you can really save a lot of money. I found some really good deals on wind­surf­ing pack­ages from The House. You could also check the links at the top of this page too.

Stay safe, have fun, and go catch some wind! Windsurfing gear can be a big expense at first but once you get your­self set up, your gear should last you for years to come.