Author Topic: The invention of windsurfing  (Read 14377 times)

Area 10

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Re: The invention of windsurfing
« Reply #30 on: October 31, 2016, 02:58:37 PM »
Area 10, arguments about the patent disputes aside, there should be no doubt that windsurfing exists today because of Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake. Further more, Hoyle and Diane Schweitzer deserve all the credit for it becoming a worldwide success. Chilvers deserves no mention as he did nothing to contribute to the sports growth from garage prototype to the sailing version of an F1 car.
Only someone from the US would see the growth of windsurfing as more significant than its invention.

But anyway, the video is called "the invention of windsurfing" not "the promotion of windsurfing". If it were called the latter, I'd have no argument with your position. But it isn't, and to create a video about the "invention of windsurfing" and not mention at least in passing, Chilvers, is charmless, and possibly inaccurate.

But at the end of the day you will no doubt support your countrymen no matter what. And I'll support mine. Same old same old.

Philn

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Re: The invention of windsurfing
« Reply #31 on: November 02, 2016, 09:02:29 PM »
Anyone know what happened to Richard White..

Kitesurfing on the north shore of Oahu.

DavidJohn

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Re: The invention of windsurfing
« Reply #32 on: November 02, 2016, 10:01:32 PM »
Anyone know what happened to Richard White..

Kitesurfing on the north shore of Oahu.

Thanks.. He was a good friend and last i heard he was back on the mainland..

surf4food

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Re: The invention of windsurfing
« Reply #33 on: November 03, 2016, 06:45:19 PM »
Area 10, arguments about the patent disputes aside, there should be no doubt that windsurfing exists today because of Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake. Further more, Hoyle and Diane Schweitzer deserve all the credit for it becoming a worldwide success. Chilvers deserves no mention as he did nothing to contribute to the sports growth from garage prototype to the sailing version of an F1 car.
Only someone from the US would see the growth of windsurfing as more significant than its invention.

But anyway, the video is called "the invention of windsurfing" not "the promotion of windsurfing". If it were called the latter, I'd have no argument with your position. But it isn't, and to create a video about the "invention of windsurfing" and not mention at least in passing, Chilvers, is charmless, and possibly inaccurate.

But at the end of the day you will no doubt support your countrymen no matter what. And I'll support mine. Same old same old.

I don't know if that's a fair thing to say.  I never new anything about Chilvers before your post and now that I was made aware of him I too am surprised he is not mentioned in the clip.  Too bad him and Drake/Schweitzer couldn't collaborate. 

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Re: The invention of windsurfing
« Reply #34 on: March 23, 2017, 08:24:49 AM »
Great stuff...fun days...always interesting to go back in the time machine and have a look around...;-)

As far as the "invention of windsurfing"...before Chilvers...Darby...Drake/Schweitzer/Parducci...there was Tom Blake on Oahu with his "sailing surfboard" in 1931...and, Riki Ebisu on Maui in 1941...etc...

I think Tom Blake's efforts pre-date Darby's by 30 years, and he invented the fin, hollow boards, water housings, and the modern surfing
lifestyle.

Here is an excerpt from the definitive Tom Blake biography: "TOM BLAKE: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer Waterman."
http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/ls07_blake.shtml#skeg_1935

 From the Gary Lynch book:

 > In 1931, Tom Blake went on to invent the sailboard. "Actually," Gary  corrected me, "1931 was the start of the invention of the sailboard. That
 > was gradual. Tom used an umbrella at first, then a crude sail and so on until a first version of the first complete 'sailing surfboard', as he
 > called it, was up and running and even in competition by 1935. 1940 was the first production models by L.A. Ladder."
 > The year 1931 also saw Blake's first production surfboard, manufactured by Thomas Rogers Company, Venice, California. The 1931 hollow board now featured transverse
 > bracing.
 >
 > Around 1934-35, the Robert Mitchell Company Tom Blake boards featured the "Tom Blake Approved" logo. Later on, the 1940 version of the "Hawaiian Hollow Surfboard,"
 > U.S. Patent Number 1872230, was manufactured by the Los Angeles Ladder Company,
 > This model also was "Tom Blake Approved."
 >
 > Hollow boards, camera housings and sailboards were soon overshadowed by Tom's
 > application of fin to surfboard. One of his most enduring contributions the surfboard
 > skeg -- or "fin," - eventually caused a quantum shift in surfboard riding and development.


 From the Tom Blake autobiography by Gary Lynch:
http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/ls07_blake.shtml#skeg_1935
http://library.thinkquest.org/2804/windlink.html
http://sport.iafrica.com/extreme/activities/192264.htm

> The modern sport of windsurfing can be traced back to the 1930s when a surfer named Tom Blake, whose arms became particularly tired one afternoon from paddling his board out to
> catch the waves, thought he  should be able to use the wind for propulsion.
> After some experimentation, he added a mast and sail to his surfboard. Later, he added a foot-controlled rudder and called his invention "a sailing surfboard".
> Blake's invention, however, was not widely received and it was another 30 years before S. Newman Darby took the idea a step further.
>
> Darby invented a rectangular sailboard to which he solidly attached a mast and sail. Steering was accomplished by moving a horizontal lever attached to both sides of the sail. Darby's
> invention was published in "Popular Science" magazine in 1965.
>
> Today's boardsailing or windsurfing is the product of a new sailing idea developed by three Californian surfing enthusiasts named Hoyle Schweitzer, Jim Drake and Allen Parducci in 1966 > and 1967. Their invention, initially called a 'Baja Board', consisted of a free-sail system that allowed the mast, boom and sail assembly to move in all directions around a universal
> joint.
>
> In 1969, Hoyle Schweitzer started a business which he called Windsurfer.

http://www.originalwindsurfer.com/site/main_1967.html
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