Windsurfing on a Sunova Creek

[socalgremmy]

Anyone tried it?
I'm an intermediate SUP surfer with  9'1" Creek. We spend summers on a lake in the Sierras where the wind comes up every day. Am thinking windsurfing would be a blast....
Any advice on gear or technique would be appreciated.....
Videos?
Thanks,
Bob

[outcast]

The Creek is a nice board....but not going to do well on a lake...Too much rocker....WIll be hard to stay upwind unless you can shlog artfully .
Longer and thinner if you wanna supsail ....There's some older threads   with like the Naish 12

If u had a Creek 9'1 with 15 mph side off,  chest high swell and a 5.6, you'de be stylin'....but on lake? nah

[Billekrub]

If you were just learning for the first time?

Stable, small sail, easy to uphaul, light wind only.  No planing needed, doing first slow tacks and jibes, even.  You could do a lot worse.

[Badger]

It would be a lot easier to learn on something big and stable.

Old windsurf boards are usually easy to find. They are often found gathering dust under lakefront houses. Check craigslist and ask around. Some people even give them away.

[TallDude]

As a beginner without a dagger board, it would probably be a downwind adventure. You really need to know how to bury your rails and ride the the fin, in order to sail upwind on a board without a dagger board. A longer windsurfing fin will help too.

https://youtu.be/QiZEfLqNSLM

[PonoBill]

Yeah, no. Well, if it's the only board you're ever going to have, then maybe. But as apparently a full on beginner I'd say you'll have much more fun with something appropriate. But I wouldn't say that's a windsurfer--it's tough to find big windsurfing boards, the sport went super-pro and forgot about the entry level. Sailing a SUP is a great idea, but it's time has passed a bit--SUP has gone a bit too far towards performance and the only company that really targetted SUP sailing was Starboard. In fact Starboard still makes a SUP/SAil combo board called the GO. But the old boards work just as well, indestructible and they're cheap. If you can find one, a starboard 12'6" is ideal (the old hard board, not the inflatable). The already have a mast track--or at least a mast attachment, some have a kick-down centerboard and others have a tuttle fin box in the middle of the board so you can plug in a deep dagger fin. They are fundamentally a SUP that is designed to sail, and they do it very well.

Similar options are the even rarer Starboard 12'2" (has a mast attachment but can be a challenge to SUP on) and any of the larger Starboard SUP boards that are 7 to 10 years old. Make sure they have a mast attachment or a track in the upper middle of the deck. You can probably buy one of these boards for less than the conversion cost to have a track put in your Creek. You might have to advertise for them, most are gathering dust in garage rafters, a wanted ad in Craigslist might yield results.

For the sailing rig, almost anything works, and that means buy used and cheap. Light is a good idea as well, and you don't need a huge sail unless the wind is extremely light. My favorite rig is the HotSails Superfreak--a very light fabric sail (most these days are all Mylar) that doesn't bang around like a Mylar sail. Smooth power, like a fat Cadillac. You'll need a mast, extension, base, uphaul line, booms and sail. I'd go for something in the 4 meter range. Unless you're sailing in high wind you won't need to waterstart, just uphaul.

I used to sail my SUP boards instead of my windsurfing boards whenever there was good surf. I don't know why I quit, other than the amount of gear you need to carry around to do it seriously.

[TallDude]

I still have some old booms, masts and sails, but really dated. Last year I saw a CL ad that was advertised as a windsurfing setup. I'm glad I clicked on it. It was an old 11'6 Naish Nalu with CF mast and boom. A fairly new 6.4 sail and a QB 110 elite paddle all for $450. I already have the exact same board, so I bought it for my brother and kept the rigging. I'm taking it to Tahoe this year for that afternoon wind. 

[comeu]

Hi,
The 9’1 Creek  is 136l it should be fine if you’re in the average weight. I never tried the Creek  but I’ve more windsurfed my Speeed (8’3?) than used it as a SUP, it’s great, easy to jibe, very stable, great acceleration but tail rocker makes it impossible to plane (i planed few times but when overpowered it usually ends with a spin out).
Rails (the Speeed is quite parallel) really help while upwind.
I’m 86kg and usually use a 5.8 or 6.5 m2 sail.
Second hand is the way to go but old gear breaks quickly!
Enjoy 

[nalu-sup]

I have windsurfed a few different Sunova boards; 8'10" Speeed @130 liters, 8'7" Flow @ 120 liters, and a Sunova Surf that was around 9'5" and probably 160 liters. I am 5'11", 163lbs, and have been teaching windsurfing for 35 years. For windsupping in light wind, I like to use a sail around 5.0 to 5.3, and with those sails I found it easy to get and stay upwind. Smaller sails around 4.0 will be easier for a beginner to handle, but may make it much more challenging to stay upwind. The few times the wind picked up, the Speed and the Flow really did not want to plane easily because of the rocker, so I have learned that windsupping on these boards is best for me in winds of 5 to 12 mph where I do not have to fight the boards resistance to planing. I did have fun planing around on the Surf with its flatter rocker and larger planing area with a 5.9 in about 18 mph, but it was definitely not as easy as a windsurfing board of the same volume. Still, it was good fun.
There are a couple of things that I would caution you about. If you end up wearing a windsurfing harness, be very careful when climbing up on the board to uphaul; the harness hook can easily do minor damage to the board. The other thing to be aware of is the possibility of the mast slamming into the nose of the board; they are not meant to take that kind of impact without the possibility of some damage.
The board may be a little tippy to uphaul for a beginner if the water is at all choppy, but that will vary with weight, balance, and skill level.
Bottom line; it you just want to putter around in 5 to 12 mph winds, the Creek should work just fine, just be careful with it. If you expect to get planing, or use it in stronger winds, that may be pretty challenging. What these boards do work very well for is wavesailing in 5 to 12 mph winds, which is really a blast.

[JimK]

Hey,

The bulk of my customers (intermediate to advanced WS) have tried sailing the Creek & Speeds although the "work" they are very limiting planing is difficult as well as tacking (kinda important feature in wave sailing on the EC Here) We are starting to see mast track failures and the FCS fin sysyem isn't made for WS loads. Lastly the flexi ness of the board (as designed by Bert) further absorbs the power from the rig.

The CREEK is a great board for what RIK/Bert designed it for and windsurfing wasn't one of those things

JimK
Extreme Windsurfing