Just watching a doco on the Berlin wall on SBS and it showed a couple of guys who windsurfed to freedom across the Baltic sea escaping from East Germany.
yup... remember an article in a German wind mag about it...
... all pretty rad... they made harnesses out of seat belts (which apparently was a common way to build gear in the former East), build their own boards (cause you couldn't buy any) and otherwise were pretty inventive when it came to the whole escape plan...
... I guess my mum and her parents getting on an East Berlin city train and slipping past the federal police at the only station in the West sector ain't "quite as adventures".
From what they two guys said in the magazine article they actually nearly died in the process.
> homebuilt gear
I must be missing something, plus me don't speak german. The shaping of boards and booms, I can see.
But building efficient, working sails out of magazines, sounds rather difficult.
Note too the hands: without gloves and efficient boots in those waters, forget it. I know from these parts here.
