old photo's

Cleaning out the garage this arvo and came across some old photos. Taken in 1989 and shows my pride and joy - a custom Strapper/Bombora proto (astro toy) with my only sail a 6.1 wild winds slalom. Also my trusty Z boom (which I recently bought another one to use wave sailing!). The photo's are in black and white thank God - the fluro pink zinc cream on my nose is a lot more bearable.. Ah the 80's...

Point Henry in the middle of a hail storm!


The stepped Vee - not the quickest planning board but was great in the rough stuff



I look twenty years younger and 20 kilos lighter - wait a second .... I was...

Anyone else willing to show the old stuff??

Hows the colours in this photo?

I think My olds still have a Super Star in the garage back in Auckland! Man I hated that bloody thing and why I only tried about 3 times at the age of 14 befoer I gave up.
20 years later and nuts for it. minus the Super Star

Here's one from 1989 in the Columbia Gorge. Z-booms were quite the thing back then weren't they, and check out the claw-grip where it attaches to the mast.

A 3.3sq.m sail to boot as well - must have been pretty windy although I suppose those sails were a lot more powerful than today's for their relative size.

JayBee is right. My original Windsurfer One Design had its outhaul like that.
Rope used to go through a grooved part of the boom clew and up each side of the boom.

Yep, I had the same on a One Design also.

Ahhh the fashion.....
...-Please don't tell me we were the kite surfers of yester year?????

BTW, what were the pros and cons of Z-booms? Why aren't they made anymore?

All the existing customers are too old to windsurf any more

We stopped manufacturing this summer as the market was so small it was hard to justify carrying the stock (we manufacture large batches for efficiency).

The people that used them loved them & everyone else hated them although they had never tried one.
Personally I found that they were extremely comfy for the front hand but I struggled with gybing & tacking with one.
Another problem is the way sails are cut these days, the boom cutout is too low for a Z-Boom if you are taller than 5 foot
Because of the height issue I couldn't use one effectively so never spent enough time with one to practice gybing etc.
Freight was another problem as they don,t pack well & most customers are interstate or overseas so the freight costs would outway the boom cost.

The Z-boom was invented by a local guy in Fremantle & manufactured here for more than 25 years.
We had a brand new Lime Green Lock Jaw Z-boom which we offered to the Maritime Museum in Freo, they weren't interested
They could have put together a good display covering the 25 years of the Z-boom & 25 years of the Ledge to Lano, would have been colourful

1983 Mills Beach, Mornington, Victoria.
Original windsurf sail and Alpha long board.

My brother, cousin and myself . A huge 0.0005 knots!!! YEAH

Ripping it up,...well in our imagination.

not really an old pic but oldie enough for me..it was gathering dust and so the other's very distant pic but wanted to share and keep in digital form so as to throw the original


1993 mistral energy one of the last good slalom boards they ever built and the first board in the P.I. and a first V8 for me

Here are some news clippings from 1987-91 with some names a few of you may remember.
Scotty in slalom mode

Mal Wright's brother Trevor and Jez Hammond (2ndwind sailboards) Aussie tandem speed record holders



Birdseyeview in another life

Mandurah races in Dolphin Pool - gybing in what is now someones living room in the new toytown apartments

Mal wright practising for his speed record attempt(top). Does anyone Know the other guy?(bottom)

Ledge to lano 1990 Scotty, Galvo, and Svein Rasmussen of Starboard

Crasher in his lighter days. Still was breaking stuff.

My quiver in 1992 - below crasher and his mates at lano 89

Mandurah with coloured sails. Gary the weightlifter, Dr Greg, Robby the now kiter and a weedy guy with a 3.5 on 460 mast.

The only appearance of the halls head speed strip in '90/91 - too windy to sail the ocean.

My first fully battened sail - 5.4m with 485cm mast and 185 boom / halls head storm sailing

Great photos Paul, thanks for sharing, same with all the other posters

I see a lot of Z booms, even Scotty had one

An even older photo of Kim Bullard catching the train at Gnaraloo station.