Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.
World Sailing (WS) is the world governing body for the sport of sailing recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Gal Fridman is an Israeli windsurfer and Israel's first Olympic gold medalist. Fridman won a Bronze Medal in the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, and his gold medal in the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the first of two Israelis athlete to win two Olympic Medals, and the first Olympic Gold medalist in Israeli history. His first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew.
Speed sailing is the art of sailing a craft as fast as possible over a predetermined route, and having its overall or peak speed recorded and accredited by a regulatory body. The term usually refers to sailing on water, even though sailing on land and ice is progressively faster because of the lower friction involved. The World Sailing Speed Record Council is the body authorized by the World Sailing to confirm speed records of sailing craft on water.
Formula Windsurfing is the high-performance, competitive course-racing format of the windsurfing world. This type of sailing boards enjoy a massive wind range that enables racing in winds from 7 to 35 knots, and are capable of reaching speeds of over 30 knots.
Björn Dunkerbeck is a professional windsurfer who has won the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) Overall World Championships a record 42 times.
The International Speed Windsurfing Class (ISWC) is a class of speed windsurfing boards that has developed over the last 30 years in order to facilitate high performance competition in strong winds and on flat water. The International Speed Windsurfing Class is controlled by World Sailing and has been adopted as an international class in spring 2007. The class is defined as an "experimental" class, which means that the class rules give a wide possibility for the development of new equipment, also outside commonly used technologies. Speed windsurfing events are normally held on "flat water" as opposed to coastal surf; which means side-offshore wind directions with a strength of at least 20 knots (10 m/s). The ISWC speed world champion is established throughout a tour, the Speed World Cup.
Antoine Albeau is a French windsurfer who holds twenty-four Windsurfing World Championships in different disciplines since 1994.
Shahar Tzuberi is an Israeli windsurfer and Olympic bronze medalist, surfing in the "Neil Pryde" RS:X discipline. He is a nephew of Gad Tsobari, the 1972 Olympic wrestler who escaped from Arab terrorists during the Munich massacre. He is a three-time Olympian.
Michael William "Gebi" Gebhardt is a former professional and Olympic windsurfer from the United States, who competed in five consecutive Summer Olympics, in the Olympic sailing discipline/event of windsurfing. He was born in Columbus, Ohio.
Zara Davis is an English windsurfer. She holds the outright World Women’s Nautical Mile speed record for a sailing vessel. The record was achieved in Namibia in 2006 and ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council. She has since improved this record for the Nautical Mile to 37.29 knots at La Plame in the South of France. Ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.
Speed sailing records are sanctioned, since 1972, by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC). Records are measured either by average speed over a specified distance or by total distance traveled during a specified time interval. The three most sought after records are the:
The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA), is the only kiteboarding class inside the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). The IKA class rules fall in the category of a development class.
The Windsurfing World Championships is an international sailing competition organized by World Sailing held since 1980, now annually.
Bruno Sroka is a French male kitesurfer and adventurer. He is 3 times winner of the World Cup as well as 3 times European Champion in course racing. Bruno Sroka is the first and only man that crossed the Cape Horn by kitesurf and the first one that realized the unique Way of Peace project in the Gulf of Aqaba.
Sean O'Brien is an Australian professional windsurfer competing on the PWA World Tour and the International Formula Windsurfing Class Tour. He was ranked 7th in the World in Formula Windsurfing in 2012 and has won 11 Australian Windsurfing Titles across three racing disciplines, the most of any Australian windsurfer.
Jimmy Lewis is a Hawaiian surfer, sailor and surfboard shaper.
Tine Slabe, Slovenian windsurfer, born 26 August 1980, Koper.
Christian Bornemann is a German Windsurfer. He held 2014–2018 the German speed record over 500-meter, and since 2018 the German speed record over the nautical mile and is one of the twenty fastest windsurfers in the world.
Emma Wilson is a British windsurfer who won a bronze medal in the RS:X event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She won the RS:X events at the Youth Sailing World Championships in 2016 and 2017, and won medals at the 2018 and 2019 RS:X European Championships, and the 2022 and 2023 IQFoil European Championships.
