The Long And Short Of It

Whether it’s the behemoths of long boards past or their modern incarnation, windSUPs, Peter Hart contends that, “There is eternal beauty in length.”

Those of you with either considerable life experience or an interest in history, will have heard of the Pan Am Cup. It took place in the very early 80s on the island of Oahu (Maui had yet to be invented). It predated the PBA (now PWA) and was the first multi-disciplined professional event comprising wave performance, course racing and long distance. The difference was that competition would only take place in a minimum of 17 knots – a minimum that would have been a maximum at most regattas back then – the aim being to showcase windsurfing as a high action, dangerous, sexy, dynamic and highly televisual sport.

In that sepia era, summer holidays were always sunny and windsurfing events in tropical places were always windy. And although such a wind minimum (later adopted by the PBA) was proved to be totally unrealistic, for the Pan Am Cup the wind blew. All it took was one extraordinary photo taken by Alistair Black of a youthful and indomitable Robby Naish leading the fleet through monster swells around ‘Bird Shit Island’ in Kailua Bay, and our perceptions of what was possible changed forever.

TAKING LONG TO NEW LENGTHS