Jenna De Rosnay - beyond any scoring system in this universe!
If you are too young to know who she is, Google her right now and enrich your life! If we had a modern version of her, the kiting business would collapse overnight and windsurfing would have a massive resurgence.
if all you guys can come up with is some "hot chick", you must be old horny buggers 
windsurfing is STILL evolving and has had SO many good things - these are just examples:
universal joint was REQUIRED for windsurfing to function
this allowed for a mobile hand held sail
first boards seemed to be round bottomed - flat bottoms for speed later
wider boards for earlier planing
footstraps for jumping
chest harness so your arms don't get too long
later seat and waist harnesses
full battens for shape retention
cambers for even more shape
adjustable downhaul for adjustment on water - Barry still workin on one ??
adjustable outhaul for adjustment on the fly
hydrofoiling is the latest ?? inflatables and WindSUPs too ..
sail materials went from dacron, mylar to monofilm , scrim and now new dacron @ HSM
fins went from tiny US base to trimm, power and tuttle
mast bases went from filling the "hole(s)" to standard mast tracks
and extensions went from eyelets / grommets to pulleys and US / Euro connections
people use tools to downhaul - less stress on back n legs
etc
etc
etc
2 and 3 piece masts - when are they ALL gonna go to CC ? constant curve ??
RDM masts
cutouts in boards and sail boom area
North has ratchet system for downhaul
neoprene for the cold
ice windsurfing
land windsurfing
MARK PAUL at Hookipa - April 1981 - using a converted surfboard
The shortboard revolution again led by Australians...
A defining moment in Windsurfing.
Early sailboards were easily broken. Malte Simmer, Mike Waltze and Mark Paul - Hookipa - April 1981
[b]The first "short" wave boards broke very easily - Hookipa - April 1981
[/b]
Mark Paul jumping at Hookipa - April 1981
Mark Paul sailing Long Reef Bombora Proto - circa 1982 Endless progression
The "Baja Fog".
A drink popularized by the earliest windsurfers to frequent Punta San Carlos, Mex.
A beer with added tequila and a twist of lime which fogs the beer. Served best in the beer bottle, but you have to take a swig out of it first to make room for the tequila.
The best thing to cut thru salt water mouth.
Joe: "neoprene for the cold"
Neoprene goes back way farther than windsurfing, Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists in 1930, originally under the name "Duprene", the first wetsuit was in 1951.
Mast base protector pad (reduced big toe injuries)
Bucket harness as opposed to chest/waist harness (reduced low back strain)
RDM - so much easier to flip
The people who keep working to make the sport more accessible..... because they just love windsurfing, if they wanted to make money they should have become golf or tennis pros instead.
They might not be the best things in windsurfing history - though they show how far the sport has come !
Select to expand quotejoe windsurf said..
if all you guys can come up with is some "hot chick", you must be old horny buggers
"SOME hot chick" !!!!! Crikey Joe, nothing ever compared to Jenna !!
Better old horny bugger than young know it all wanker (just kidding don't get offended !)
Foots strap 9/10
Storm Sail 9/10
High wind daggerboard 5/10
"Wavejumper" 10/10
Bombora New Toy 3/10
Wild Winds anything 7/10
CNC machined fins transformed to mainstream surfing
the importance of sharp release rails transformed to mainstream surfing
windsurfing innovated that sh1t.... 
Select to expand quoteseanhogan said..
(just kidding don't get offended !)
how can i be offended - i set myself up - and no-one responded - until now
i did say she was HOT after all
Select to expand quoteHausey said..
They might not be the best things in windsurfing history - though they show how far the sport has come !
Nothing better than cruising along with the wobbly boom then the mast comes out of the track!
Thought I forgot about the early days!
Nobody's mentioned the GT31? Is the jury still out? I'll give it a provisional 5.5/10
Pretty hard to go pass the introduction of the harness
As the biggest step forward along with the shortening of boards
And removal of centre boards.
The worst is far and away GPS.
The best, this forum along with the Flying Objects surf / seat harness.
Shorter boards of 230 cm have made a big difference to low end power and upwind.
Hydro foil...time will tell.
Surely the most significant change is the development of the shortboard in the early 1980s.
Without that none of the modern sport would be as it is.
The sub 9 foot /sub 8 foot and lightweight construction that is the biggest breakthrough of all.
Just as in surfing, I believe that "shortboard" revolution was invented by the Australians.
Select to expand quotearibenasher said..
Surely the most significant change is the development of the shortboard in the early 1980s.
Without that none of the modern sport would be as it is.
The sub 9 foot /sub 8 foot and lightweight construction that is the biggest breakthrough of all.
Just as in surfing, I believe that "shortboard" revolution was invented by the Australians.
Was the first readily available "shorty" the Bombora Tri Fin ?
That was the first i remember, and the first i planed on that got me hooked !!
There was guys who had an Alpha Something as well, they were pretty cool
Carbon fibre (the secret of light weight)
Epoxy resin (strength to hold it all together)
Select to expand quoteshoodbegood said..aribenasher said..
Surely the most significant change is the development of the shortboard in the early 1980s.
Without that none of the modern sport would be as it is.
The sub 9 foot /sub 8 foot and lightweight construction that is the biggest breakthrough of all.
Just as in surfing, I believe that "shortboard" revolution was invented by the Australians.
Was the first readily available "shorty" the Bombora Tri Fin ?
That was the first i remember, and the first i planed on that got me hooked !!
There was guys who had an Alpha Something as well, they were pretty cool
I believe the story goes like this: "....Mark Paul took a short fat board to Maui one year [I submit this was 1981..]. Everyone was blown away by this board. Mike Waltze and others were all riding it. After the days sailing and a few beers on the hill at Hookipa they threw all their gear in the back of Mike's ute and headed home through the cane fields. They forgot to tie the board down and it blew out of Mike's ute and was lost in the cane fields. They searched to no avail. The next day still in a frenzy from the previous days sailing, they needed another board and quickly. Mike called Gerry Lopez and asked him if he had any old Guns lying around. He had a few pipe guns in the 7ft range. They put some mast tracks and footsraps on them and shortboard windsurfing was born. Now everyone was riding shortboards but much narrower than what Mark had designed that was lost in the canefields. This is the best exlaination of how shortboards evolved that I have heard from anybody. If there is a better explanation out there i would love to hear it?"
The above is quoted from another on sea breeze-"Fast Eddy" in around 2009,Posted 29/6/2009, 11:41 am inwww.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/The-Windsurfing-Movie-II/?page=2.
Assuming he is correct, it is possible, and open to fact check this and in support of that, I tender the following photograph of Mark Paul (circa 1980-81) with the short fat board, which I believe is the "sub" 6 foot pink, blue and orange thing on his immediate left. I submit that is similar to the one he took to Hawaii that year. The other shorter guy in the photo, on the right is I believe Scotty O'Connor:
Then also photographs at Steve Wilkings website of Mark Paul riding the 7 foot "pipeline" gun boards in 1981 at Hookipa. This corroborates the story.
For example, to wit photos of Mark Paul:
I believe you can purchase these and other photos (in full quality..) in all their glory at: www.stevewilkings.com
[I believe the "Alpha" boards were much later than the above.I know nothing about them and don't believe they rate as early runners]
The history above is somewhat like the Brewer McTavish rivalry over the shortboard in 1967 in Hawaii and the "Plastic Fantastic" 9 footer which Bob McTavish spun out on, but which blew minds.see "Going Vertical" movie
We should celebrate the above "windsurfing" shortboard story similarly..
^^^
That link to www.stevewilkings.com is awesome aribenashner ! I had a look at the 1979, 1980 and 1981 photos and it's all there - the history of the windsurfing - and yes - I'd agree with you and Fast Eddy that Mark Paul was the pioneer of the short board!
The photos of Diamond Head in 1979, 1980 and Hookipa in 1981 show the evolution. How's the Australian 'speed board' in 1980 with the kanga cock - classic!
Your post above is correct - that is Scott O'Connor - I lived around the corner from him in those days and used to hope he'd stop when driving past when I was shaping my first boards (I used to shape them on the street as I wasn't allowed to do them in the garage) in 1982. I was in year 9 at the time and Midget Farrelly used to sell all the gear for the DIY board makers. My first boards were so bad (first one 9', second one 8'2") - though I put them in the 'Manly Daily' under 'Wavejumpers' and sold them both easily because short boards were only just evolving - and hot ticket items! I remember a guy rocked up in a Porsche and was desperate to buy them because windsurfing was so cool !
Those were the days....
I bought a couple of Scott's Hot Buttered boards soon after in 1982 - shaped by Terry Fitzgerald - one was based on Terry's Sunset guns. I took this board to W.A. on my first trip (for the '84 Windsurfer Worlds) and afterwards went to Lano, Gero and Margies - I could never ride that board! I think Scott was the first Australian wavesailing champion and the first 'pro' windsurfer in Australia? He would have probably been Neil Pryde's first team rider in Australia? I bought a Pryde Maui Tri-panel (which I think was the first Pryde / Maui Sails collaboration) off Scott back in those days and looked up to him and Rohan Cudmore who lived across the road from Scott - who also ripped!
Mark Paul used to be on the payroll of Sailboards Australia that had a big retail shop selling Bombora protos 'customs' near the factory in Dee Why where they were pumping out the rotomoulded Windsurfers and Bomboras..... Mark used to travel around the country in a new Volvo station wagon with BOMBAA numberplates. Several of the boards in the picture above used to be under his house at Long Reef.
