pierrec45, my apologies.
Speak to Mike Waltze he will tell you the real story. Stop reading history books written by Americans. Why is it so hard for you to believe that Mark invented shortboards? Is page 26 correct? How did windsurfer come up with the rocket then what is the story behind that? Get that story and I'll tell you the real one.
Nah, tell us the story now. Give years, important.
Make the link that people in Hawaii and Florida pre-1978 got it from that dude. Then you're home.
Cheers (from an Aussie living in yank country, by the way - ironic, huh?).
i'll have to make a phone call to get the year. By the way Mike Waltze told the the guys that made the WM11 and they cut it, interesting huh.
Did you sail at balmoral back in the day pierre?
Bring on number 2. 1st movie is awesome. love the start to levis section. movie has an insane soundtrack too. speed/slalom sailing? not to sure bout that maybe a few of minutes no more. would love to see a good crash section in number 2 like snowboard and skatin movies. its also great to watch windsurfing in high def on a big screen tv.
it would be great if they were able to re relaese the 80s vid tradewinds in dvd format. would bring back some great memories.anyone got a copy that could be put on to dvd?
mark paul?
peter nitschke built the first short board in australia in 1976 in tasmania. it wasn't mark paul but i will ask him when i see him.
not sure when the US guys were doing it? may have been the same time or earlier?
As i was told the story, mark paul took a short fat thing to maui one year. 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 hookpia 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 Jerry 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?
hi fast eddie,
well i do believe you that's for sure. i'm not questioning that mark paul did that. i'm as keen as everyone else to understand the history of it all myself.
i rang peter and got the story. this is how it goes.
peter started importing tc windsurfers in 74 from europe. the first batch sold out and they went to import another batch but drake and co wanted to charge another $150 per board patent rights which made the figures not stack for pete and co.
so......
around 76-77, pete who had been making surfboards decided to build his own windsurfers to keep the cost down.
the boards were 9-10 ft long because that is how big the blanks were. the first 10 boards were sold around australia, (i am going to get photos of them in the coming weeks) pete thinks the photos have dates on the back of them so i will confirm dates.
from what i understand, all of the pioneers in australia all knew each other at this time and it was at the 77 national titles that they all met up. mark paul was there also.
pete also tells me that he didn't really tell to many people he was building shortboards as drake and co were aggressively suing people for patent infringment. however a couple of his first short boards went to NSW, some to WA and 1 to QLD etc.
pete said he is certain he built the first short boards in australia but doesn't know what was happening in the rest of the world. after he built his first 10 boards he stopped and then started building them again around 1980.
he also says the first person to windsurf in australia was his brother wh did it 7 days before he did.
i would be good to know what board mark paul took to hawaii? whether he built it himself or whether it was one of petes or someone elses. i have recently gotten the opportunity to come in contact with mark paul via work and if i get the chance i will ask him. but if someone that knows him personally could ask that would be better. it would also be good to know when mark went to hawaii?
This was the story told to me by Mike Waltze just after mark and I built his garden in maui. Mike told that story on camera to the guys that made the windsurfing movie, they didn't show everything mike said. My question is why not?
Just like you I am fascinated to hear about the history just not an Americanised version.
Sounds like a conspiracy to me fast eddy. But at the end of the day who cares. I looked at the movie as the history of windsurfing thru the eyes of the Hawaiians, still a good flick regardless the making of the movie was also interesting.
Not a conspiracy, those guys knew and did not put that in on purpose. I not knocking the footage it was amazing those guys rip. Credit where credit is due.
I pretty sure the movie stated:
"Maui Centric version of windsurfing history"
So put it back in the holster dudes 
Is that the same Peter Nitshcke that is renowned for euthanasia? Quite a pioneer that fella!
Mark Paul is also a pioneer, the original KA 1 and guru extraordinaire....One of his boards might have blown off the ute into the canefields in Hawaii....it might have been short and piglike - several survived and probably none would have been able to be bottom turned at Hookipa?
I've got a copy somewhere of a US magazine in the early 80's of Mike Waltze riding a 7'?" surfboard gun at Hookipa with a Windsurfer storm sail. Was that the first moment of windsurfers actually riding waves..... rather than just outrunning them?
sounds like it hausey, was up your way just recently, lost my phone in belingen, lost your number, hows the shire?
that would be a NO hausey, you're thinking of a completely different person with a different christian name.
i saw the movie in a 2 dollar store i said to the chineeez man, oh you have the windsurfing movie he said yes sir. i said how much he said 2 dola . i said to him you know what a windsurfer is he said nulll . he was a funny dude
^^ i see fast eddies point though.
even if the windsurfing movie was maui's perspective, mark paul should have rated a mention in there.
i too would think there were probably lots of pockets around the world screwing rigs onto surfboards. i'm keen to found out for interests sake.
i would guess it would need to be either OZ or the US though as the europeans aren't really known for their waves. probably not so many surfboards lying around. 
Mike gave Mark paul the wrap for staring shortboarding which is a very important moment in our sport. They didn't show that part. Mike said to me tell me what you think when you see there edit. Giving Mark a wrap didn't take 10min more like 30 seconds. Mark never told me that story after working with him for 7 years.
As I said credit where credit is due.
Just out of curiosity, where were they called "Windsurfers" before anyone attached a rig to a surf board? It just seems like it was such an obvious step. I'm more impressed by whoever did the first forward, first over 30knots etc.
^^ i believe it was mark angulo that did the first forward, preceeded by ceasere cantagalli (spelling) doing the cheese roll and preceeded by the push loop and the back loop respectively.
