Then came the time of ‘funboard’ and performance gains and we all wanted to be heroes. We’d skipped to the next level and some people didn’t even know how to lift a sail from the water unless they were doing a waterstart… Somehow, that’s about the time that it started to get difficult. The equipment was expensive and you’d be waiting so long before the right conditions came that you’d sometimes forget that you were into watersports at all. Some people felt left behind by the community because they couldn’t afford to move and follow the wind. Some people even felt betrayed. The industry would push the limits and sometimes, they were pushing in the wrong direction. But that is how we progressed, and the price we paid was the loss of the fun-and-family spirit. It’s also how we became so frustrated.
We were craving more wind and more waves, but our radical boards were spending more time in the garage than on the water! Many people lost their passion by then and they simply gave up.
