- Land windsurfing
Land windsurfing is similar to
windsurfing but performed on land. Boards with wheels and a mast base attachment are used. It is often called land boarding , streetsailing or dirt windsurfing.Mountain board s are commonly used, a hole is drilled into the board and a mast base is inserted. A french company produce a mountain board with an already drilled hole. The footstrap setup on these boards only allow normal riding on one tack, it is possible to sail on the other tack switch stance.Another board is available from a UK company, "TurfDog". These boards with a full set of footstraps (allowing riding on both tacks like when windsurfing) are designed to ride specifically like a windsurf board. Swivel wheels on the front of the board combined with conventional trucks on the back enable the board to steer and perform the same way as a windsurf board on the water. Windsurfers use these boards to learn the skills of windsurfing and also freestyle tricks are learnt on the boards. Because the boards work like windsurf boards the manoeuvres learnt on land can be quickly performed on the water.Manoeuvres commonly learnt on "TurfDog" land windsurf boards are carve gybes, tacks, heli tacks, duck gybes, upwind 360s, carve 360's, vulcans and spocks. [Check out http://www.turfdog.co.uk] .
Buhala Boards is also a dealer of these types of boards.
In the US, a California based company has been custom building streetsailors for years. By bringing some of the best built parts already available on the market into their designs without re-inventing the wheel so to speak, they have been able to keep a small renegade sport alive for the past 20 years. It is an all season sport and requires a minimum amount of wind and space. A 5mph breeze on hard surfaces will do with an average sail size of 5.0 square meters. A 10mph average is required on hard packed sand with the same sail size. Protective gear is recommended for beginners as well as advanced sailors. Land is definitely harder than water.
See also
*
Land sailing * [http://www.blokartersuk.com/index.html Blokartersuk.com]
* [http://www.buhalaboards.com/ The Buhala Boards website]
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