New Is Nice ... Worn, Used and Appreciated—Even Better

Bright, shiny and new; sure that's nice. But few things give me the satisfaction of a piece of clothing, a tool or some device that got worn and used over many years doing its appointed job, bringing value in the process, and coming out the end looking like they did.

I've got a few pieces of clothes like that. They fit perfectly, they were worn often, they lasted years—or were coaxed into lasting longer than they should, and they show the story of their lives to those who can read the threads.

Few photos exist of my old Axxis 260 LTD, this is one
from the secret spot that used to be, at the end of
Ariel Ct. in Sands Point, NY ... now developed into a
cul-de-sac of exclusive beachfront homes.

It's even better if you took a gamble on them, paid a few bucks (or quid, or euros) more, and they delivered what you'd hoped and more.

I guess a few photos would be in order. And a few stories. Maybe one at a time.

Since many who stop by these pages are windsurfers, I'll start with one of those items.

I've been through scads of sails by now, and upwards of a dozen boards, easily.

I stopped buying new windsurf boards years ago.

At some point some windsurfers find the quest for elusive perfection in a board for a set of conditions is sometimes met in one board, but often times it's an exercise in futility when seeking a board for a different set of conditions.

It's bittersweet when one of those rare "perfect" or almost perfect boards dies of old age.

One such that I owned was the F2 Axxis 260 LTD Xenon Edition. I bought it on one of my first trips to Cape Cod in a guy called Steve's windsurf shop near the Barnstable Road/route 28 outside of Hyannis. Back in its day it was seen as the last of the retro shapes. A wide nose, volume and mast track forward.  Slightly thinned tail.

Second board from the left. Translation: "Here then, is what a nautical Ferrari looks like."
OK, slightly overstating it maybe, but a very fun board all the same..

No board I ever owned jibed better than this 94L number. I was/am a shitty jiber, but somehow this board made it feel easy, with the width and the volume just where you needed them as you were in that trickiest stage of the transition.

Some days it planed easy. Other days it didn't want to budge. "Something's wrong with that board," said Charlie Kim, one day at ITB, when I just could not get it going. Other times, it bailed me in the impact zone of my first hairy sideshore hurricane (offshore) 7' swell off Cedar.

I rode it so much I pulled out every footstrap insert in the board.

Once I accidentally dragged it behind the car, by its nose along the road after a the 100-lb loaded  triple gorge rack flipped over the rear trunk — and the board hardly complained. The skin was like toughest rawhide...or polywhatever. Almost indestructible except for the footstrap inserts.

I beyotched about it's sometimes quirky performance in the chop — bouncy in too much wind/sail. But other times it seemed perfect even with a 4.2.

Surely must have been rider error, bad fin choice perhaps. Frank and I would say, "a little too wide in the hips," maybe but other times that was a godsend. Mostly you just had to get fin, mast track position and sail size right.

It liked to jump, though. And with an extreme amount of V in the hull, it had no issues with Hecksher chop, boat wakes and cross-chop. For a "heavy" 18lb board it was pretty fast too, for its day.

STRAPPED
I also bemoaned its lack of a center strap for waves. I tried offsetting across a bunch of inserts, but that was dangerous and very uncomfortable as the angle was "naff" on one side.

One day I will drill some fresh inserts I think.

Next ... the OO by Brian Hynde

Amazingly the board had crazy range. 6.2 wave sail to 4.2 high wind sail.  Light wind wave to Tropical Storm Bertha and every bit of Heckscher chop in between. That is until I got the other "almost perfect board", the Open Ocean ... but that's another story. In the mean time "Nice job Werner Gnigler."