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Santa Cruz Sailors

They come in all age groups but are mostly over 30 and many are over 50. A high percentage are women. Women are just as well represented among the top wave sailors as they are among the slalom types. We don't see too many beginners in Santa Cruz, probably because of the high winds, cold water, and big surf.

Santa Cruz Style

We are all just too cool to wear neon wetsuits and Oakley sunglasses!

A large percentage of Santa Cruz sailors organize their workday around their sailing. Many get to sail almost everyday. The top selling boards in Santa Cruz are custom boards from local shapers. Haut and Stretch figure high on the list along with Randy French and Paul Coffey. Since Waddel Sails moved to the Gorge and then went out of business, no one knows where to buy sails anymore. At least one Santa Cruz sailor gets all his equipment from the local dump. At last count he had over 40 sails and quite a few boards.

Also, if you'd read Steve West's column in Windtracks for any length of time, you will know that we Santa Cruz windsurfers don't call ourselves boardheads, we call ourselves 'windsurfers', and when its really windy, we don't say its nuking, we say its 'really windy'. We don't call each other 'dude' either but we sometimes say things are 'really cool'. We don't test our rigs in the rigging area, at least not while anyone is looking and we all know the right of way rules, even in the waves.

Most importantly, we look out for each other and try to help anyone who gets into trouble.

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