Now You Sail It; Now You Don't

Put a sail up on a surfboard and what do you get? Gymnastics Olga Korbut never performed. The latest sailing craze—-still another product of Southern California ingenuity—requires the balance of a wire walker and the sensitivity of a glider pilot. As the photographs at right suggest, not all the participants are blessed with these attributes. Windsurfers are rudderless and sheetless, so one steers precariously by pushing and tugging on a wishbone boom. Turn the page for some sweeter steering.

Four studies in Windsurfing dynamics. At upper left the skipper hauls on a line to elevate the mast and get going like the lass at upper right. Below, a sailor does her unbalancing act from both port and starboard.

Handkerchief sails aloft, the fleet starts a race in the Windsurfer nationals on San Diego's Mission Bay.

FIVE PHOTOS

ERIC SCHWEIKARDT