skrevet den:28-08-2007

Jim Drake

Vi kan jo ikke have at der på www.bensens.dk ikke findes informationer omkring den vigtigste person i udvikling af windsurfing.

Jim Drake

Father of Windsurfing. On May 15 1967 in Marina Del Rey, California, Jim took the first step on the first windsurfer that he designed and built in his Santa Monica garage. Born 38 years earlier in Hollywood, California, he graduated from Stanford University in 1951 to become an aeronautical engineer for what was then called North American Aviation. His career took him to the Pentagon, the Rand Corporation and lastly R and D Associates, a technical studies firm he helped found. He, with help of course, developed the first designs of what became the X-15, the B-70 and the cruise missile. Now retired, he still consults with the Pentagon but more importantly with Starboard where the concept of the ultra-wide short board, known as the Formula, was born. With his late wife, Wendy, they had six children. He and his second wife, Sam, have between them eight children and six-teen grandchildren. They now live in North Carolina but travel frequently to Bangkok, Paris, Rome, Hawaii and elsewhere in pursuit of his technical infatuation with water borne wind powered sports.

“There are only four parts to a sailboard that make it work -- the sailor, the board, the sail and the fin. It is the quality of each of only those four parts upon which the performance of the board depends. Sure, there are also things like harnesses, universal joints, footstraps, etc, but they are only attachments.