Windsurfing is a boardsport on water that combines characteristics of both sailing and surfing. The windsurfer uses the wind to propel a board forward under his feet and skim across the water. For many, windsurfing is sailing in its elementary and most enjoyable form - a flexible triangle-shaped sail mounted on a board.

 

Windsurfing dates back to the late 1940s. Sidney Newman Darby is widely recognized as the inventor of windsurfing. He created the first sailboard in 1948 with a wooden board and handheld sail that he used to windsurf around the Chesapeake Bay.

 

Windsurfing's popularity saw explosive growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Initially in Europe, then in North America. The sport began to take off in popularity around 1972 and by the end of the 1970s it was the fastest growing sport in the world. The first world championship of windsurfing was held in 1973 and, by the late '70s, windsurfing fever had Europe firmly in its grasp with one in every three households having a sailboard. Windsurfing would go on to become an Olympic sport in 1984 for men and 1992 for women.  

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Robby Naish is windsurfing royalty and he's the first person to have gained long-lasting fame in the sport. In 1968, his father, surfer Rick Naish, moved his family from California to Hawaii. Robby Naish has won 24 World Championship Windsurfing titles and is also considered a pioneer of kiteboarding and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP). Robby Naish was born in La Jolla, California, in 1963 – five years before the first patent for a windsurf was filed. In 1976, he won the Windsurfer World Championships. Naish was just 13 years old at the time and became the youngest person ever to win a world championship in any sport. 

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Björn Dunkerbeck (born 16 July 1969) is a professional windsurfer who has won the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) Overall World Championships a record 42 times. He has had an illustrious career dating back to 1986, when he hit the professional circuit at the tender age of 17. 

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(The text is a result of searches on Bing AI.)  

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