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AMERICAN WINDSURFER MAGAZINE
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RANDY FRENCH
Randy French has been a shaper for more than 30 years, starting with the shortboard revolution in surfboards. He’s a California surfer who’s been around long enough to remember groovin’ to Jan and Dean—a special time, a special place. It might be overstating things a bit to say he invented the shortboard, but back when Windsurfers were all there was, Ken Winner asked Randy to build him a shorter, sleeker racing board that jibed better than his 13-1. It was the first French sailboard. And here we are.
Funny thing is, some people say that’s the problem with French boards: They’re still there. They’re rigid old school, known for their slalom-like feel despite the surfing roots of their designer. It’s not that French doesn’t know how to take chances with new shapes—he’s been through them all, over the years—it’s that his customers don’t want them. They’re rigid old-schoolers themselves. It’s French sailors that don’t change, not French.
“Shaping for people is a real personal thing,” he says. And, other than the fact that he simply loves windsurfing, Randy French builds sailboards more to keep his long-time customers happy than he does to sell a lot of them and make money. His company in Santa Cruz, Surftech, makes its money building some 30 different surfboards.
He founded Seatrend in 1978 and owned it until he sold out after losing control—most notably quality control—to a partner in the early ‘90s (since then it’s been re-sold). “I ended up having to divorce myself from the organization,” is how he puts it. Business-wise, despite the unpleasant experience during the final months at Seatrend, his timing has been good. He rode the initial wave of the surfing boom, switched to sailboards in the early ‘80s for about 10 big-growth years, and now he’s back for the second big boom in surfing. He’s also poised for the rebirth of windsurfing. In ‘99 he introduced his new line of Tuf Lite sailboards, made at Cobra in Bangkok, beginning with the four models tested here, an 8-4, 8-6, 8-11 and 9-2.
“Four distinct boards is as much of an undertaking as I think is reasonable for a single designer to work on at one time,” he says. “We’ll probably eventually have eight to ten boards.” Next year we should see an 8-2, 8-9 and yes, a wide board.
Like many other boardmakers, French is chasing range with his designs. But, unlike them, he’s after range of water conditions, more than wind conditions. We’re not talking about a board that will work from 10 to 30 knots with sails from 4.5 to 7.0, but something that’s a step beyond bump-and-jump, a board that will work in flat water, chop or big waves, with a wave sail or cambered racing sail. You have to get radical with your shape to achieve wind range; you can’t afford to be radical to achieve water range. And that might be the biggest difference in design between new school and old.
Randy French can’t change with the times? It’s a bum rap.
“When I left Seatrend I said, ‘I’ve got fresh ideas, I’ve still got some things that I want to do on boards.’ Plus I had a lot of people calling me saying, ‘What will I ride if you don’t keep going?’
“It’s really important for my boards to work everywhere for a wide variety of people. A World Cup guy can have five boards, but the average guy is gonna have one board, maybe two. I’ve got Buzz Hansen as my eyes and ears here on Maui, sailing a lot and doing R&D, but he agrees that some of the testing gets too specific here, so I’ve got guys in Santa Cruz too.
“The challenge is making a board that has maximum depth of usage. And that’s where I think I bring a service to the marketplace, because I think I’ve been able to make boards that have a real broad spectrum of usage.
“It was easier for me in the early days, because I was pretty much the only guy with this philosophy. Well, those days are over with. Everybody pretty much knows how to look at what everybody else is doing.
“Any boardmaker can make specialty boards. It’s easy to make a board go fast, or ride well, or turn well. You don’t have to go over and blend straight lines versus curved lines.
“You’ve got the design elements that will make a board go fast. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is a group of elements that will make a board turn. The challenge is to make a board that blends those two, so it will go fast, plane early, turn well and have control features.
“So I think there are some things in my new line that are different. Subtle differences in the shape. Little things that won’t take away from the board’s early planing and speed and smoothness when sailors are tail riding it.
“Take the 8-11 for example. It’ll be a big board for us. We have guys who will not only use it to blast back and forth on flat water with it, and need it to get on a plane fast, but once they drop into a wave they got to be able to have it roll onto its ear and pull up the face. Most 8-11s with that much volume might do that part okay, but when you get it in the trough, it just locks up and falls over. If they set it on its rail and it won’t rotate through that trough, I’m not gonna sell any boards.
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