Welcome to Emsworth Custom Boards. After searching the web and scouring books there was no detailed procedure for building a composite windsurf board. So ECB took the plunge and did it at home...

Update 4th April 2007 - ECB has gradually morphed into the "Shaguar Story"...read article on left...

There are four groups of people who visit this site.

- Fellow board builders, or first-timers looking for instructions and help building their own composite windsurfing boards
- Windsurfers who have an interest in the Shaguar speedboards
- Curious Emsworthians who have seen the ECB logo on the front of the workshop
- People who are here by accident, but who are actually looking for the European Central Bank!

ECB is the only place where you will find full instructions to build a performance windsurfer. I’m always on the hunt for feedback on the build process, and always happy to help with questions. I’ve been thinking for a while about developing a simplified version of the process for first-timers – let me know if you think this would be useful (I won’t do it unless there is demand).

In the past, ECB has churned out freeride boards, freestyle boards and wave boards. These days I only build speedboards for a single sailor – Windy John (see Windy’s rider profile here). The Shaguar Story is about two guys who decided to take on the UK windsurfing speed record, using boards built in a South coast shed. You can read the full story here, or if you prefer Windy John’s distorted version of events you can check out www.windyjohn.com . Dave White remains UK speed king, but we like to think that we getting to the point of being viable challengers, especially with the introduction of GPS Windsurfing .

Emsworthians! Windsurfing was conceived by Peter Chilvers on Hayling Island and trialled in our local waters! Emsworth Custom Boards plans to honour this proud heritage through the production of innovative speedboards. If the doors of the workshop are open you are always welcome to come and chat (if they are closed, the workshop is likely to be full of noxious dust and fumes, not the best time to visit).

Finally for those people looking for the European Central Bank, you sound as if you probably have money, and we would welcome some of that to get into prepreg technology. In between those executive meetings, why don’t you pop down to the workshop, enjoy some ‘refreshment’ with Windy and I, maybe contribute to the Shaguar IV conceptual planning, and dish out some sponsorship. Any potential sponsors are also most welcome, we won’t ask for much (12m of prepreg carbon/Kevlar hybrid would do it) and guarantee media coverage!

So, chill yourself out and build a windsurf board in your living room. Here's how (ok, not in the living room)...

Build yourself one of these...

Shaguar I - 40cm - circa 2004.