Stephan Van Den Berg is making a flying visit to the UK in September and will be competing in the Howard Plumb Memorial race at the NWF on Saturday5th Sept. Stephan competed in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.

He wasthe first gold medallist sailing a board and rig set-up that excluded theuse of the harness, the Windglider. Back in those days there was no trulyplanned time limit on races and courses used to be set on distance ratherthan time, meaning some races on the World circuit could last one and a halfhours. With no harness, it was a gruelling challenge. As the picturehighlights – most Windglider races had arms as long as their legs. DaveHackford our UK Olympic representative that year invited Stephan over andthe pair of them will be visiting the show on Saturday, both intending tocompete in the races on Saturday afternoon. Stephan now runs his own shop inHolland just outside Amsterdam. Dave visited the shop a few months ago, andreturned saying it was one of the best presented windsurfing shops he hadever seen on his travels. Stephan is keen to come and check out the UK sceneand see the 2016 products displayed.

If you fancy hearing some epic tales of when windsurfing was very much inthe ‘glory days’ pop over to the Tushingham/Starboard stand during themorning. And if you fancy trying to beat a Gold Medallist WITH a harness –enter the 3pm race!