I shaped my first few sailboards in 1978 for Mike Waltze and Mark Robinson. I had previously been shaping surfboards since 1968. In 1981 I started work for Fred Haywood and Mike Waltze at Sailboards Maui where I was involved with them in shaping some of the very first " sinker " short boards. We focused on wave boards but world renowned, Arnaud de Rosnay had me shape a few boards especially for straight line speed to take to Weymouth, England for the only speed sailing event in existence at the time.
In 1982, Pascal Maka took a stock Sailboards Maui wave board that I shaped to Weymouth and smashed the existing windsurfing speed record by 4 Knots with the incredible speed of 27.82 Knots. Pascal's success got Fred Haywood interested so I shaped him 2 "speed boards" to take to Weymouth in 1983. Fred smashed Pascal's previous record by 2 Knots by going 30.82.
At the event that year, Fred sold one of the 2 boards to Robert Teritehau who increased his personal best time at the same contest by 2 Knots when he switched to my shape. Fred was the first sailboard over 30 Knots, second only to a catamaran called Crossbow which held the absolute world speed sailing record of 36 Knots. Three years later, in the Canary Islands, 4 Sailors using my Boards became to be the first to beat Crossbow. Pascal Maka clocked an incredible 38.86, while Eric Beale, Fred Haywood and myself did 36.73 , 36.13 and 36.31 respectively.
Eight out of the top 10 at that event used Jimmy Lewis boards. This would remain the status quo for several years to come. A few years later Eric Beale became the first one to sail over 40 Knots by setting a new absolute world speed record of 40.48 Knots, on one of my boards of course.During all of those "speed years" I continued shaping wave boards as well as slalom boards.
In the 90's most of my focus was on slalom boards but recently, Roddy Lewis set what some people call the "open ocean" record (meaning not "the canal" in France) by going 44.51 Knots. Here on Maui, since the beginning of the Kanaha Race Series every summer, more racers using Jimmy Lewis boards have placed in the top 3 or have won each division in the series than any other boards.
Then About 5 years ago I made Laird Hamilton a few boards for him to use with a kite that he had. The boards I made were more like oversized waterski's. Then a few years later, this windsurfer turned kiteboarder came up to my shop, partly because I volunteered to make him a board and partly because he knew from my reputation as a board builder that I was the most qualified to do it. I began to make him a few wakeboards for kiting and then others started to take notice of the boards I was making and suddenly, it seemed, most of the top riders in the rapidly growing sport were coming to me to get my wakeboards.
I was also making directional kiteboards too but not in the numbers that I was making wakeboards. Over the past few years I've make the boards that some of the major manufacturers have molded for their production line, most notably Starboard and Wipika. I also do prototypes and plugs and team boards for 2 of the other big manufacturers.
Aloha,
Jimmy Lewis
我從1968年開始進行衝浪板設計。我的第一塊風浪板是在1978年為Mike Waltze and Mark Robinson 製作的。從1981年開始，我在Sailboards Maui替Fred Haywood 和Mike Waltze工作。在那裡我參與了第一塊”Sinker”短板的設計。我們主要從事Wave板的設計，但是世界知名的Arnaud de Rosnay要求我們特別替他發展一種直線加速的浪板，好去參加英國的Weymouth當地的競速賽。
在1982年時，Pascal Maka 拿了一塊我之前為Weymouth做的wave板去比賽，結果以27.82節的成績破了風浪板的世界紀錄。Pascal的成功引起了Fred Haywood的興趣，於是在1983年他要我替他做了兩塊”speed board”的浪板。結果又以30.82的成績破了世界紀錄。
在那一次比賽中，Robert Teritehau向Fred 買了他其中一塊浪板，結果他用了我設計的板型突破了他個人的最佳紀 錄兩節之多。當時Fred 是第一位風浪板選手突破30節的速度，水上運動也只有雙筒帆船(catamaran)選手Crossbow 36節的紀錄超過風浪板。三年後，四個風浪板選手用我的浪板超過Crossbow的紀錄。其中Pascal Maka 創下驚人的38.86節的紀錄，Eric Beale 36.73節，Fred Haywood 36.13節，我自己是36.31節。
那場比賽的前十名有八位使用Jimmy Lewis的浪板。這種狀況維持了數年。在幾年之內，Eric Beale 也用我設計的浪板以40.48節的世界紀錄突破40節大關。那段速度狂飆的年代，我仍然進行Wave和Slalom浪板的設計。
在90年代，我把設計的重心放在slalom。不過Roddy Lewis 還是在所謂的”開放水域”(不是在法國的”運河”測試水道) 創下44.51節的紀錄。自從在Maui夏天舉辦的Kanaha Race Series開始以來，越來越多的選手使用Jimmy Lewis的浪板包辦比賽的前三名。在各組的競賽中贏得冠軍的次數也比使用其 他的浪板的選手多。
五年前我替Laird Hamilton特製了一些浪板讓他跟他的風箏一起使用。那些板子基本上像是特大號 的滑水板。幾年後，這位風浪板選手變成了風箏衝浪選手來找我 。他找我一部分因為我自願替他製作浪板，一部分是因為我製作浪板的 名聲讓他覺得足堪大任。我開始替他製作浪板之後，其他選手開始注意 到這種浪板。於是一些頂尖選手也來找我替他們製作類似的雙向浪板(前後都可以跑的那種)。
我也製作一些單向的風箏衝浪浪板，不過不像雙向的那麼多 。在這幾年間，Starboard 和Wipika也把一些我的設計稍作修改後放到他們的生產線裡。我也曾經利另外兩 家大製造商製作原型，鎖孔，和選手專屬浪板。
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