NEW KIT // Ezzy Wave Sail

The new EZZY WAVE sail
by Graham Ezzy

My life is between Hawaii and Europe. Maui is my home, and Ho’okipa my homespot, but in the summers, I’m based in Germany with my wife and I compete on the world tour, which mainly takes place in the Canary Islands. I often drive up to the North Sea when the low pressure systems blow waves to Europe. In each of these locations, I windsurf in wildly different seas. Ho’okipa is down the line—pure wave sailing. The Canary Islands have strong onshore winds and small waves. The conditions on the North Sea can feature any kind of wind and waves; but the currents are always strong and the shorebreak often relentless. This variety of sailing conditions inspired the Ezzy Wave.

Before the Ezzy Wave, I used the Elites on Maui and the Zetas in Europe. I liked the light-weight maneuverability of the Elite for Maui’s powerful waves and offshore winds, but I wanted the get-up-and-go of the Zeta to power through the currents and onshore conditions of Northern Europe.

I dreamed of one sail that I could use everywhere around the world, so David and I started to imagine what that sail would look like. After a series of prototypes, we came to what is now the Ezzy Wave. The biggest change was departing from the PVC window that had been in all Ezzy wave sails for the last 20 years. The PVC window served an important purpose—providing strength and carefully placed stretch. But with the evolution of our sails and our materials, we realized that the PVC was simply no longer needed. Removing the PVC reduced the weights massively and allowed us a a slightly different profile. We also changed the clew construction to be both lighter and stronger—you really feel this reduction because the clew influences the swing weight of the whole rig. The Ezzy Wave represents the accumulation of everything we learned in the last decade about making wave sails—in terms of shape, construction, and material choices.

The final prototype that became the Ezzy Wave surprised us all. It was better than anything we could have expected. The Ezzy Wave was so much better than my old sails that I felt like I had new boards, even though the boards were the same. I was going faster and I had more control in everything I did. These sails were so much lighter compared to the Elite that I felt like time was going slower in the wave rides because I was able to react more quickly. When a gust hit, the sail simply accelerated without feeling heavy in the hands as it filled up with wind. And on top of everything, the sail had more wind range on both the top and the bottom end. I was in the love.

But the real test of the Ezzy Wave was when I took that same sail to Europe for the final testing. Maui’s consistent winds are great for continuous R&D, but nowhere can replicate the currents and onshore conditions of Northern Europe. I drove up to Denmark with the 5.0 prototype, and the conditions were typical—side-onshore winds and head high waves. I stepped on the sail and was planing right off the beach and over the white waters—flying.

Fast forward to now, the Ezzy Wave is in production as the lightest Ezzy sail ever built—with the same attention to detail, durability, and quality that Ezzy customers demand.