Invention of Windsurfing on Hayling Island

1958

In 1958, a twelve-year-old boy named Peter Chilvers fitted a sail to a board and sailed it on the waters off Hayling Island, creating what is widely recognised as the first windsurfer. Chilvers' invention predated the better-known American patent by Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake by over a decade, and a British court later upheld Chilvers' claim to have originated the concept. The invention of windsurfing on Hayling Island is one of the most celebrated facts of the island's history, and it established a connection between Hayling and watersports that continues to this day. The island's beaches and the waters of Langstone and Chichester Harbours provide ideal conditions for windsurfing, and Hayling is now a major centre for the sport and its offshoot, kitesurfing.