NIK BAKER
Some say he once tried to bulldoze JC’s house after a feature called Toy Story in Windsurf back in 1998 and that Robby Naish let his tyres down the first time he lost to him at Diamond Head. Some say that he once stared at a box of orange juice for an hour because on it was the word concentrate! Some say he shaves with a chainsaw and he can use his ears to fly. All we know is that during his professional career Nik Baker re wrote the record books as far as achievements in British Windsurfing are concerned. Beating Robby Naish in the final of an Aloha classic back in 1999; that was the stuff that dreams are made of, even if it meant Robby was in a terrible huff for the next six months. As for Indoor Windsurfing, Baker is King and blew the competition away at pretty much every event around Europe while the scene was in fashion. After twenty years on the PWA world tour, racing, freestyling, supercrossing and wave sailing, all to the very highest level, Baker has switched to being the UK Fanatic distributor which he runs with all his usual professionalism, drive and energy. He still sails at ‘Shorekipa’ whenever it’s firing and there is barely a weekend during the summer he isn’t out on the road at a demo or helping promote windsurfing in any way he can!
PETER HART
Some say after his illness a few years ago he came out of hospital with new hydraulic legs and that in the autumn his arms go brown and fall off! Some might say he has a secret vault buried below his house full of twenty years worth of articles on how to Gybe. Some even say he once got the ‘shanks’ when playing Carter at golf in Maui and later in the same year was beaten by JC’s short game tactics in the Tiree table tennis championships. Jokes aside, according to his web site he has been voted as the third most influential windsurfer in the world, whilst also being elected onto the ‘windsurfing hall of fame’. Since 1990 Harty has been passing on his considerable knowledge via his coaching clinics and various media from beaches all over the UK and around the world. Punters signing up for a course with Peter Hart obviously want to learn from the wealth of his experience but just as importantly, Harty is a lovely character, funny, entertaining, full of words of wisdom and always has a story to tell. Peter has been a contributor to Windsurf magazine since 1983 and that alone deserves an OBE in itself.