In this blog, Brandwave Founder Daniel Macaulay looks back on his recent involvement in the creation of Windsurfer Magazine – a new global coffee-table print publication designed to give windsurfing a fresh, credible voice, and shaped by the same passion that has been part of his life for more than thirty years…
Windsurfer Magazine: A New Beginning for a Sport That Deserves More
Unlike most businesses, Windsurfer Magazine didn’t start with a business plan or a commercial agenda. It began with a shared belief among a close group of friends that windsurfing deserves a print publication that accurately reflects the unique beauty, dynamism, depth and energy of the sport.
We collectively felt that that voice had been increasing missing in print for some years, and as our early conversations developed, one thing became clear: if no one else was going to build a magazine worthy of the sport we love, then it was down to us to do it. Simply put, we wanted to build a print magazine unlike anything that had come before – a genuine love letter to what we believe is the greatest sport on earth.
This is how a small group of windsurfing obsessed friends, all shaped profoundly by the same sport, came together to revive windsurfing print media with a completely new vision and purpose…
Why Windsurfing Needed Its Voice Back
My own connection to windsurfing goes back to the late 80s. That first planing moment in Oysterhaven – stepping onto a board, pumping the sail, feeling it lift and accelerate – changed everything for me. From then on, the sport wasn’t a hobby; it became part of how I think, work and see the world. Windsurfing shaped my confidence, my community and ultimately my career. I grew up wearing out VHS tapes like RIP and Instant Replay and poring over the old print magazines until the pages were dogeared.
Everyone on the Windsurfer team shares their own version of this story. The details may differ, but the underlying pull was the same. And that shared, lifelong connection made the absence of windsurfing print media feel significant – like a space in the sport that had never been properly filled and now, was gone altogether.
Where Windsurfing Magazines Lost Their Way – And Why They Still Matter
By the time the last English-speaking windsurfing magazine shut shop, the flaws in the old model were obvious. Much of the content had barely moved on for decades: predictable technique pages, repetitive gear tests, event write-ups that offered little beyond what people had already seen online, copy/paste mission trips, and blatant advertorial where real journalism should have been. Print wasn’t keeping up, and even dedicated windsurfers naturally drifted elsewhere.
Yet despite all this, print still offers something digital simply can’t. It has presence. It slows you down. It gives imagery and storytelling the space and permanence they deserve. Windsurfing is a sport defined by atmosphere and emotion – the sort of depth that benefits from a tangible medium you can hold, revisit and keep.
We weren’t interested in recreating what once existed. We wanted to build something that proved that in a largely digital world, windsurfing and print is more relevant than ever and can still matter.
The Team Behind the Magazine
Windsurfer Magazine only became possible because a group of people with different strengths – but the same deep-rooted passion – decided the sport deserved better.
Ollie was the instigator. He recognised the cultural void left by the loss of print and believed strongly in creating something ambitious and enduring. He also took the financial leap with the initial investment needed to move the project from an idea to a reality.
Tris brought the editorial grounding. With decades spent coaching, testing and building windsurfing communities, he brought clarity, integrity and a clear vision for the tone and depth the magazine required.
Lucas created the visual identity. With one foot in the professional windsurfing world and the other firmly in design, he shaped an aesthetic that feels modern, edgy, confident and rooted in the sport’s heritage.
Together with my own background and experience at Brandwave, each of us contributed something essential. Together with a wider group of core windsurfers helping deliver digital and production, the team formed a single purpose: to give windsurfing the publication it deserves.
What We Set Out to Create
From the very beginning, we committed to building something fundamentally different: a 200-page biannual journal crafted with intent, centred on stories of people, culture, history and innovation. Every detail is rooted in authenticity, with no disguised advertising, no filler, and no recycled surf-trip story templates long past their sell-by date.
Photography and journalism are presented in a way that genuinely does justice to the sport we love, creating something designed to be kept, shared and returned to, not skimmed once and forgotten.
The Journey to Issue One
Turning the idea into a physical magazine required commitment from everyone involved. Many long days, late nights, design revisions, editorial decisions and the usual plethora of complications that come with making something with global reach from scratch. But with every step forward, the purpose behind the project became clearer.
When Volume One finally landed – printed, bound and in hand – it confirmed what we’d collectively believed and dreamed of from the start: windsurfing deserves a publication of this calibre.
A New Chapter for the Sport
Windsurfer Magazine isn’t just another print publication. It’s a statement of identity and a recognition that windsurfing’s past, present and future deserve to be documented properly.
It exists because a team of windsurfing friends believed the sport needed something better. It exists because Ollie had the courage to back the idea. And it exists because windsurfing has shaped each of us in ways that can’t be measured by anything other than experience.
Windsurfer Magazine has now been shipped to over 30 countries around the world. Issue One is only the beginning. As we move forward, our aim is simple: to honour the sport’s unique history and heritage, to inspire the next generation of windsurfers, and to give windsurfing the platform it truly deserves.
Be Part of the Journey
Subscribe to Windsurfer Magazine to receive future issues as soon as they launch and to help sustain independent print created by people who genuinely love the sport subscribe to Windsurfer Magazine here
Follow Windsurfer Magazine on social media for updates, behind-the-scenes stories and everything that comes next follow us here
Photos: JC Windsurf
