Boyd Wonder

Ian and Kelby. Photo Erik Aeder

Ian styling on the Stars and Stripes. Photo me.

Ian's drawing of going to Maui and jumping waves.

Robby chasing Ian.

​In my movie, Wind Legends, there were a few I regret leaving out, and one of those few was the Boyd Wonder. Part of the reason for is omission is that he really didn’t work with me much or at all, so I didn’t have the footage to tell the story. The scene of course, was Ho’okipa. Every cameraperson had their clan they worked with, and I worked more with the Neil Pryde, Simmer and Gaastra riders. I missed out on 40 covers.
 
Why that was I can’t recall, but the larger reason was his sudden disappearance from “the scene,” opting to be King of Jalama on the wild Cali coast. At the top of his game, he went to school. I’m not sure which one. But he took his experience performing in front of a camera, and worked his way behind it. He started his own San Francisco-based interactive design studio, Cosmic Planet, which later morphed into video production agency, Reel Fresh, Inc. As head of both these content agencies, Boyd worked with a number of colorful brands and high-profile clients such as Red Bull, GoPro and Lego. Lego my ego.
 
I believe Ian’s working as content director for a big ad agency now, but who knows. He’s somewhere not called bum city. The point is, he traded in brief fame of athletic fortune for a life after windsurfing. Look at many of the other guys who’ve failed to achieve such.
 
The first time I met Ian was at the Hang Ten World Cup in Cabrillo Beach, CA. It was 1982 and I drew him in my wave heat. He was just this little kid, maybe 12? Could barely reach the booms. It was fortunately the only time I would draw him in a heat, mostly because I would rarely advance that far.
 
When he arrived at Ho’okipa the following year, he was (I believe) fostered by the Wetters or one of the Kihei Kids families. Kelby became his sister mom figure, or was it den mother? Anyway, the bunch of them were inseparable, and Ian started going off (performance wise, in the waves). According to Dan Cohen, he would go on to win the O’neill Invitational, which during Robby and Mike’s reign, was an extremely hard thing to do. 
 
I’m not sure why Ian sailed naked that infamous day or any other. I’m not going to lower to any shrinkage jokes but the water at Jalama Beach is definitely colder than a George Castanza pool party.  Perhaps he was trying to keep everyone off his wave or at least throw their timing off while he snaked it. Wow, should not have gone there, either. Perhaps he just left his suit at home or lost a bet; I don’t care if I’ll ever know. Let it be one of the greater windsurfing mysteries of our time. Okay, there it is, a photo shoot for a manufacturer by the famous Glenn Dubock. 
 
Now, Ian has come full circle and has just taken ownership of a new Windsurfer LT. Hopefully the other sailors in Cali, where the “sport” of windsurfing began, you know, the Class, just so I don’t get any arguments off topic… will take a look at Ian and want to jump on the bandwagon. It’s a pretty small wagon at this time, but it was really small in 1968. It just take a few of the right good people to pump up the volume.

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