Hoyle Schweitzer, Who Brought Windsurfing to the Masses, Dies at 93

Hoyle Schweitzer, a surfer and sailor who turned a garage experiment into a global sport when he and a friend, Jim Drake, developed the Windsurfer, a sailboard that made it possible to glide across lakes and choppy seas, died on May 31 in San Marcos, Calif.He was 93.The death, at a care facility, was confirmed by his daughter-in-law Shawneen Schweitzer.Mr.

Schweitzer, who worked in the nascent computer industry, and Mr.Drake, a sailor and aeronautical engineer, patented the design for what became the Windsurfer in 1970.

Working out of Mr.Drake’s garage, they created a board that had an asymmetrical sail and a hand-held wishbone boom, allowing riders to skim — or even race — across waters that were either too placid or too turbulent for conventional surfing.

A universal joint made it easy to drop the sail and haul it back up.Mr.Schweitzer and Mr.

Drake called their creation the SK8 and the Baja Board before settling on the name Windsurfer.Their sailboard, which was cheaper and more portable than most sailboats, made the water accessible to more people.It turned the smooth surface of a lake into an exhilarating place for racing and allowed surfers to ride on windy days when the ocean was rough and waves were unpredictable.Surfers found it useful as a training tool, helping them tackle previously unapproachable waves.

“Windsurfing really helped me when I started towing in giant surf,” Laird Hamilton, a celebrated big-wave surfer, said in “Broken Molds,” a 2021 documentary.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....