Windsurfer

Now that 2016's jetting toward a close, we've gone back through our coverage to bring you our very favorite water toys in a list that includes multifunctional jet drives, floating multi-person lounges, folding and inflatable watercraft, deep-diving personal submarines and more.

Whether you're a high-speed thrill seeker or absolute beginner, windsurfing is a solo sport, but an Australian team is working on a fresh new design which changes that. The Wave Chaser is a twin-rig planing hull catamaran for two.

Two German companies have teamed up to create an inflatable windsurfing set-up called the Arrows iRig One. This all-in-one board sail packs small and light, inflates quickly and puts the power of weather into your board.

In 2012, we watched the sailing speed record world explode, with a raft of world records coming out of that year's Lüderitz Speed Challenge and surrounding Namibian waters. This year's event saw one of those big 2012 records fall.

Over the years, various skateboard manufacturers have designed boards intended to simulate the feel of surfing. One of the latest, the Deska Board, sets out to do so via a low, wide deck and three smooth-rolling 200-mm wheels, plus it even has an input for a user-supplied windsurf sail.

The Vaavud smartphone wind meter contains no electronics.

The outright world speed sailing record was smashed this afternoon (November 24) by Paul Larsen in the Vestas Sailrocket 2 with the astonishing time of 65.45 knots (75 mph - 121 km/h)