Name: Robert Staunton Naish
Date of Birth: April 23, 1963
Place of Birth: La Jolla (San Diego), California, USA
Moved to Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii in 1968
Sports: Windsurfing, Kiteboarding, Stand-Up Paddling
Partners: Quiksilver (clothing, wetsuits, eyewear, shoes), Red Bull
Favorite Spots:
• Ho’okipa and Jaws/Peahi, Maui
• Backyards and Diamond Head, Oahu
• Namotu Left and Cloudbreak, Fiji
Philosophy of Life: Life’s what you make it…. And Every Day on the Water is a Good Day!
Robby Naish is widely acknowledged as the greatest windsurfer of all time. He shocked the sport by winning his first world championship title aged just 13 in 1976 and then proceeded to win another 23 world titles over the next 16 years. The best-known name in the sport, Naish is acclaimed as the ‘Legend of Windsurfing.’
He has written two books on the sport while his three windsurfing videos are regarded as classics of their kind.
Naish, who began surfing and sailing in his early years and then started windsurfing at the age of 11, won his first windsurfing world title in the Bahamas to become the youngest world title-holder in the history of the sport at age 13. He successfully defended his crown the following year in Sardinia, Italy and made it a hat trick of world titles when he triumphed again in Cancun, Mexico in 1978, and again in Florida in 1979. For the following decade, he dominated windsurfing competitions worldwide, traveling extensively and competing in more than 20 countries each year on the professional tour.
An excellent slalom and course racer, his Hawaiian upbringing from the age of five has provided him with a special affinity and talent for wave riding. He made a clean sweep of all four titles in the inaugural Pro World Tour in 1983 - clinching the overall, the wave riding, the slalom and course racing championships - and repeated the feat in 1984.
Over his windsurfing career, Robby earned himself a total of 24 world championship titles and over 150 event victories.
In 1995 Robby founded Naish Sails Hawaii, a company designing and manufacturing windsurfing equipment, which is sold world wide under the Naish brand. In the late ‘90’s Robby was a pioneer in the new sport of kiteboarding, a discipline in which he won the slalom world title in 1998. The following year, he won the kiteboarding world titles in both slalom and jumping. The Naish brand quickly became a world leader in the development of kitesurfing equipment.
In 2006 Robby was again influential in the growth of the new sport of stand up paddle surfing, and again the Naish brand has been at the forefront of the development of SUP equipment. Today Naish is the premier stand up paddle brand in the world and offers the most complete range of stand up paddle boards on the market.
Robby remains incredibly active in all three sports: windsurfing, kitesurfing and SUP. Today his time is spent between constant equipment development and testing, promotional events and traveling the world in search of wind and waves. His name has become synonymous with boardriding, and Robby is recognized over the world as one of the great watermen of our time. He is the father of 2 girls (as well as a proud grandfather), Nani (31) and Christina (6) and lives in Haiku, Maui with his wife Katie and daughter Christina. Although his passion still lies on the water, Robby does have a life long affection for cars and owns an assortment of vehicles old and new, including several Porsches. He speaks German, loves spicy food and although a very successful businessman, he lives life with a casual, youthful and playful attitude.
www.naishsails.com
www.naishsurfing.com
www.naishkites.com
www.facebook.com/RobbyNaishUS1111
Instagram: robbynaishus1111
