After being the shaper for many world champions Peter Thommen now dedicates his life to make boards that work for the average windsurf aficionado. Mark Thoms, Peter’s partner in T1, has a clear vision and the ‘fingerspitzen’ feeling of your needs. It is our mission, yes even our pledge, to let you squeeze every drop of fun out of your time on the water. Making each ride one to remember, anything to get you through the working week. Yes, a big promise but no hollow words. Our user-friendly concepts like the ‘Gleitwunder’ and ‘4WD’ are all the proof needed. These two allrounders redefined effortless planing and coupled it with superb high-wind control and the sweetest jibing ever experienced in modern funboard sailing.

HOW IT ALL STARTED – Peter & Mark’s connection goes back to the fun & function days. Peter Thommen being the star shaper for some of the most legendary professionals ever and Mark Thoms the Benelux distributor and member of the international brand management team. After the takeover by a Swiss coffee & chocolate giant both could no longer find themselves in the new corporate plans and parted ways with the Austrian company – founding T1 (Thommen1) in 2003. The kickoff was with a genius compact range of silver metallic boards called the ‘X-series’. With 10 liter increments it ranged from 65 to 145 liters, where a small board was a waver and a big board a freerider – anything in between a mix of both. Our ‘One Man. One Board.’ Concept became an instant success, hugely welcomed by many former fans of the Austrian board brand.

HOW IT WENT – The brand skyrocketed, and we welcomed two legendary windsurfers and longtime friends on board – the notorious E11 and H24. Björn would win the 2005 slalom world title on our newly launched RS boards and Peter rocked the boarder-cross on our X-series 95 and 105. Unfortunately, our Swiss manufacturer in Tunisia didn’t deliver the quality we paid for. We ended up losing a lot of money on warranties. Forced to reorganize our operation, we could no longer support these two superstars, and took our chances moving production to China only to find out that there’re problems and inconsistencies looming everywhere. Forced to put our mass production ambitions on ice, we went back to basics, focusing on offering custom-made boards only. Things turned around and demand was growing steadily, but after a few seasons we found ourselves in the backseats again with our Slovenian partner reducing its OEM-capacity. We decided to take control and set up our own facilities. We admit that was harder than we thought, in terms of both logistics and efficiency. We stopped our undertakings in Scheveningen and Thessaloniki and we’ve now moved all our board-building to Thailand. Cobra International, already the manufacturer of our Ride and Glide production boards, not only embraced our Thommen semi-custom project but, moreover, welcomed Peter by offering him workshop-usage in their facilities to keep building custom dreams for those who want the real deal.