Our Company Founder
It all started in April 1987 with a passion for windsurfing.
Peter Nisbet, founder of Windwave, was an avid high-performance windsurfer. Equipment available in the UK at that time didn't survive in extreme conditions. Basing his designs on products bought back from Hawaii, Peter came up with a range of 'bullet-proof' parts including a design for a quick-release base which was the toughest on the market at the time. By cutting, swaging and bending tube himself, and subcontracting machined parts locally, a range was born.
As a young start-up, he relied on a third-party distributor to sell the product around the country; but when his designs sold like wildfire, Peter decided to bring the distribution of the product back in-house. The range expanded rapidly to include booms, masts, harnesses amongst others and an in-house produced range of dinghy tillers and extensions. A distribution network was set up in France, Belgium, Holland and Spain and the business grew.
When the windsurfing industry started losing momentum in the 90s, the cycling industry started picking up mainstream interest with the rise of off-road mountain biking.
Peter noticed that shift among his customers and reached out to Club Roost, an up-and-coming parts manufacturer from California to strike up a distribution deal in 1991.
The investment was worth it as the first lot sold through in days, and Windwave's move to cycling was born. Shortly after in 1992, Peter introduced a young brand called FSA to the UK. 35 years on and FSA is still one of Windwave's strongest brands, and Windwave one of FSA's longest serving and biggest distributors.