You drive by the river or the coast and see those windsurfers flying along, their colorful sails glistening in the sun and mixing it with the wind and the waves. Sounds good, doesn’t it? If you take the right approach to learning to windsurf, mastering the basics before venturing out with the big guys, then you can soon be the object of others’ envy. This article gives you step-by-step ideas for the first few months of your windsurfing career.
“I want to be able to windsurf.” Making this kind of statement is a good start, but there’s quite a lot of work between an utterance and an accomplishment. Like many rewarding activities, this one requires a patient start. From practicing standing on the board, to small, slow movements and then, as you get more skilled, to making various turns and picking up speed, and buying your own equipment, this article will give you useful hints on how to turn a wish into many enjoyable weekends out on the water.
Start with Basics and Lessons
Start with lessons, start with a big, borrowed beginners’ board – or your start will probably soon be followed by a frustrating end. Your first hours or days of windsurfing will involve a lot of “practice makes perfect” kind of talk, and you might sometimes think there is no chance you’ll ever be able to do it properly. But you have to crawl before you can walk, and in windsurfing, crawling is simply standing on the board – most likely, while somebody else is holding it steady.
Find a coach to give you a couple of lessons early on, both to help you get a feel for the board and sail and to make sure you don’t pick up incorrect habits right from the beginning. While your coach (or an expert friend, if you think the relationship will survive a few training sessions) holds the board steady, practice getting your balance, moving around, and then rocking the board side to side. The next step is to learn how to pull the sail up out of the water without falling backwards.
Once the sail is up and your gear is beginning to look like a windsurfer, grab the upright mast with both hands – not the boom, which spans the width of the sail – this will come later. Holding the mast means the sail will catch just a little wind, which is preferable at this stage, so you don’t go flying out of control. Leaning the mast forwards and backwards will help you turn into or away from the wind as you putt along gradually (and most importantly, under control!). Right now, turning around entirely can only be done by jumping off (make sure you stick to shallow water at the beginning), turning the board around and getting back up again – but don’t worry, this phase won’t last forever.