I had a request for a late afternoon windsurf lesson. I put the flags up and Nadia and Rob brought over Kianna and Sarah who were keen to try windsurfing for the first time. While I started lessons on the simulator, Rob went out on the 6.2 and the old LeBoard. He was a superstar again, with his muscle memory from 25 years ago letting him sail out and back easily.
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| Rob’s got the hang of it again! |
Kianna did well with the 4.2 on the simulator, listening to all the steps (uphaul, neutral, hand on mast, straighten front arm and pull with two fingers.) She had great form with a combination of snowboarding skill and comments like “it looks like archery”.
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| Perfect control on the simulator |
Sarah was on the 3.5 and I had an interesting teaching moment. We started off on the “goofy” side of the board, and she just couldn’t get the hang of sheeting in without turning upwind. Somehow leaning forward on her right leg didn’t work. It hadn’t occurred to me that there would be a “better” direction to start a beginner. I had her try a tack on the simulator and then start in “regular” stance direction. She extended her front arm, sheeted in with the 2 back fingers and... perfect. After a simulator tack she was then able to get going in the other direction - which had been impossible 5 minutes prior. A big learning moment for me.
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| Much easier in regular stance! |
I put Kianna on the Viper 80 and towed her upwind. She uphauled, went to neutral, grabbed the mast and sheeted in. So fun to see the smile when someone gets going for the first time. I headed back to get Sarah going.
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Moving along nicely
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I took a risk and put Sarah on the small BIC Veloce 328 and it was perfect for her with the 3.5. She got going without falling, and sailed until she was close to shore and I talked her through her first tack from a distance and she made it. Even the neighbours were cheering her on. She did great going back and forth. I think she may have fallen in once?
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Getting started
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Great smile
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| Perfect form! |
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| Heading back to the cheering crowd at the point |
Kianna started getting tired and I towed her back near the point and she sailed back to shore. So nice to see her tired happy face when I got closer to shore with Sarah and she sailed in as well. I got lots of photos on this nice warm sunny day. And I’ll count it as session 43, as I did get out on the water myself, even if it was just a few minutes.
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| Sailing back into shore |
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| Thumbs up from the instructor on the SeaDoo |
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My track before the students arrived
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