Technique

Any sport, particularly ‘extreme’ sports have a fair amount of supposed barriers to learning. People often watch such sports giving comments like ‘oh, I would love to do that but it looks too difficult for me’ or ‘I wouldn’t know where to start with learning’. This little post will blow away 10 myths about learning how to windsurf!

Over the years you hear a lot of supposed barriers to learning how to windsurf from people who are not sure if the sport is something for them, even though they would really love to give it a try. The following are 10 of the most commonly repeated myths, along with an explanation as to why they ever came to be & what the real deal is about them!

10 Myths About Learning How To Windsurf

1. Windsurfing is difficult to learn
This is probably the No 1 reason people get put off giving the sport a go & the myth came about because windsurfing did used to be difficult! The design of the kit just wasn’t up to scratch back in the 80′s/90′s, with domed, slippery decks on the boards & big heavy sails with no real shape.

The good news is that in the last 10 years there have been massive leaps forwards in the design of windsurfing kit, making learning really easy. The boards have much more stability, with a fatter/shorter shape to make balance easy & control a lot more straight forwards. The decks have all over EVA foam grip to both give much needed grip & to protect your shins from any scrapes when learning how to get on the board. The sails, mast & booms have all been made a lot lighter which helps beginners get to grips with the equipment.

2. There is no need to take any lessons, just learn from a friend
No, no, no. The worst thing you can do is to ‘just give it a go’. Windsurfing is a technical sport with a lot going on all at once, balance on the board, control of the sail, reading the wind, etc. It’s not that it has to be difficult but you do really need a few basic pointers before even heading out on the water so that you know exactly what you are trying to do & have even been up on a dry land simulator where an instructor can coach you through getting into the basic positions that you will need to repeat out on the water.

A little help with a lesson at a windsurf school makes a massive difference to your learning curve & overall enjoyment of the sport from day one. So often, we see well meaning relatives/friends trying to give someone pointers out on the water and all it end in is big frustration for both the wannabe instructor & the poor learner!

3. Windsurfing is expensive
Well yes the kit does cost a fair bit, I’ll give you that but no more than when you look at something like mountain biking or golf! As a beginner cost really doesn’t have to come into the equation. You take beginners windsurfing lessons then just rent equipment for some time to practice what you have been shown & use this rental time to move down through the size boards & up in sail sizes. It makes much more sense to do your progression on windsurf rental kit rather than buy a beginners setup only to sell it 3 months later at a big loss, once you need to move onto slightly more intermediate kit.

One thing to be careful of when using rental kit is that you go with a windsurf school that has quality, up to date & light weight equipment. Windsurfing is a lot about learning technique but also the quality of the equipment you are using can make or break the speed at which you progress.

4. Windsurfing is not cool
Yes during the 80′s/90′s windsurfing may have taken a bit of a back seat in the coolness department, particularly to kite boarding. Now though, just like skiing verses snowboarding things are going full circle and with the development of the kit has come the invention of high speed windsurf freestyle, taking the sport to a whole new level of coolness!

The Four Dimensions – Showcasing How Windsurfing Is Back On Top!

5. Windsurfing is a sport for the older generation
This point kind of ties in with the ‘not cool’ label of the last myth. For the same reasons; massive technical development of the kit leading to the crazy high wind freestyle & wave sailing possibilities windsurfing is definitely not just for the more senior of us!

6. Windsurfing is just for the fit & young
With all the images & video clips of the latest & greatest freestyle/wave moves windsurfing can actually now sometimes be seen as just a young persons sport. The great thing about windsurfing is that it is not an all or nothing extreme sport. You can participate at whatever level you want. Also, there is always something new to learn no matter how good you think you are, so you will never get bored!

7. It is hard work to pull a sail from the water
This is a classic myth about windsurfing that just isn’t true provided you go about learning in the correct way, i.e. take a beginners windsurfing course & use modern lightweight equipment. The only reasons this myth came about is because of people learning from friends who have the wrong type of sail (too big/heavy), learning at a windsurf school with old/heavy equipment or not learning the correct technique for pulling the sail from the water!

A great free top tip for pulling a windsurf sail from the water is to lift using your leg muscles and not your back. You need to squat way down low on the board with a good, solid shoulder width stance then push slowly through your strong leg muscles & keep your back straight. Your hands stay still on the uphaul rope, not moving until you have the sail almost up & have let the water drain from it. This way the strain is taken by your strong leg muscles and not your weaker back muscles.

8. It hurts to fall off the board
At the beginner to intermediate stages of windsurfing you really are not going to get anything worse than a few knocks. The video clips you see of people catapulting over the front of the board & exploding into the water are at a much more advanced level & even then usually only happen because they have not been taught good technique, being self taught rather than taking advanced windsurf lessons to help them fine tune their skills. Even the high speed crashes usually don’t result in anything other than getting winded or bashed against the sail. Windsurf crashes always look worse than they are!

9. You need to be a strong swimmer
Well, that all depends on where you learn how to windsurf! If you try to learn on the open seas then its going to be tough, with waves and deep water to contend with. Lakes are better but still mean you will be putting in a lot of effort getting on the board after every fall, as you will be quickly out of your depth. Also lakes tend to have freezing cold (deep) water & very gusty winds due to surrounding trees/buildings.

The best place to learn is somewhere like Poole Harbour, which is a semi protected bay on 3 sides, with prevailing onshore winds pushing you back to safety & shallow water in which you can easily stand up. When you fall in, just take a breather then easily climb back on the board from a standing position – perfect windsurfing conditions, it really doesn’t get any better than this!

10. You need to learn with a friend
It is always nice to take up a new sport with someone you know but it really isn’t a necessity if your family/friends don’t want to give it a go. Taking beginner windsurfing lessons in a small group environment means you will be learning with other like minded people that are in exactly the same situation as you. Everyone helps encourage each other & its ok because you are not the only one falling in! After your beginners windsurfing course, you can join a windsurf club to continue your learning, its a great way to socialise and unwind after work.

So, there you have it 10 myths about learning how to windsurf. As you can see its nowhere near as bad as some would have you believe and once hooked you will have years of happy windsurfing ahead of you!

In this final installment of our how to windsurf guide, we want to give you a clear breakdown of the 5 skills that you will be learning on your beginners windsurfing lessons. These steps are essential learning blocks and should be included as part of any good windsurfing schools syllabus for simulator work & on water training during a beginners windsurfing course.

Assuming you have your overall plan of action clear in your mind from reading our How To Windsurf Guide – Part 2 lets get down to the essentials that any beginner windsurfer needs to know…

1. Naming the various parts of a windsurf board & sail – It’s no good if your instructor is telling you to put one hand on the mast & the other on the boom if you don’t know what these things are! A quick tour of the windsurf board & sail should be the first thing you cover on your beginners windsurf course.

Looking at the board, you have have to know the front form the back (otherwise you may end up windsurfing backwards!). The front is more rounded & the back more squared off. The three parts that fit to a board are called the daggerboard, fin & universal joint (UJ for short). The daggerboard stops sideways drift (the curse of all those learning how to windsurf!) and gives much needed stability! The fin keeps you moving in a straight line & the UJ is the missing link between board & sail, basically the magic piece of kit that allows windsurfing to happen.

The sail or more correctly the ‘rig’ is a combination of the sail itself, a boom (which you hold onto) and a mast (which is the pole that runs up the front sleeve of the sail). With these three bits of kit, some ropes & a little knowledge of how to rig a windsurf sail correctly, you can be setup & ready to go in under 5 minutes from having rocked up at the beach!

2. The Start Position – The very first thing you have to master in windsurfing is how to get yourself up on the board and in a balance position from which you can get moving. Easier said than done! Key points here are to understand the board has a centreline on which you must keep all your weight, using your stronger leg muscles rather than your back to pull the sail slowly from the water & creating an counter balance between the sail & your body.

It takes some practice & a few splashes but after a short period of time & the right conditions this start position should become second nature.

3. Static 180 Turn – You may think the next step in learning how to windsurf is to set sail into the sunset but what happens if you don’t know how to turn around & come back home? This is why the second skill to learn is actually how to turn yourself & the board around a full static 180 turn.

A simple explanation is that from your start position you lean the back end of the sail (called the clew end) down to try and touch the back of the board. This action will make the board start to rotate under your feet, at which point you must take small, controlled steps around the front of the board, making sure to stay very close to the centreline as explained earlier. Once the board has completed a full 180 degree turn and you are facing back to where you just came from (i.e. ‘home’) you adopt your start position once again, to stop the turning process & stabilise the board.

It takes some practice, mainly to master the balance involved with tip toeing around the front of the board but it is an essential skill that must be learnt early on in your windsurfing career.

4. The Sailing Position – Right, time to actually get windsurfing! You have been spinning round in circles practicing your static 180 degree turns & feel confident that that can get back home, so its time to master the all important step of getting from the start position and into a sailing position.

There is nothing for it here but to remember a set sequence of movements that will best get you from standing still to moving along on your board. First, check you are aiming across the wind, cross your front hand onto the boom, release your backhand from the mast, move your feet into an ‘L’ shape (back foot behind the daggerboard & front foot by the mast), draw the sail up to the ‘balance point’ & take power into the sail by pulling on the boom with back hand.

The above description is a good starting point but please note it is no substitute for taking tuition from a reputable windsurf school where you can practice the movements under supervision on a dry land simulator, gaining valuable muscle memory. You will also receive continued feedback & tips whilst out practicing on the water, particularly important as all thoughts seem to go out the window once you are actually out there trying to windsurf!

5. Steering – Often overlooked but very important, is the ability to steer around your fellow beginner windsurfers & avoid other stationary objects such as expensive yachts! The key to steering is to think in terms of ‘upwind’ and ‘downwind’, not left and right. Because you change sides every time you turn 180 on a windsurf board, so does your effective left & right!

To steer towards the wind you lean the clew end of your sail smoothly to the tail end of the board & to steer away from the wind you tilt the mast forwards/across the nose of the board. After each steering action you must return the sail to a neutral, upright position to straighten up your path.

When practiced under professional supervision, using modern equipment and in the right conditions you will have loads of fun & your progress through the basics of learning how to windsurf will be swift. After taking beginners windsurfing lessons you really should continue your good work by hiring windsurf equipment to consolidate your learning. The absolute best way to learn & progress is to intersperse lessons with your own practice time. You can be shown ‘how’ to do something over and over but you won’t ever really fully understand the movement without practicing it yourself.

So, that’s an overview of learning how to windsurf, from naming the various parts of the board and rig to actually getting to grips with the basic principles all beginner windsurfers need to know. In future posts on our Top Windsurfing Tips & News blog we will cover how to progress from beginner to improver windsurfing skills, detailing how to make your learning curve as smooth and enjoyable as possible!

Enjoy your windsurfing.

It’s that time of year when we all start to think about summer & what we can do to get out there and make the most of the great outdoors! Windsurfing is a fantastic way to exercise, socialise & have fun but to really enjoy the sport you need to follow these top 10 tips for learning how to windsurf…

1. Physical & Mental Preparation – Get your body & mind in shape before you even learn to windsurf. Even basic exercises such as squats will really help get your body prepared & a bit of visualisation will really make ALL the difference when learning a new sport. Watch some videos of people learning how to windsurf and then calm your mind and picture yourself going through the movement/skill you are trying to learn. By going through this process you are programming your muscles to do what they will need to do.

2. Don’t learn from family or friends – They mean well & its free for you but it always ends in frustration on both sides. The windsurf equipment is usually old or too advanced & the teaching skills a little questionable to say the least!

3. Use a windsurf school with a good reputation – A windsurf school with good instruction & up to date windsurf equipment will make a massive difference to your learning. If possible, find and read some testimonials from other satisfied windsurfing students who have been to the windsurf school you are thinking of using. Positive feedback from past windsurfing students is always a good sign that your chosen windsurfing school is doing a good job.

4. Take Windsurfing Lessons – taking lessons to be shown the actual step by step skills required to learn the basics of windsurfing, including uphauling, static 180 turns, sailing position, steering and if you are going to take a full beginners windsurfing course, how to windsurf upwind/tack & how to windsurf downwind/gybe. All these skills are very specific and detailed but if shown by an experienced instructor, you can learn them easily within the scope of a beginners windsurfing course. The money spent on taking proper windsurfing lessons is so worth it!

5. Stay Focused – When you are actually out windsurfing there are a lot of factors at play (the wind, balancing on the board, holding onto the sail) and it can take much trial and error to eventually figure out what is going. With some on-land muscle memory training, once you actually get out on the water your body will just go into auto pilot mode thanks to the repeated slow motion training you have been practicing over and over again on dry land.

At the Poole Windsurfing School we use a full motion on land windsurf simulator to get students practicing the exact same physical actions they will need to repeat once out on the water. Muscle memory training is an essential part of learning how to windsurf that everyone should practice if they want fast progression.

6. Set goals – As cheesy as it may be, setting achievable goals is a really good way to push your learning forwards to the next level. The goals you set have to be achievable otherwise the fun of learning just isn’t there anymore.

7. Structure your progress – Mixing your own practice time with further windsurfing lessons will quickly develop your skills. You should hire windsurfing equipment to consolidate what you have been taught then once you feel you have mastered those skills, take another lesson to learn the next stages of windsurfing.

8. Get knowledgeable before buying beginners windsurfing equipment – You can save yourself a lot of time, effort, money & disappointment by taking advice from those that know about windsurfing! Don’t get tempted by the first bargain buy you see on Ebay, rather take some time to educate yourself about windsurf equipment by reading articles such as ‘A Buyers Guide To Choosing Windsurfing Equipment‘ & ‘The Secrets to Choosing Beginners Windsurfing Equipment‘.

9. Learn How To Rig Your Windsurf Equipment Correctly – Windsurfing should be fun and the less time you spend trying to figure out how the various bits of kit fit together the better! It is particularly important to know how to rig a windsurf sail correctly. A properly tuned windsurf sail feels light, responsive & makes your windsurfing session much more fun! A badly rigged windsurf sail will feel heavy, sluggish & put a real downer on your windsurfing!

10. Learn with others – The whole learning process is made a lot more fun if you are experiencing it with other people. It doesn’t necessarily need to be with your partner or friends, as by taking lessons at a windsurf school, you will automatically be learning with others. Its a great way to keep things fun and you all learn from each others mistakes & successes!

There you have it, 10 tips to learn how to windsurf the easy way, from getting your body prepared before taking windsurfing lessons, how to progress your learning, though to getting help choosing beginners windsurfing equipment.

If you want some more in depth advice on how best to learn how to windsurf then you should check out our 3 part guide, the first of which can be found here How to Windsurf Guide – Part 1.

Why not sign up to our ‘Top Windsurfing Tips & News’ to automatically be sent Part 3 of the How To Windsurf Guide & other great windsurfing info automatically, as and when they are released?

Checkout this short movie from Estonian Team Slowride in Fuerteventura. Shot this summer, Estonian windsurfers Tony Mottus (JP / NeilPryde), Christofer Kalk (Fanatic / Gaastra / Maui Ultra Fins) and Sten Aava (JP / Severne) spent their summer windsurfing on the world famous island of Fuerteventura.

The movie has all the latest big freestyle moves including 900s, culos and air flakas but also some spectacular wipe outs that show just how much effort you have to put in to get this good at windsurf freestyle!

Remember, if you want to step into the world of windsurfing (or just help someone you know who loves the sport) we have just a few weeks left of our awesome 2 for 1 windsurfing lessons special offer.

Windsurfing should be fun and the less time you spend trying to figure out how the various bits of kit fit together the better! It is particularly important to know how to rig a windsurf sail correctly. A properly tuned windsurf sail feels light, responsive & makes your windsurfing session much more fun! A badly rigged windsurf sail will feel heavy, sluggish & put a real downer on your windsurfing!

When you break down the stages of rigging a windsurf sail it really isn’t that big a deal to get it right. The common misconception that it takes a lot of time & effort to setup windsurfing equipment is blown away when you know exactly what to do!

If you need to learn how to windsurf then click the link to read through our multi-part guide to windsurfing.

In the following video clip, legendary windsurf sail maker, Jason Diffin (of Goya Windsurfing) talks us through the correct steps of rigging a windsurf sail…

The above windsurf sail rigging demonstration is for Goya sails but the principles can be used for rigging any modern windsurf sail. Just follow the points step by step, making slight adjustments according to your specific sail manufacturers rigging instructions. All windsurf sail brands have a similar visual downhaul marker system at the top of the sail and give a range in cm for adjusting the outhaul.

You can always follow the rigging guide that is printed at the foot of all good windsurf sails, to know exactly what length mast to use, what length mast extension to use and what length to set your boom at. Good windsurf mast extensions & booms have an incremental numbering system, so all you do is read off the sails spec sheet to get the exact setting for the given sail.

How To Rig Your Windsurf Sail Correctly:
1. Lay out all the components and check you have everything with you!
2. Read the spec sheet, usually found at the foot of your sail or on the sail bag
3. Adjust your mast extension & boom to the specified lengths
4. Partially roll out your sail across the wind
5. Insert the mast into the luff tube of the sail
6. Insert the mast extension into the foot of the mast
7. Fasten the downhaul rope and adjust according the visual indicator at the top of your sail
8. Attach the boom & adjust outhaul according to the measurements indicated on the sail
9. Tighten the batten pockets just enough to remove vertical creases in the sail, either side of the battens

Job Done!

Now you will have a perfectly rigged windsurf sail that will feel light, responsive and make your windsurfing a lot more enjoyable. In total rigging to go windsurfing should take no more than 5 minutes, when you follow the above guide and get into a good rigging routine.

Happy Windsurfing.

A massive milestone in windsurfing wave riding is to tackle the famous wave of Peahi, known as Jaws! The top watermen of Hawaii see this as the monster of all waves and to ride it puts you up there with the elite of windsurfing. In this video you can follow some of windsurfing’s young guns, Conner Baxter, Kai Lenny and Graham Ezzy taking on Jaws for the first time….

As it says in the video, riding waves of this magnitude is all about team work. You definitely need the skills to pay the bills but also a backup team to help launch and be there to pick you up with a jet ski should it all go wrong!

Timing is everything not just with the actual windsurfing on the wave but also with the backup crew being in the right place at the right time. The young guys riding Peahi, Jaws in Hawaii are the future of windsurfing and should being pushing the sport to new levels over the coming years.

In this second part of our how to windsurf guide, we will take you through an exact plan of action that has over the years proven to work most effectively in taking someone who has never windsurfed and turning them into a proficient windsurfer in the least amount of time.

In our How To Windsurf Guide – Part 1 we gave you the basic steps to take before even getting out on the water, including physical physical preparation, mental preparation and focused training exercises. Read back over part 1 of our guide to windsurfing, to make your first windsurfing experience much smoother & more enjoyable.

Right, lets get down to the plan of action that has seen windsurfing students at the Poole Windsurfing School progress from complete beginner to competent advanced windsurfer (using the harness, planing, in both footstraps and starting to carve gybe) in just a few months…

1. Make your first step be taking windsurfing lessons – The point we touched on in part 1 of our how to windsurf guide, about taking windsurfing lessons, is really the starting point for your focused training. Without formal windsurfing lessons you could literally go years before you become half decent at the sport. Windsurfing is one of the best sports I know but due to the nature of its components you have to combine a lot of skills all at the same time to achieve results. There is the board balance, sail control and wind awareness which all have to be mastered and developed at the same time.

A good length for a full beginners windsurfing course is 2 lessons of 3 hours each. This will give enough tuition so that you are armed with the skills and knowledge necessary to then take things into your own hands for a while and practice what you have been taught with some supervised windsurf hire.

Make sure everything you will need is included in the price of your windsurfing lessons (tuition, equipment rental, wetsuit, buoyancy aid, wetsuit shoes). It is important to check the quality of service you will receive. Here is a little check list of what you should be getting with your windsurfing lessons:

a. Quality tuition from experienced windsurfing instructors
b. An on-land simulator session for the all essential muscle memory training
c. The latest windsurf equipment to make your learning easier
d. A Follow up program designed to help you progress with your windsurfing

If possible, find and read some testimonials from other satisfied windsurfing students who have been to the windsurf school you are thinking of using. Positive feedback from past windsurfing students is always a good sign that your chosen windsurfing school is doing a good job.

2. Fine tune your skills with supervised windsurf hire – Stay committed to your learning by signing up to a windsurf rental program designed to maximise your progression. The biggest mistake people make when learning any new sport is to loose focus after the initial experience. People often have every intention of continuing with their new found passion but never put in place a plan of action to continue their development. It is very easy to let things slip when you have a busy schedule, yet out of everything, sport & leisure is what we should always be prioritising – quality of life and all that!

A really good way to keep your focus after your initial beginners windsurfing course is to get yourself on a windsurf hire scheme, a 10 hour discounted hirecard will roughly give you the amount of ‘on-water’ time needed to consolidate your skills before moving on to an improvers windsurf course. Obviously the amount of time it takes to feel competent with the basics varies from person to person & also depends on your chosen windsurfing location and weather conditions but generally anywhere from 10 to 20 hours of ‘on-water’ time will give a really good foundation in windsurfing.

3. Push your learning to the next level with improver windsurf lessons – Its all very well getting past the basic steps of windsurfing but to really unlock the sports potential you need to top up your knowledge with some improvers windsurfing lessons.

Once the beginners windsurfing lessons and initial supervised hire time are under your belt its time to learn the intermediate stages of windsurfing. These intermediate windsurfing courses are best taken in 2 hour modules, where your instructor can focus on one or two essential skills (beach starts, harness, faster tack, gybes, stance, etc).

With focused training you can quickly master these improver windsurf skills, 2 hours of instruction mixed with supervised hire time in-between to really get to grips with the new skills you have been shown. After an initial 2 hour lesson, practice is essential, don’t move on to another module until you are either happy with the skills or feel you need to go back for a refresher lesson on the same skills. There is absolutely no harm in taking a few lessons on one particular improver windsurf skill, such as beach starts, to make sure you really do have it mastered!

4. Continued training with more practice and lessons – In between each of your improver and subsequent advanced windsurfing lessons you should hire windsurfing equipment to consolidate your learning. Hiring windsurfing equipment also gives you a great opportunity to test out different size boards & sails, so that should you want to buy your own windsurfing kit at some point, you will have a fair idea of what suits your size & current ability level.

So, that’s an overview of how to plan your windsurfing training, maximising your progress and fun! In our How To Windsurf Guide – Part 3 we will give some top tips for learning the basics of windsurfing, including getting into the start position, making static 180 degree turns, achieving a good sailing position and steering up/down wind.

This is the first part of our how to windsurf guide that will give you the basic steps necessary to enjoy windsurfing.

So, summer is just around the corner (we all hope!) and its time to get out there and learn something new that will be good exercise, sociable and fun!

Part 1 of our guide talks you through the preparation required before you even get out there on the water. There are several steps, that if taken, will make your first windsurfing experience much smoother & more enjoyable.

1. Physical Preparation – Now a days it is fairly common knowledge in the sporting world that you need to prepare your body for the physical actions it is going to have to perform. The more physically prepared your body is the easier you will find the core actions required to learn to windsurf. For example, if you include some basic squats (no weights, just the action itself will be enough) in your pre-windsurf lesson training schedule, you will automatically find the action of pulling the windsurf sail out of the water (uphauling) much easier to perform.

2. Mental Preparation – You may have heard of the term visualisation and understand what it means but do you actually ever put it into practice? In sports, visualisation can really make ALL the difference when learning a new skill or move. The process is very straight forward, you just have to calm your mind and picture yourself going through the movement/skill you are trying to learn. This process literally programs the muscles in your body to do what they need to do and before you know it you will be completing the task at hand, windsurfing off into the sunset!

Seriously, by utilising the above visualisation techniques you WILL learn how to windsurf sooner and more effectively than without!

3. Take Windsurfing Lessons – taking lessons to be shown the actual step by step skills required to learn the basics of windsurfing, including uphauling, static 180 turns, sailing position, steering and if you are going to take a full beginners windsurfing course, how to windsurf upwind/tack & how to windsurf downwind/gybe. All these skills are very specific and detailed but if shown by an experienced instructor, you can learn them easily within the scope of a beginners windsurfing course. The money spent on taking proper windsurfing lessons is so worth it!

We so often see well meaning family members or friends trying to help others learn the basics of windsurfing, where the poor learner is making the same mistakes over and over again when all it would take is one small adjustment to get them windsurfing off across the bay!

4. Focused training with muscle memory – By breaking a skill/move down into its component parts and repeating them over and over at slow speed in a controlled environment is an amazing way to condition your body into achieving results. When you are actually out windsurfing there are a lot of factors at play (the wind, balancing on the board, holding onto the sail) and it can take much trial and error to eventually figure out what is going. With some muscle memory training, once you actually get out on the water your body will just go into auto pilot mode thanks to the repeated slow motion training you have been practicing over and over again on dry land.

At the Poole Windsurfing School we use a full motion on land windsurf simulator to get students practicing the exact same physical actions they will need to repeat once out on the water. Muscle memory training is an essential part of learning how to windsurf that everyone should practice if they want fast progression.

5. Set goals – As cheesy as it may be, setting achievable goals is a really good way to push your learning forwards to the next level. The goals you set have to be achievable otherwise the fun of learning just isn’t there anymore.

There you have it, a simple step by step process to follow, from preparing physically then mentally before taking windsurfing lessons with focused muscle memory training and finally pushing your progress by setting some achievable goals. If you follow the above steps, in order, then your introduction to the sport of windsurfing will be so much smother and your learning curve WILL go through the roof!

In our How to Windsurf Guide- Part 2 we will give an exact plan of action that has been proven to be the most effective way to take a complete beginner through the learning process and take them onto become a proficient windsurfer, all in the least amount of time.

Sign up to our ‘Top Windsurfing Tips & News’ to automatically be sent the following installments from our How to Windsurf Guide, as and when they are released.

Repairing a damaged windsurf board is no easy task unless you have the right tools & know how. One website that really goes into all the detail you would ever need is www.boardlady.com.

The best place to start with learning how to repair a windsurf board is to understand how they are constructed, that way you know what it is you will be dealing with before you actually start digging around a repair. Get to know everything from the “EPS” expanded polystyrene cores right through to the reinforcements of either fiberglass, Carbon, Kevlar® or combinations thereof. The ‘board lady’ has a page dedicated to board construction right here: Windsurf Board Construction.

You can get a menu to access information about everything from the tools required to adding non-skid to your finished product…Windsurf Board Repair Menu.

A good example of the basic steps involved in repairing a damaged windsurf board can be seen in this visual YouTube clip:

Happy repairing and happy windsurfing!

Check out the latest windsurf freestyle moves being thrown down by the pro’s in this video taken from the Sylt 2011 PWA Event. Amazingly the pro windsurfers were pulling off these freestyle moves even in no wind, being pulled in by jet ski.

OK, so this is all cutting edge, latest windsurf freestyle moves but you can start out with some great light wind freestyle training at the Poole Windsurfing School next summer. All the skills you learn in the light wind freestyle can be transferred to the high wind stuff & will really make the whole process of learning the latest windsurf freestyle moves so much easier.