I know what happened. When wives and children came along and could not quickly learn how to do it, and it was too hard to bring in fresh blood, you just gave up. Why not be bad at tennis or golf, at least the equipment in those sports was improving fast enough to provide some positive feedback to newbies.
I always was in love with windsurfing, from the first moment standing on a board and being blown across a small pond. It was a match to my synapses that connected deeply. We worked hard to get people into the sport and teach them to play and race - we had fun anytime we sailed. I had a dozen windsurfing friends in the early 70's who would call each other and sail impromptu however feeble the excuse. As these friends dwindled away, it got lonely sailing around by yourself or with frustrated sailors who were never going to get the bug.
The Second Chance is Wide
This was the situation for me just a few short years ago when I heard about a new board that had just come out. Strangely enough, I had just bought another longboard at the time, having sworn off short sinkers after a few swimming sessions when the wind died and it was swim in or spend the night in the water.
This new design was interesting to me because Jim Drake's name was involved and a small company headed by Svein Rasmussen had stated it was an easy board to sail. It sounded like it was a semi-short board that could be sailed home in light winds. So I got an original GO board. That board was scary looking to say the least. It was huge! Funny how much more normal it looks today. People laughed about it and the press talked like it was only for beginners and very light winds.
I was out trying the GO board when it took off planing with the smoothest of rides. The winds built up to over 25 and I stayed out there trying to figure out how this thing that was supposed to be a beginner board was sailing so well. Over the next few weeks I added what was then a huge sail, a 9.0, and the sailing just got better. It was remarkable what this board could do and how easy it was to sail.
The light went on in my head right then: we have a second chance to promote windsurfing. Wide style boards with early planing rockers can re-energize the sport. This is revolutionary because it is both easier than before and the performance is better as well.
Within the year, the Formula racing idea was coming along so I got a Formula board, followed in succession by several more. It was like a rebirth of a long lost love affair with windsurfing. These boards made it possible to be planing more than twice as much time as before. My heart was pounding again.
Putting Wide to the Test
It had been a few years since I taught anyone to windsurf. Previously I had taught sailing at a University in my spare time and would take on the most eager as windsurfing students.
Coming from this background, I wanted to include the physics and to breakdown the learning curve into several levels to be mastered in sequence. To get it going, I bought all the gear myself and provided it to people for free use. Later, when the Start Board came out, the sequence was set: begin on the Start, move to the GO, and then try a Formula board. After all, I was getting tired of sailing by myself 90 percent of the time and I wanted more racers.
The results of doing this proved out my initial premise. If you put people on modern wide equipment with the right size sails, it has never been easier to learn windsurfing than it is today. That is not my original quote, Roger Jackson said it first. He was and is dead-on. Heck, Roger is so good at it he does not even need a simulator.
Here's what happens. We program everything to point to the harness and straps. Each time out we have people focussed on some skill that leads to this accomplishment. Along the way, tacking and jibing is taught as a sequence of things that, if you understand them and do them, everything works out. It is a crash course to quickly master planing with large sails. The students never learn anything other than the way a wide board is sailed. Learn correctly the first time and you do not have to change things later. I do not want sloppy work - we learn a proper way and chide each other if we mess-up. Students know why to hang down, not to oversheet, to get the feet strapped, and how to load the fin, etc.
The equipment is top notch, mostly lightweight carbon masts and booms and sails to cover the spectrum of skills and wind levels. If you have been sailing a couple of months, I want you out there with a big sail in winds 15-20 mph or more, driving the board as hard as possible.
Does this sound a little too much? Actually the enthusiasm is very high for this approach. We have teamed up to have a board barn built with storage and sail hooks, all the tools and parts, a complete facility from weather station to Beach Boy music - and now we are going to have to build a second one. We have out-grown the first one in one year when I thought it would take five years. This year's group bought four GO/FS, two Starts, and two Formulas and brought in three other boards to add to the collection.
Don't think we have an inflated of idea of what we are doing, however. This is small potatoes. We are a simple, grass-roots movement in a smallish town in the middle of America (Abilene, Texas) where a better approach to promoting windsurfing using the best technology of today is paying off. Visitors come to see our facility and say how nice it is, strangers walk up to me and ask, can I learn to windsurf, and best of all, on any given day, I can windsurf and expect to have companions with me. We are getting excited about hosting our first real races next year. And, it seems like the whole town wants to help us do it - the local sailing club has volunteered to help sponsor the races.
Next summer, I expect to double our group. Stable wide style boards that perform will make this possible. Now there are several types and manufacturers, so no excuses allowed.
Just do it in your town with modern wide beginner gear (leaving the old gear in the basement) and you will discover windsurfing still has that magic, as one by one, newbies are brought over to the bright-side.
Originally printed in the US Windsurfing Newsletter.
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