depends on how green you are, doesn,t hurt to get a few lessons, saves alot of stress and can give you an idea of what gear suits you. happy sailing

There are 2 ways to learn, the long easy way, or the short hard way, depends on your personality and how keen you are, as to which suits you best. The long easy way, is to always stay within your capabilities, on odern beginers rigs, you can get sailing in the first lesson, uphauling a small sail in light winds. Slowly work your way up to bigger sails and stronger winds. The hard way is to learn to waterstart straight away, expect to get thrown around all over the place, and not to actually sail for quite a few goes. A lot of people who try this way give up in frustration, but the ones that succeed get there a lot faster than the first method.

decrepit

Scorpy babe,

Greenroom, is one of the keenest blokes I've ever met, he's one of the best I've ever seen for 12 months worth. Not everyone is like Greenroom tho, find what keeps you in the sport, it can be very technical at times but the rewards are endless, I've been in it for 20 years, still learning and probably enjoying more than ever before.

The most important thing is to hang in there, the sport will frustrate you and feel like it has the better of you.

All the previous advise is valid, I would recommend lessons, however if you can't afford that, windsurfers are the most generous people I know, ask for help people will go out of their way to help you.

Hardie (Board Butcher and Reef Magnet)

scorpian,

my strongest piece of windsurfing advice (well, besides not letting frustration get the best of you) would be to get lessons from a professional instructor, preferably the most experienced one you can find. someone who has coached a lot of people has seen it all - from the common little mistakes that everyone makes when they start out to the most embarrassing, hopeless cases - and they know how to fix it. a professional instructor can easily and quickly give you the simplest or largest tip that can save you an enormous amount of frustration.

i had friends teach me how to windsurf in the beginning and it was great fun, but when it came down to the nitty gritty, they were of no help because they either just knew how they did it themselves or just were able to do it naturally. (hate those guys! jk) when i had my first professional lesson, for an example, all the instructor had to do was tell me to put pressure on my toes to go downwind and pressure on my heels to go upwind and TADA! that bit of frustration was gone and it all clicked.

the other great thing about hiring an instructor is that they devote their attention to you. it's their job to study how you're currently windsurfing and teach you how to do it better. they are getting paid and know that they must produce results to get your recommendation or repeat business.

that all being said, i don't want to discount all the fantastic people in WA that are always willing to help you out. you will need help and advice every step of the way and you can't possibly get it all from lessons. we're lucky here in that the local sailors are at a such a high level of competency they can help out a great deal.

... and don't forget you can always make the instructor and fellow students your friends! (right Simon, Tom, Jay, Ben, Nic?)

ahhh just skip all that stuff and get straight into kite surfing.. Who wants an attari when they can have a X_box for the same price

quote:

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Originally posted by kk
Who wants an attari when they can have a X_box for the same price

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one *can* have the best of both worlds, you know - get an atari emulator for your xbox and WA LA! frogger, space invaders, indy 500, pacman.... ahhh, talk about nostaliga!)