Zed's question about when you first windsurfed got me thinking (or maybe it was the stubbie). What actually got you hooked after that first sail.
For me it was 2 things. About 5 years after my first sail when I hired a Wally at Merimbula and actually got planing for the first time. No footstraps so I had to keep my front foot butted against the uni to stop slipping off. No harness of course, so the arms only lasted about a 200 metre run before the lactic acid reached max. But the sensation of ripping across the flatwater in the rivermouth planted the seed. The second thing that made me vow to buy a board and really get into in was when I was parked near the Elwood Sailing Club by myself, probably after a fight with my girlfriend, (now wife of 17 years) on a crappy crappy rainy day, in a howling wind, and two guys were out having a blast and obviously having an absolute hoot. That was the seminal moment for me, and the savior of my sanity.
So what made you get hooked?

Yep...it's planing

Watching others do it....

& then when you get up & do it

...finally.

& we're not obsessive

Rocking up at Gearies hoping to go for a surf seeing it blown out for a paddle and watching the windsurfing crew going for it.

Had a great chat with one of the local sailors, who with great enthusiasm and passion for the sport convinced me to give it a go, Today I sail far more than I surf.

Big Thanks to Waveslave for talking the sport up, it was everything you said and more.

Yep, 1st time planing at Wello and drag racing with Gavin Jones and the Cochran brothers, are they still around ?
And for the chicks.

When I think back the first few times were simply determination to beat the b@#tard thing and get sailing. The kit was so heavy you were exhausted pretty quickly. When you finally got going I think it was and still is the sensation of moving along only with the power of the wind. Since then it is the fact that it is always a challenge that has kept me hooked.

I would say the moment I got planning was pretty big but the first time I got on a small board (100-) was when I really got hooked. The speed and the excilleration were awsome. Now it's the bigger the waves and a strong breeze that get me hooked and amped...

Lets see, I tried it first 21 years ago on Blue Lake at Staddie. I was on a Wally that I rented with a 4.5 sail. It was blowing about 5 to 15 knots in all directions as you would expect in amongst the trees there but I wasn't to know. After an hour of uphauling and falling in and uphauling and falling I had managed to travel about 50 or 80 metres and back and I was absolutely F****D.

It was at a period in my life when I was particularly unhappy with myself and the feeling of failure just threatened to confirm my psycopathic tendencies. I didn't want to end up as a serial killer so I said to myself "I'm not going to let this stupid sport beat me" and I made a conscious effort to deny my failure and persuaded myself that all I needed was a bit of time and application and even if I didn't like it I could do it.

Some years passed without the opportunity to test my self desception, a test I was secretly avoiding. Then, about 9 years later I found myself up at Calundra on family Christmas hols. I had a small child, my third, and when you have a small child at Caloundra you take them to Bullcock beach, the only place where there isn't any surf. You can sit them in the water and watch them happily splashing and laughing and bobbing out to sea on the fierce current. As she was my third I was not too concerned, happy in the knowledge that I has two spares.

In those days if you went to Bullcock beach on a windy day you were treated to the sight of maybe 50 windsurfers flying up and down - a sight to behold. This was this sight that greeted me. It was a direct challenge to my synthetic self image, a challenge that if ignored would have tipped me over the edge into the void. That very evening I trawled through the yellow pages in search of a windsurfing rental and happened upon Golden Beach Hire.

The next morning I was down there. For the princely sum of $25 I was able to rent a huge plastic Tyronsea 370 with a tiny little sail for an hour, so this is what I did. Contrary to expectations and armed with the heightend attention and alertness of a shark attach victim (did I say I was anxious) I succeeded in sailing up and down and even tacking. It would have been pathetic to see the relief on my face as the anxiety was replaced by a cocky self confidence. F**k am I good.

The buzz had me down there sailing every day for hours on end. I just couldn't get enough of it. I really wasn't a serial killer after all. This was the new me. I was a sailor.

I eventually bought myself an outfit. It was a Tyronsea 330 (yep I was moving into the short boards already, incrementally. FAIG)(ie F**k Am I Good). I didn't get planing those holidays. It was some months later again at Golden Beach, a day I will never forget.

quote:

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Originally posted by WINDY MILLER

same place at elwood, VIC

the first time i got planing, in my harness on my starboard GO...

hooked 4 life

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same for me but on a fanatic 320 with retractable daggerboard, never forgot that feeling up to now it was like a different level..

I think for me it was just the first time i got moving. But another time was the first times i planned on my brothers board with no straps of harness. I was so stoked after that.

Bubs

All of the above and the feeling when you flake out with the first of many cold beers with yer mates after a good days sailing, telling stories about the quadruple loop you pulled when nobody was looking (or in my case "I definitely cleared the fin out of the water!"); fishermen have nothing on us when it comes to exagerrating our accomplishments!

I was bullied into starting by the missus; I just couldn't see the point of floating about on a plank of wood holding a sheet attached to a broomstick. Once I felt the speed (probably very little in reality) I was hooked. Top lass my missus, she convinced me to learn to ride a motorbike aswell, again I couldn't see the point but once I had a go was hooked.