Greetings

My 17 yo son is looking at having a crack this summer at windsurfing. He has attempted to get up a couple of times in the past on my equipment but looses it when he tries to go from the T position to sail in line with the board. He is using my Mistral 144 ltr and 6.5 gaastra. He is 6 ft and weighs around 90kgs. I was thinking of getting him a 5.5 mtr thinking the smaller sail will help his balance. Any other clews?

If he's an average 6' (that's average for these days' kids!!) he should be strong enough to handle a 6.5, and although I was older, I learned with a 7.5, prob is that I was (and still am) very unco, balance and confidence is the main hurdle.

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Originally posted by decrepit

good question, smaller sail is easier to get up, but not sure it's easier to balance.
Power doesn't come on as hard with a smaller sail, is that what's unsettling him, the power coming on as the sail turns into the wind, or is it the board being unsettled as he moves his feet???

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Very helpful Decrepit

(would sound great if read out loud by Yoda)

(just taking the p--s, pls don't thumb me down)

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Originally posted by Old Salty

Greetings

My 17 yo son is looking at having a crack this summer at windsurfing. He has attempted to get up a couple of times in the past on my equipment but looses it when he tries to go from the T position to sail in line with the board. He is using my Mistral 144 ltr and 6.5 gaastra. He is 6 ft and weighs around 90kgs. I was thinking of getting him a 5.5 mtr thinking the smaller sail will help his balance. Any other clews?

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Old Salty,

The rig & board sound OK, what winds have you tried in? I found that once I "hardened T-F- up" and went out in around 10kts, the learning progression sped-up dramatically. Before that, <5kts (practicing balance, & turning) was fairly difficult.

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Originally posted by Old Salty

Hi Decrepit
Thanks for the input.
He is a little unco and I beleive it is a bit of him loosing balance as he moves his feet from either side of the mast to down the board.

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In that case a smaller sail may not help, in fact the bigger sail may even help his balance.

As sailhack says wind strength is probably a bigger factor

I didn't notice a big difference with the centre-board, except when 'slogging' upwind. If anything promotes bad technique?