My wife is learning windsurfing now. She has neither a sailing or surfing background. What holds her back the most is lack of sailing knowledge. We only sail on flat water in light winds so surf knowledge is largely irrelevant.

In relation to whats the best way to sail I read a column in the American Windsurfing magazine talking about this very issue. They termed it learning to sailboard vs learning to windsurf.

I can't recall all of the details but the writer proposed to get people to learn how to windsurf, that is learn on a shortish board, starting with beach starting, rather than uphauling and teaching waterstarts as one of the first skills.

The advantanges the writer suggested about this method was the learner would not have to learn how to balance on a board to uphaul, a skill the author believed was very hard to do, boring and really a waste of resources. He also believed teaching the learner planing skills earlier will make encourage them to keep windsurfing. He felt the biggest issue learners face is going from displacement to planing sailing.

My thoughts are coloured by my own experience teaching my wife and the conditions we have in NSW. I'm teaching with an RRD Easy Rider. This board is very wide and very stable. Its extremely easy to stand on and get your balance. The board won't tip over unless you walk right up to the edge. The board has a centrefin that gives the board direction and stops that sideways drifting effect you get on shortboards until you get a bit of forward momentum.

So boards like this do not make standing up to uphaul a boring, hard task. You learn to do it in about 5 minutes or less as I did teaching my 13 year old nephew how to windsurf today. After around 10 minutes he could uphaul sail about 50 meters, turn around with a rope tack and sail back to where he started. He thought it was easy. Looks like the Easy Rider lived up to its name.

The weather is the determinant factor with windsurfing. Today the wind where we were was about 5 knots. If the beginner is learning planing skills then there would be little time here when they could actually practise those skills. Many skills learned in lighter winds are transferrable to stronger winds sailing. Teaching this way is building up a frame of skills that can be extended over time to reach higher levels. This method of teaching is recognised as one that is effective for many students.

Confidence is also a factor when learning. Everything happens much quicker in strong winds and power in the sail would be difficult for a learner to deal with unless they are extremely able.

In relation to costs, if the student wants to progress to shortboard sailing, and the fact is most people windsurfing do want to do this, then teaching the shortboard method may advantageous. The gear they are using will be useful to them when they get out in winds above 10 to 15 knots.

So there are pros and cons of both ways to learn. However learning on a bigger board is the way to go unless you live somewhere where its quite shallow with strong, reliable onshore winds with quite flat water and the learner is fit, motivated and co-ordinated.

> learning to beach start rather than uphaul

Of course that would be ideal. So would looping on day one. But impractical.

I've seen countless people over the years trying to learn on (too) short boards, and bypass the uphaul. Most give up in the end. They never even got to the point where they'd say: "I couldn't come back" - sad huh?

The hit rate for learning nowadays is very low. This is a combination of two factors, IMO.

a) learning on improper gear - often too short because that's all the 'teacher' has in his quiver.

b) improper conditions - wind offshore and/or too strong, and very often booms wayyyyyyyyy too high. Those improper conditions preclude not incorrect teaching - they're related.

[there could be a c) : the "I want it now" generation - people are less patient in learning than ever]

This is all ironic: in the old days when Allen Border still played cricket, our water were replete with people windsurfing. So it must have been friggin' easy to learn from the next door neighbour. All of my GFs at the time could pick it up on the worst possible longboard ugly equipment.

Nowadays: hit rate is low, bar schools with proper equipment and instructions.