We are on holidays in Bonaire (freestyle windsurfing paradise and the best location for teaching children to windsurf). My daughter is 5 years old and has always known she will be learning to windsurf. We have spent some time in the last year, talking to her about windsurfing and started teaching her on the water here in Bonaire. We thought she might be a bit young to start as her older brother was about 7 years old when we started to teach him properly. Since we are at such an ideal location (shallow, warm water so no need for a life jacket) we thought we would give it a go and hired an RRD 360 Evolution. We brought her 1 metre Ezzy rig with us just in case and it was perfect. Elli is a small girl and weighs about 18 kg. There's no chance she would be able to uphaul any non-dedicated kids' rig (cut down adult's sails would never have worked). In just 10 short sessions on the water (averaging less than half an hour each), she has given us enough footage for this short movie. She is tacking, gybing and even performing some freestyle! We are really impressed with how little effort yielded such great results. This is a wonderful foundation for her windsurfing future.

Parents - the younger they are, the better. Consistency and regular time on the water and the RIGHT equipment (dedicated kid's gear that is light, easy and friendly to use) are the keys to helping them learn to windsurf. Also, don't forget that much windsurfing is learnt at home - simulation (developing muscle memory), understanding how the wind works, psyching them up and teaching the terms you will use on the water.

We have started to teach Elli, two years before Alex. We are very interested to see when she will plane, given that she is smaller and may need to wait until she grows into the sails and boards that Alex used to achieve this. Alex planned 3 months after starting to learn and carve gybed in under 12 months. He will be competing in the Prokids Junior Freestyle World Championship here in Bonaire in 2 weeks time. He may come home the youngest Australian windsurfing world champion. He's really looking forward to having a go and has been practicing hard.

If you are interested, we have been writing a blog of our holiday in Bonaire and the address is: aus2001.wordpress.com/