Drowning. (I lived, obviously)

Broken ankle and 3 torn ligaments and missing a whole season. I was living in paradise and one day was watching a Starboard photo shoot in perfect DTL glassy conditions, but I could not sail [}:)]. Very upsetting

Between May 9th to June 6th 2010..................only one half arsed sail

concushion after a huge catapult
as the sail hit the water and i was still hooked into the harness lines it felt like i broke me back . sick in stomach ..layed on my board for bout an hour drifting ..

Face to face with a crocodile still gives me shivers up the back and a slight twinge in the nether regions.

Having to return to the east coast after spending 5 weeks in Geraldton WA.

Recurrent shoulder dislocations long time ago, never recovered.

Couple times concussions in waves, from mast I think.
(Missus says I never recovered there either.)

I broke a tooth on a batten once. Not that I was hungry. It was a catapult.

also .. one for lake macquarie.. riged up rdy for the first windsurf in a couple of weeks walking into water ...steped on a razor fish cut my heel open should of got stitches ..didnt i was scared lol

having my Mum come and watch me sail for the first time. It was a southerly at Long Reef and I was coming in riding the German Bombie. Back then it was just rope harness lines (no plastic coverings) and I had a chest harness on. I caught a rail on the wave (which was a good mast high) and got pitched forward and spun as well so my harness line had twisted with my hook still in it. I was then trapped under my sail in the breaking zone and starting to panic. I had a weird moment where I remembered a Houdini movie where he was trapped under the ice and he pushed his mouth up onto the ice to try and get any air pockets that were there so I did the same, pushed with all my might to get a small section of sail above the water. Grabbed a breath, realised why I was stuck, ripped my harness off and swam out from under the sail. Got back to the beach eventually with my Mum none the wiser that she almost witnessed her son drown!

after a year on one-designs we went a little mad buying anything that seemed remotely short-boardish out of the trading post, as long as it suited our student budget.

we bought a cobra* and complete rig this day and took it down to the beach, which was blowing offshore.

i took it on its maiden voyage and didn't realise how far out I was until I went to gybe and the universal joint sheared in half. I tried to swim the rig and board back in waning light against the wind, without much luck.

Tiring, I thought I was going to end up on the news that night, but one of my friends swam out on my bombora and between us we wrestled all the gear back.


*worst board I have ever owned. I should have ditched it all and swam in.

though the one at Pelican point was pretty bad, there was another experience at Melville (one of my favourite spots) that came pretty close. It was an off shore wind and I drifted off shore. I kept trying to get back to shore, but the wind and the currents were too strong. I had to give up trying to windsurf back and had lean over the edge and paddle. I ended up about 1km along the beach when I got back to shore and mum had to drive down the car to pick up the board. That shook me up a bit.

me and my dad went out sailing off sandringham on botany bay a couple of years ago. The wind was doubtfull but i had a "new" (second hand piece of crap) 6.5 neilpryde sail and i wasnted to test it out. At this time i still couldnt waterstart but the wind was light so in high spirits we headed out. we must have been nearly to the other side of the bay on about the tenth run when a massive NE kicked in. At first it was all good until i fell in out in the mide of nowhere. I tried and tried to uphaul failing again and again until i got the lump of a sail in the right place to waterstart it. my dad was on an old long board with a bag of a sail so he was having trouble as well. Anyway he said just head in to the shore anywhere (it was actually getting dark) so i aimed about a kilometre down the bay to dolls point and had a very scary ride all the way to dolls untill became really rough. I was about forty metres from the shore when i got catapulted and started flailing round aimlessly. my dad headed in where he met a fisherman who said he'd ring the water police if anything was to happen. my dad paddled out on his board to help but i was so stuffed from trying over and over again to uphaul. the fisherman seeing me trying over and over again to uphaul did call the water police who arrived in a minute. they pulled me up and chucked my board (none to gently) and sail in the back of this massive boat. they gave us a lift back up the bay to where our car was parked.

not painful but very tiring, i couldnt lift anything for the rest of the day. Thank god i can waterstart!!!

Having trouble deciding which was my worst windsurfing experience.

Was it hitting the sandbar at full pelt and being catapulted into the sail while still hooked in - spine first across the boom. I know that feeling of lying there nickO?
or
being becalmed as the morning easterly gave out and having to paddle in, eventually falling in an exhausted heap on the beach just as the seabreeze (which would have blown me in ) arrived.
or
nearly drowning when caught under the sail and unable to unhook
(I thought of that Houdini trick too but there was no air under the sail and the wind was driving the sail into the water to hard to lift it at all).
or
excitedly rigging for the first time in ten years only to have the uni joint split in two just as I hit the water. It would have been worse if I had been a long way out, but at least I would have got to sail a bit first!

Shoulder pulled way out of where it belongs. Still pinching after six months.
Panic attack, being hooked and stuck between sail and shallow.
...shark at the back of the mind.

This didn't end particularly well. Lost rig, long swim, Dad not real happy with son.