Trousers said...
i didn't get a chance to talk to him again but i just really wanted to say to everyone starting out, that we all have gone thru this - caught out when the conditions are either misread or turn nuclear. beginners can be put off...you definitely come to your next session timidly. don't be discouraged - getting home in severely overpowered conditions happens to us all, and with a little technique (i call survival sailing) it's all do-able.
I would like to add to everyone starting out that these situations are some of the best you'll have in your life. You go beyond learning how to windsurf and you learn about yourself. You learn how to slow your mind down in what can be intense, scary, regrettable situations and think clearly and accurately. Later you'll find yourself using the same techniques in your everyday life.
That's what I love about this sport. Sure you learn how to windsurf, waterstart, carve gybe, chop-hop, ...push-loop to forward, but it's all the other incidental things you learn along the way too. Knowing what the wind will be like in the afternoon by its speed and direction when you wake up. Knowing where the moon is at any given time (amaze your friends). Knowing your local spots intimately, every bank, rock and what works where in what conditions. Learning some meteorology. Learning about aerodynamics and hydrodynamics (well, a little).
But most of all I love what I've learnt about myself. How to control myself. This comes from a number of times like that described above. Finding yourself well overpowered, or well underpowered, that one time you thought you might sail out as far as you dare. And now you're stuck. And nobody can see you. Except the big fish. And you have exhausted yourself. And you have almost drowned a few times now trying to get that damn sail up, or you keep going over and over and over.
Then you take a break and decide to focus. Really focus. You put your fear to the side and slowly, carefully, calmly you finally get back up and sail home.
... or you just swim in and do the walk of shame.
Either way it won't be so bad next time.
I find myself going into the same state of mind at work when I'm really overloaded,. and I don't know what the **** I'm doing, and little things keep going wrong and side-tracking you, all day. I slow my mind down and concentrate on accuracy and getting one thing done at a time. I learnt this from being rag-dolled out the back.
Apologies: long post.
P.S. I bet none of you bastards that red-thumbed my really long incest joke in the general forums read the last sentence. I was Luke Skywalker all along.
