Keen beginner update- Lake catharabar Easter hols

Hi an update on my progress..
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Queensland/Keen-beginner-thu-fri-sailing-northside/

I have been to a few lessons with Simon from BC and managed a couple of outings to Pebble Beach at Bribie

I have been concentrating on improving my fitness and strength- getting to the gym most days!

Very excited to be at Catharabar for the school holidays.

My mate Richard is down from Bundaberg and has been giving me some pointers and tempting me with his fast catamaran (new hobby?)

The last few days have been massive for me. I can hardly walk and move, all my muscles ache!!

After spending an hour in the water practicing sail controll I have started my first shakey beach starts -Wahooooo

Went out for 2 sessions today and managed 8 successful starts - yep I know it's early days but today I felt like I was making progress rather than just more of the beginner slog.


Once the depth of water gets up to my upper thigh I don't seem to have the strength to step up onto the board. Have to learn how to manage the sail more so that it pulls me up onto the board.

I have been pushing myself to go out when it looks to windy for me ( well out of my comfort zone) as I so want to learn to plane before the hols are over.

I'm becoming more comfortable with the waves and afternoon chop - still doing a lot of falling off as fatigue sets in.

Thanks again to the community for its support.

Cheers Jeff

No pain, No gain. Well done, and if I may say so, even more encouraging is the fact that you are happy to diarise your exploits I have two young lads, 12 & 13 that I am slowly building up to get their interest hopefully into the sport. Stories like yours are a great insight for them when they start to get tired, or think they cant do something And when this doesnt work, the wife slips on the professional hat and starts the reverse psycology. Thankyou Jeff. Keep up the great work, cause I guarantee you that it will be all worth it.

Awesome day today!!!
Wind was hammering- at my friends insistance I went out and proceeded to get hammered but I had some little snippets of success.

As the breeze picked up I went out and had my first goes at using a harness. As expected I spent a lot of time getting thrown forward. Main problem was I kept rounding up into wind as I tried to get the sail back. Don't know if I'm fooling myself but I did get going almost planing a couple of times before loosing control. Had to call it quits for a while to regroup!! I was feeling a little defeated and the thought of long board gentle wind sailing on a kona one was looking very appealing :)

Still a little win as I was able to go out and beach start from the start of the lunch time session - a real buzz for me. Still having trouble with the board rounding up into wind and stalling as I get the front foot on

Discussed my progress with my mate- he spent the time out hammering back and forward. I so hate being a spectator!! Anyway Richard offered to come out and give me some coaching for a late afternoon session. Wind was howling and the water was absolutely knarly; I wasn't going to miss some practice in difficult conditions ;)

Practiced beach starts until I couldn't hold the sail up anymore and was absolutly legless!

However managed quite a few starts. Getting the rounding up sorted and starting with much more power in the sail so I could be pulled up onto the board rather than heaving myself up with pulling on the boom.

The real thrill for the afternoon session was getting a brief taste of planning!!! Wahooo. Can still hardly believe the exileration of touching a milestone

The board got light and twitchy under my feet, it was magic! Al happened so fast almost caught me by surprise. Just so much want more.

I now bunkered down in the caravan as the storm has set in for good - looking for a great next few days before the holiday is over

Thanks for your support

Cheers Jeff
Ps composed on a mobile phone- pls excuse the typos

Good stuff... keep it up and you'll be flying along in no time..
Next few day's should be good for ya.. and keep trying to get the sail to do the work for you rather than you trying to force the sail.. ie.. when it lifts you up in a beach start you're getting the idea... and getting the sail to work for you, not against you...