How is all this going?
I have a very keen young bloke about to turn 7 and he's just had a few lessons in Maui, so I thought I'd relay the experience.
Firstly, Maui is a fairly tough place to learn. It's beautiful, with a white sandy beach, warm waters and nice scenery, but on the flipside the water gets deep very close to shore, it's mostly VERY windy even in the mornings, and there is only a short sheltered area before it's gets rough. This means kids can only sail a short distance and then have to turn around and sail back in, which gets a bit repetitive.
The good thing is that there are always plenty of kids (and adults) learning, the instructors are really good and the kids have a great time mucking around, playing pirates etc, so the two hour lessons flies by pretty quickly.
It was music to my ears when, after two lessons, I heard the words "Daddy can I go windsurfing?"
Anyway, being six years old didn't seem to be any impediment to being able to sail in winds up to 20 knots. Jonah is now as keen as can be, very proud of what he has learned, and able to cruise around in the harness and make plenty of gybes without falling off.
We have bought him a kids rig with a couple of sails (1.6 & 2.1) and will get him a board soon. He'll be very keen to hook up with any other kids who are keen as soon as the weather warms up. I reckon we'll be down at Melville Beach mainly as it's super safe there.
Kids love to learn with other kids so hopefully there will be a few others around to sail with. Jonah will be happy to share his gear around, and make a few new friends.
Here is a short clip from Maui;
. What's the plan from here??
