> seriously, we need to get more chicks into this sport.
This point in another thread reminds me I never see guys teaching anymore - newbies, girlfriends, mates, etc.
Zilch in the last two years (other than me) at all of my local spots. Used to see all the time in the 80s, plenty 10 years ago, here and there up to 2 years ago.
Not anymore. How is it at your local places, do you actually see people doing it?
Yeah, I know.
There used to be people (individuals and a school) teaching at Balmoral. At LaPérouse, a bit of Rose Bay (looks dead now). I used to run a 'school' Dolls Pt. and with a guy at Kurnell. We used to take on newbies at Sanderingham Beach (late 80s), have fun and get the sheilas in.
All of this is dead now, plus individuals don't teach anymore. Too good, not the right wind, not the right gear, and so on.
Hey... I'm still waiting for the right windsurfer to sweep me off my feet! 
[}:)]
Sorry I meant GreenPat...
Hey p45,This is a mans sport and thats that...Sure the sheilas come along and do a club level school,to which we take a lot of joy from ,but only 1 in 100 will stay in the main stream,and that 1 in 100 allways seem to be in the way......x cludin.jd rosney
I do agree. Most of the time, I see the guys windsurfing, and the girlfriends/wives just sit there & watch, go rollerblading or stay home.
But there are quite a number of newcomers including girls, here at my windsurf club, which is rather surprising but it's a good thing! There's a group formed to help give these newbies guidance each week as they progress. A great number of families teaching their kids too these days. The father & daughter/son together on the Tandem is now a common sight.
seriously, if i could keep a gf for any period of time or even get one, i'd be doin some teaching for sure.
I've done lots of teaching/coaching of mates, but it seems hard to be able to keep them interested or push past the initial expenditure thing.
Woops, I realise I got the quote wrong. I meant there's no teaching anymore in general, not just sheilas. Teaching newbies has mostly disappeared in general, period.
> I'm still waiting for the right windsurfer to sweep me off my feet!
Hey Elizabeth, it had been a while! Having said that, I wouldn't teach a GF or try to make one in the process - too much maintenance, takes me away from sailing time.
However, when I teach, I ask the beginner (never a GF) to make a donation to some charity BEFOREHAND, i.e. 15$ per outing. People usually agree, and that ensures I get only the serious ones, not the flakes.
I often see BF's, hubby's, dad's, etc. teaching there partners/kids down at Inverloch, Vic. to windsurf.
My wife windsurf's, and while she had a windsurfing lesson when she first started, I have shown her the little I know (the Guy Cribb DVD has come in handy there). The good thing was, I never had to "talk her into it", she said she wanted to learn. I can't however get her into the water from April to November, but that's not such a bad thing as I don't have to worry about her as much when I'm on the water. I'm pretty sure she enjoys the socialising as much as the sailing though.......but as long as she's happy 
haha I like your statement.
I am always happy, and it seems more so being single because the 'right one' has ceased to exist lol
I have become very cynical when it comes to relationships.... [}:)]
No woman could make me as happy as the move to WA has done
Ten times better than wello [}:)]
I'm selling some old gear to someone this weekend(ish).
He's living next to an artificial lake so I'll be throwing in some lessons too.
I got a mate started with a lesson from Haircut last year, but he's not sailed during the winter. I think if I can get him on a shortboard, in straps and harness and planing this summer he'll be right.
P.S. that artificial lake is the old Cable Ski World at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast. You can sail in there but the runs look a bit short. Good for beginners though.
I think i'm responsible for the quote.
i have tried teaching a few mates and females over my short ws time
Would have more success if had a proper beginners board, instead of a oldschool race board (lots of longitudinal balance but minimal lateral) which I learnt on
Maybe a key objective for all the clubs/social groups etc with a decent size crew is to have designated teaching sessions or quotas?
With the average age on here being (guessing) higher then lower (very pc of me), gear in the future and seeing other sails on the water is going to be less and less otherwise
More teaching!
I've got a few friends who always ask me to take them, and want to learn. But I can't teach them on a 96L short-board.
I think it is a pretty big investment to get into the sport. I'm trying to save up and get some light wind kit that would perform well in light winds, and also be suitable for letting new people use, any suggestions? I tend to find that a lot of gear thats say around the 120L mark, and good for light wind planing seems a little fragile, and I don't think I would be that comfortable putting it into clumsy beginner hands.
(I usually use my 96L board and 5.9 in 15kts+)
Yeah swoosh, you almost need designated teaching equipment hey
Most of my gear is all old and beginner as i'm just getting into the decent stage
But my new mast and sails are off limits to newbies (except myself ) and my all conditions old ~120L epoxy sorta-waveboard is too small for a newbie (old shape)
All beginner boards are either those door things (that make formula boards look like waveboards), GO's (are these any good at light wind freeride fun? or just for beginners?) or old cheap boards. And who wants to pay good dosh for a designated beginner board? But old cheap boards aren't the right shape to make it easy for a learner
So what to do?
I was thinking of getting a really really cheap old plastic board. Sure its probably not as good as a starboard Go, or something along those lines, but I reckon I could pick one up for like somewhere about $100 from like a garage sale. And just rig a small wave sail on it.
Thats a pretty good plan actually hehe, I might do that this summer, give me something to do during summer on the light wind days, or in the morning before the seabreeze kicks in. I think those kinda boards are a bit hard to find thou, they tend to be tucked in the back of peoples garages totally unseen and forgotten.
I think I just need to make sure that the mast tracks are compatible. I remember the old long board I learnt on had a weird mast track.
i've taugh or had a hand in teaching heaps of people. like i think i'm up to about 7 or 8 thats more then 1 a year. i think its really good to watch them come up and get going and then into the waves. and then watch them eat **** lol.
Hi guys
There are now very few in Australia that now make their living from Teaching windsurfing....i left Australia in 2000 and have been based in Fiji for the past 8 years but 17 in total now.....having done the winter season in Fiji teaching and the summer season teaching back in sydney...
I started Teaching in 1984 at Narrabeen Lakes on the Northern Beaches... Sydney..lovely place.....then taught up at Palm Beach from 1992 - 2000.
I operated the Winda Woppa trips from 1984 through till 2005, amazing experiences...up to 44 clients on a weekend...windsurfing was and is my profession....Australia, New Zealand and fiji...what a life!
Over 11,500 clients have gone through the business over the years and about 40% would have been girls, from whatever levels....many still do, but it is a decreasing amount...its certainly an aging population and those clients i was teaching 10+ years back are now joining us in fiji with husband and 2 kids now...still windsurfing but just not as much..they have to find a one or two week holiday to fill the need....
its an eirie feeling teaching the kids of past clients i can tell you...not that im 40 yet..(this year though..!) but many of my clients now have kids that are into windsurfing and getting lessons.
Gone are the days of 32 Windsurfing Shops in Sydney like when i started and numerous schools, like previously named...and more no doubt!! I think balmoral sailing school is the only one left in sydney apart from instruction offered from Sam and staff at Eastcoast at Long Reef in sydney...a statistic no-one in the Windsurfing industry should be proud of...
Use the right boards, DONT teach on old old longboards, we have Starboards Starts here in fiji and they are amazing...!!!! i have clients coming in with their hair dry after a one hour lesson..not having fell off the board..those boards combined with a 2.1m or 3.0m sail are an awesome package for teaching and encouraging clients to carry on with Windsurfing..
Getting chicks into Windsurfing has to start on those boards..so they feel more than comfortable and can achieve progress adn satisfaction....
Borrow one, beg or buy one..they are amazing...I just had a family return to Perth this morning from fiji, swearing to buy one...cos it has changed their whole perspective on Windsurfing. Dad sails, mum is now hooked and two kids have an easy board to also learn on...easy combination!!
Good luck..the sport needs it...
Rgds
Warren Francis
There are courses run almost every day here at PA Water Venture (wonder who thought of that brilliant name??) in Singapore. At a wild guess I'd say at least 50 people a week are taught the basics of windsuring in a 6-hour course, including theory and practical. How many do-it-yourselfers learn about the Centre of Effort, etc, on their first day?
Of these, a few come back and try to take it further. The sport seems to be growing, judging by the number of new people buying used gear and trying to get themselves into harness and footstraps. WE have great facilities - to bad about the $h!tty wind.
But I think that becoming a serious windsurfer is about being bitten by the bug, like your first hit of crack cocaine (ahh, I remember it well - NOT!), and if someone sees windsurfing and decides to go for it, they will find a way regardless. As for me, the beginner's course was just an intro to months of frustration an bull$h!t, but it was SEEING EXPERTS IN ACTION which gave me motivation and will continue to bring in the new blood..this is not someting one can get into unless one is commited, or ought to be...
God I need sleep
> Starboard vs. windsurfers
Great to read your story Warren. We must have met at Narrabeen or elsewhere in Sydney the mid-80s. I'd go there in the winter or lesser winds and freestyle around. I would stick to Balmoral in the summer - I wonder why... anyways, wind was guaranteed then in the summer....
Back to the topic: I sort of agree and not with the board. As an individual, there is no friggin' way I'm going to carry those cricket field shaped boards just in case I teach someone, and I have no use for those myself. May be OK for a school, but not for me. I can pick up one old Windsurfer-type board on classifieds or else for 50-100$ - much cheaper, much more solid thing. Ugly, that's all.
In terms of easiness, we all had experiences where one picks up windsurfing whilst picking their nose in 5 minutes or less, regardless of the board. In fact, in the 80s when all you had were those longish boards, the very large majority of people that stuck to it would learn quite easily, so it can be done. But we live in an I-want-it-now era.
To me, a mistake is to make everything easy: 3-foot wide boards, 5 knots, 2m sail. They do not learn this way, but rather float aimlessly and think they do. It makes the transition to real sailing (10 knots, 5-meter sail, longer-than-wide boards) that much more difficult. Next thing you know, 2 years later, once they sail they have to get one sail per knot, still to make it easier, a trailer, and sail underpowered, still to make it easier. It never ends. Windsurfing should not be to make everything easy, and it starts at learning.
Anyways, the above is IMO, comforting to read that people are passing it on again.
