Tendon u-joints - Windsurfing's weakest link?

The critical piece of hardware that makes windsurfing possible is the "universal joint" or "u-joint." The u-joint attaches the sail to the board but allows it to swivel and lean in any direction. This allows the rider to steer without a rudder and is the fundamental difference between windsurfing and normal sailboat sailing.

Picture from my old post, "Poor Person's Guide to Windsurfing"

The first commerically available windsurfers in the 1970s used clunky wood and metal u-joints. More compact and durable u-joints were developed in the 1980s and 1990s, along with lots of different systems for fitting them to the board and mast base. (Joe Windsurfer has a blog post with pictures of the original wood u-joint and various other weird ones.) However, the u-joints themselves were all variations on two themes: 1) a bendy rubber "hourglass" or 2) a three-axis "mechanical" joint. By the 2000s, "Chinook" and a couple of other brands had more-or-less standardized u-joint and coupling systems, which made it easier to mix and match gear. The rubber hourglass u-joints were the most common type and seemed to work for 5-10 years before cracking and failing.

If the evolution had stopped there we'd be good, but someone had to come up with a "better" "tendon" design that has now mostly replaced the rubber hourglass joints. The tendon is a narrow, rubber-like cylinder that bolts into cups on both sides of the joint. The idea is that you can unbolt and replace the tendon easily without having to replace the longer-lasting parts of the u-joint. The problem is that you have to replace the tendons A LOT. Even the "good" ones don't last as long as the old rubber hourglass joints, and the quality of the replacement tendons on the market seemed to go way down shortly after everyone switched to using tendons. They can fail before showing any obvious signs of wear, even when they're brand new.

I discovered a new low level of tendon performance today when installing a brand-new one (Ruiqas brand, ordered from Amazon - should have gotten one from my local Fort Myers windsurfing shop instead). I was a little suspicious of how the tendon had both bolt-holes in the same direction rather than orthogonal like the Chinook brand tendons. I was more annoyed when realized the ends of the tendon were too long to get the holes in the tendon to match up with the holes in the cups, no matter how hard I tried to jam the parts together. I looked up on the Internet that if that happens you have to cut off material from each end of the tendon using an X-Acto knife until it fits, which I did. It went together, but it seemed way less flexible than the original tendon joint. It snapped when I was positioning the board for a beach start, before I even sailed at all. GRRR. I could see a few little air bubble cavities inside the tendon where it broke through, but I think the real defect wasn't the air bubbles but simply that it was a lousy rubber/plastic formulation that lacked the flexibility and strength to do its job.

I still had one functional u-joint in the van, so the day wasn't a total bust. The wind had gotten too light to use the shortboard that I originally tried on, but I got a good session on my foil board with a 6.8 sail.

Windsurf Board Size Explained

Picking the right windsurf board size is tricky, especially if you're new to windsurfing.

Part of the reason it's tricky is because experienced windsurfers and the windsurfing media are a bad influence. We're always emphasizing progression to smaller boards, and dismissing big boards as just the "training wheels" of the sport. As a result, new windsurfers often end up with crazy misconceptions about what kind of gear to buy and what kind of path of progression to expect.

Here are some of the WORST pieces of advice that I typically hear:

Bad Advice #1- "I learned on XYZ terrible too-small board in the '80s, and now in PQR super-windy place where I live I never sail anything bigger than 85 liters, so if you're athletic and determined like me you should have no problem learning on this tiny shortboard that I want to sell you to use in your glassy calm 1-acre lake in Ohio."

Bad Advice #2- "Once you have a week or so of experience, you'll never again have use for a big longboard with a daggerboard, so you should just skip the longboard and buy this shortboard that doesn't work worth a crap unless the wind is blowing more than 15 knots."

Bad Advice #3- "If you want to learn to go fast and use the harness and footstraps and do jibes and waterstarts then you need to buy this tiny shortboard that will actually be impossible to sail unless you already know how to do all that stuff."

To counter some of that bad advice there is my Windsurfing Gear Calculator, which takes weight, wind strength, and skill level into account to figure out roughly what size and style of gear is appropriate. The calculator is a bit technical, though, so I've also tried to capture the essence of things in these two pictures:

This picture explains when you should use a big board, and when you should use a small board. Basically, small boards are only appropriate if you are a skilled windsurfer AND it's windy. When the wind is too light to plane, the best performing board will always be a big board with a daggerboard, and this is true regardless of the rider's skill.

This picture explains how board size is related to body size. What is a "big board" or a "small board" to you is relative to your body size, but the daggerboard also plays a role. I.e., a big person's small board would not be a good small person's big board, because it wouldn't have a daggerboard.

It's the Little Things: Tuning New Boards

"Tuning;" making small adjustments in the settings and setup of one's equipment, is an aspect of windsurfing that is both frustrating and compelling.

The right tuning can take you to a higher plane of ecstasy; a feeling of effortless oneness with the ocean elements. Equally, the wrong tuning can make you feel like you're trying to carry five bags of groceries while balancing on a log floating through river rapids.

I'll admit to experiencing a bit of the latter feeling when riding the Exocet WindSUP 11'8" in waves for the first couple times. Though I'd found the board to be very comfortable and well balanced for flatwater sailing, my first forays into the small, steep, closely-spaced, uneven waves of the Gulf of Mexico were somewhat disappointing. The only tuning I did for the first round was to replace the 44 cm upright stock fin with a 25 cm swept weed-wave fin. Clearly that wasn't enough tuning, or wasn't the right tuning. Part of the problem was me. My instincts for catching a wave with a longboard were developed with the Angulo Surfa 10'4" SUP in the ideal conditions of Nahant- weight forward to catch a wave, weight in the middle to ride a wave, weight back only fleetingly during a steep drop or sharp turn. With the WindSUP, weight forward didn't help- it just made me pearl the nose. And on a wave I couldn't get the thing to turn. Where I had the most success was on a fairly windy day, where I could get the board planing on the wave well before the wave was about to break, and then I could turn the board with an overdone caricature of the moves I would use to turn a shortboard windsurf in the waves. I was starting to think the board either wasn't all it was cracked up to be for waveriding, or was just too dang big for me to manage.

I told Exocet guru John Ingebritsen (see him in a rad youtube video here) about the trouble I was having, and he told me these three tuning tips for the WindSUP 11'8"-

1. Go small with the fin, but not too small because you need some fin length to get planing. A traditionally-rockered SUP like the Angulo Surfa sort of melts into the wave and turns with the whole body of the board, using the fins only for traction. In contrast, the WindSUP uses the wave to accelerate to planing or partially-planing mode, and then turns more from the tail like a shortboard windsurf. Lift from the fin is more critical for this type of waveriding.

32 cm MUFin

2. Move the mast track all the way back and keep your weight back to "unstick" the nose.
3. Put the footstraps in the inboard positions and make them as loose as possible.

Track back, straps inboard

The other day I implemented those suggestions and they made a huge difference, both for wave-riding and for pleasant easy-planing in the stronger winds outside the break. For the mast track position, I put it as far back as the two-bolt baseplate would allow. For the fin I chose a 32 cm Maui Ultra Fins "No Spin." Ingebritsen says that's good and that it's actually on the smaller side of the fins he usually uses in the waves- he'll often wavesail with a 38 cm freeride fin. With the centered footstraps and the 32 cm fin, the WindSUP was very non-technical to get planing, and I think it would be the perfect setup for someone trying to learn footstraps and planing for the first time. Very gentle feel with lots of room for error.

The other recent bit of tuning I did was with the Starboard Formula 135. I traded the 65 cm Curtis fin that was sold with it for a 58 cm Finworks fin that is more naturally suited to the board's 85 cm width. It felt great on my first time out with it in good winds around 15 knots, but in slightly less wind the second time out it felt a bit "sticky," i.e. it was bogging down in the chop a bit and sometimes sending water splashing in my face. Today I moved the mast base back as far as it would go on that. It was only a change of two inches or so, but it made a big difference as far as making the board feel more free, fast, and efficient. With perfect formula conditions of about 13 knots of sideshore wind, I rode it way upwind and way downwind, really jamming and enjoying the Florida sunshine.

Life is good when you're in tune. 

Beginner Windsurfing: How to Reorient After Falling

The other day a beginner windsurfer (at the uphauling stage) told me he preferred shallow water because he spent a lot of time standing in the water positioning the sail. There are certainly some good reasons to prefer shallow water, like being able to walk back to the beach if you can't sail back, but I don't think positioning the sail in the water is one of the good reasons. That prompted me to write this instructional blog post. The gist of it is this: Getting off the board to position the sail is an unnecessary waste of time, and there's a way you can avoid ever having to do it. (Or at least until you start learning waterstarting, but that's an advanced skill for another day.) Even in shallow water, it's usually a lot more efficient to get ON the board before worrying about positioning the sail. Here's my pictorial tutorial:

Updated Windsurf Calculator Online

Note: the Kiteboard Calculator can be found here.

When I realized I could embed an Excel file on my blog I decided to do it with the latest version of my Automatic Windsurfing Equipment Calculator. Heh heh heh. Some changes from the old version of the calculator are: 1) Fixed the lbs / kgs typo, 2) Added a decimal place to the wind strengths table, 3) Simplified the fin size calculator, 4) Added several more categories of board to the board size calculator. Let me know what you think.

Calculator embedded below, or download the file here.

Onshore Offshore Sideshore Frontside Backside

I had fun windsurfing at the Nahant Causeway on Wednesday afternoon. The wind was "side-offshore" from the Southwest, and it picked up throughout the session up to the point that I was overpowered on my 4.7 meter squared sail. The waves were waist to chest high and nicely set up for long "frontside rides". Here's the video. The song is by the band "Air".

SW Wavesailing Nahant 17 Nov 10 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Also, since I'm always blogging about "onshore, offshore, sideshore, frontside, backside" etc., I figured I ought to put in some pictures that illustrate what those terms actually mean in the context of riding waves with a windsurf. I defined the terms earlier in my "windsurfing slang" post, but I think the pictures will help.

First up there are the wind angles, which are defined relative to the line of the shore. Onshore wind blows from the ocean directly towards the beach, in roughly the same direction that the waves are moving. Offshore wind blows from the shore to the sea, in the opposite direction of the incoming waves. (Waves often originate from hundreds of miles away where the wind is blowing in a different direction. That's why there can still be waves when the wind at the beach is blowing offshore.) Sideshore winds are blowing parallel to the shore, from the right or the left. Side-onshore and side-offshore winds are diagonal to the shore.

You can ride waves on a windsurf in any wind direction, but you have to ride the waves in different ways, depending. In onshore wind, the wind and the waves are moving in the same direction- towards the shore. So you have to ride downwind with your back to the wave. This is "backside" wave riding. It's generally considered the least desirable kind of wave riding, because the wave's movement subtracts from the apparent wind speed, the waves are often disorganized and bumpy with wind-driven chop, and after you're done riding the wave you have to work your way upwind through a bunch of waves to get back where you started. Onshore wave riding is still awesome, though.

Offshore wind can be cool for waveriding, because you can ride with your body facing the wave, banking off of it like a nascar driver on a raised track as it pushes you upwind towards the shore. It's also a fairly easy downwind trip to get back where you started and catch another wave, like riding an escalator up and taking a waterslide down. This is "frontside" wave riding. It can be a bit hard to initially catch the waves, though, because you have to ride upwind to do so. It's also impossible to get ahead of a wave in straight offshore wind, so once you're on it you either have to ride it to the end or sneak out over the back of it before it breaks. Also, offshore wind tends to be gusty and light near the shore, and it has an element of danger, because if you break down you might get blown out to sea. For these reasons, folks usually prefer side-offshore wind over pure offshore wind.

Sideshore wind is probably the best of both worlds, because it allows you do both frontside and backside wave riding. Backside waveriding in sideshore wind helps you get upwind at a steeper angle than you can normally sail because you're getting a boost from the wave. And frontside waveriding in sideshore wind has a dynamic feel where you alternate between riding powered by the wind and riding powered by the wave. You can even mix frontside riding and backside riding on the same wave in sideshore conditions. What a lot of people do is ride the wave backside at first to grind upwind, then when wave the wave gets closer to shore and starts to steepen up and break, they swoop downwind do some frontside turns on it. Super cool.

Another High-Wind Session in Nahant

Woot! Saturday windsurfing in Nahant was even better than Friday, with blue skies, fairly sideshore wind, and about ten other windsurfers out there enjoying it. It was my buddy Eric's windiest and waviest windsurfing experience so far. He did well on a 4.7 World Sail and 110 liter RRD fsw while I was on a 4.25 Naish Nalu and my 83 liter Starboard Evo. I gave Eric some tuning tips for the high wind and waves, including: 1) Moving his footstraps inboard and using a single, centered rear strap for better turning and control. 2) Moving the mast base from the front to the middle of the mast track. 3) Threading his downhaul line using the proper method so he could fully downhaul his sail. And 4) Lending him a small 23 cm weed-wave fin to settle the board and increase control. It must have worked because Eric looked really dialed out there. At one point in the video you can see him pass me like I'm standing skill. Dang! The dude can't jibe too well yet but he is FAST.

The song in this video is "Aneurysm" by Nirvana.

Epic Nahant 10-16-10 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

PS- Here's a diagram of the tuning changes I recommended for Eric to get the most from his Freestyle-Wave (fsw) board. Some fsw boards come with outboard footstrap options like in this picture. The outboard foostrap positions let you use a longer fin and freeride sails with a lower foot for back and forth blasting, but they destroy the playful maneuverability you get when you use inboard foostraps and a stubbier fin.

How to do the Clew Mount Boom Mount GoPro Thing

Yo.

Enough people have been emailing me asking how I mount the GoPro camera on the clew of my windsurfing boom that think I should post a formal explanation / tutorial. I copied the technique from Andy McKinney of Lost In Hatteras fame, and the picture I am posting here is his, too.

The Andy McKinney boom mount

Basically, you take the helmet vent strap that comes with the GoPro helmet hero camera, and lash it tightly to the underside of the clew of your boom. That means the camera will be upside down when you clip it on, but you can flip the video when you process it in iMovie or whatever other program you use to edit the video. (No one wants to see a long, boring, unedited video, anyway.)

Tying a safety leash onto the camera and / or having a big, colorful float on the camera is also a good idea in case the clip breaks or the strap comes loose. Also, depending on the geometry of the clew, sometimes the camera will be most stable with the base of the vent strap not directly under the clew, but about 45 degrees across the back of the clew, stabilized agains the ridges where the pulleys are in the clew. It takes some trial and error to find the perfect angle for the camera to get the board in the shot and not cut off your head, but you'll figure it out. Happy filming!

PS- Here's links to some of the posts where I use this boom mount:

http://windsurfingmag.com/videos/2010/05/05/james-blog-stuart-spring-fling-event-video/

http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2010/04/glorious-windsurfing-disgusting-kite.html

http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2010/01/im-superbeast.html

Note: in this last one I actually did the camera on top of the clew, with a few extra hinge joints to get it up at the correct angle, but that was less stable and only worked because the water was super flat.
http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2010/01/formula-windsurfing-boom-mount-video.html

Good News in Windsurfing

I think the greatest strength of windsurfing is its connection to sailing. On a windsurf you can cruise, explore, and race just like on a sit-down sailboat, and you can do it all faster for less money on a more simple and portable setup.

When I was a kid I did day-camp with laser sailboats at the Olympia Yacht Club. It was shortly after I had learned to windsurf, and I remember thinking, "This is pretty fun, but it would be a lot cooler if we were all on windsurfs".

Well, some folks at US Sailing, the main organization that puts together sailing racing and instruction in America, have been doing the sensible thing and heavily incorporating windsurfing into their youth sailing and racing programs. Check out these two videos by Bryan McDonald that highlight recent activities of US Sailing's "Windsurfing Task Force" (wtf)...



This second video is pretty good, too, except there's some crappy Florida formula sailor mucking it up...



One little thing that US Sailing did that I think could be a big help for windsurfing was shortening the instructor course from four to two days, making it possible to do in one weekend. More trained instructors means more windsurfers will get a good introduction to the sport.

Another random, cool thing that just happened in windsurfing was the Formula World Championships at a weird big lake in the Argentinian Andes. I was following American Olympic Class and Formula Class windsurfer Farrah Hall's reports on her blog, and was stoked to hear that she made the international podium with a 3rd place. The men's winner (by far) was French pro sailor Antoine Albeau, who has dominated everything for the past couple years.

Furry in the puffs- understanding windsurfing slang

The other day someone requested that I do a post on windsurfing lingo. So, here it is. For the sake of brevity I'm leaving out most of the gear terminology and focusing more on words describing windsurfing conditions, action, and enthusiasm. If you're a non-windsurfer or a beginner, maybe this will help you figure out what people are talking about on the beach.

It - The wind and water conditions. "How is it?" "It's windy!"

Launch - Noun; a beach from which you can windsurf. Verb; to put your windsurf in the water.

Walk of Shame - When you are unable to return the to spot on the beach you launched from, and you have to walk back carrying your gear.

Skunked- When you go to the beach to try to windsurf but are thwarted for some reason, usually because there's not enough wind.

Skunk-proof- When you are insured against getting skunked by having equipment that works well in light wind or no wind conditions. E.g., "I always bring my longboard and a paddle so I'm totally skunk-proof."

Yard Sale - A dramatic crash that ends with you and your gear scattered in disarray.

Downwind - The direction the wind is flowing towards. "Larry drifted downwind and had to do the walk of shame."

Upwind - The direction the wind is coming from. "I had to tack and point to get upwind away from the pier."

Point / Pinch - Windsurfing as close to upwind as possible. "Dave beat me to the upwind buoy because he was able to point higher."

Tack - 1: When you change directions by turning the board upwind and switching sides. 2: Your direction of travel; to the right side with your right foot forward is called starboard tack and to the left side with your left foot forward is called port tack.

Carve - When you tilt the board to do a sharp turn. "Sally carved so hard she threw spray, like, 10 feet in the air."

Jibe / Gybe - Carving a turn in the downwind direction while switching sides of the board to change tacks. "I'm having a hard time planing through my jibes."

Planing / On a plane - The high-speed mode of windsurfing where your board is skimming on top of the water, rather than merely floating in it. "I'll never forget my first time planing."

Onshore - Wind that is blowing straight at the beach. "It was hard to get out past the waves because of the onshore wind."

Sideshore - Wind that is blowing parallel to the beach, which is what windsurfers usually prefer.

Offshore - Wind that is blowing from the beach towards the open water. "Ed got blown out to sea when the wind turned from sideshore to offshore."

Light - Not particularly windy. "It's light."

Teaser breeze - Wind that looks decent, but proves disappointing. "It was a teaser day."

Cranking / Honking / Howling / Raging - Wind blowing hard.

Blasting / Trucking / Booking - Windsurfing fast.

Ripping / Jamming - Windsurfing with skill and aggressive style.

Dialed / Dialed In - In tune with the wind and water conditions and windsurfing well. "Glenn is always totally dialed."

Gust - A short-term increase in wind speed affecting a small area.

Gusty - Wind characterized by frequent and severe gusts.

Puff - Another word for gust; sometimes a bigger or longer lasting gust. "It's really getting furry in the puffs!"

Furry - Ragged water texture with some blowing spray, associated with very high wind.

Liquid smoke - Beyond furry, when there's lots of blowing spray.

Nukin' - Extreme high wind. "Look at the liquid smoke, it's nukin'!"

Epic - Exceptionally good or strong / scary conditions. "Remember that epic Nor'easter we caught at Buckroe Beach last year?"

Powered / Juiced / Lit - When there's lots of wind in your sail and you're enjoying it. "How was it on your six-five?" "I was f'ing LIT!"

Overpowered - When there's too much wind in your sail, and you're struggling to stay in control.

Flattened / Spanked / Nuked - When you're overpowered to the point that you actually can't sail.

Survival Sailing / Victory at Sea - When conditions are so challenging that you don't bother trying to do any cool moves or anything; just being able to avoid disaster is a good accomplishment.

Tailwalking - When you're going fast in strong wind and the nose of the board flies up in the air unexpectedly.

Spin-out - When you're going fast and the fin loses its grip in the water, causing the board to skid sideways. "I was blasting along great until I caught some seaweed on my fin and spun-out."

Shift - A change in wind direction.

Shifty - Wind that is changing direction a lot.

Header - A wind shift that forces you to veer away from your destination.

Lift - A wind shift that helps you reach your destination.

Lull - A short-term decrease in wind speed.

Hole - A serious lull affecting a certain area. "I was leading the race until I got stuck in a hole and everyone passed me."

Holey - Wind characterized by frequent and severe holes.

Patchy / Spotty - Wind with a mix of gusts and lulls.

Gassed - When someone passes you on the upwind side, temporarily blocking your wind and slowing you down. "I know John is a fast sailor, but it's annoying the way he keeps gassing me."

Marginal - Barely windy enough to do the desired kind of windsurfing. "It was marginal for my six-six, I had to pump to get planing."

Six-six, five-seven, four-oh, etc. - Sail sizes; 6.6, 5.7, and 4.0 meters squared, respectively. Sails go from 12.5 down to about 3.0. Smaller sails imply stronger wind. "How is it?" "Awesome, I started on five-five and I'm about to re-rig to four-seven!"

Pump - Flapping the sail to generate power, usually done to help initiate planing.

Slogging / Shlogging / Schlogging - The slow and awkward windsurfing you do when it's not windy enough to plane with the board and sail you're using. "It started out good, but then the wind died and I had to shlog back to the beach."

Session / Sesh - An outing on the water. "It was a good session, I was planing most of the time."

Rig - Noun; a windsurf sail. Verb; to assemble a windsurf sail. "What [size of sail] are you rigging?"

Re-rig - What you have to do if the sail you put together the first time proves inappropriate for the wind conditions. "I was underpowered on my six-oh, so I had to re-rig to seven-five."

What was he on? - What size and type of board and sail was he using?

T.O.W. - Time on the water invested in the practice of windsurfing. "Fred doesn't get much T.O.W. since he's such a wind snob."

Wind snob - Someone who only windsurfs when it's really windy. "I'm usually the only guy out on light wind days, because everyone else around here is a wind snob."

Smooth / Glassy - An undisturbed water surface, usually associated with very light wind, but sometimes found between rolling waves or in the lee of a sandbar or jetty.

Butter - Smooth water that is fun to carve though. "Between the swells it was total butter."

Chop / Choppy - Small or medium-sized, non-breaking waves like you'd find on a small lake or bay on a breezy day.

Chop-Hop - A small jump initiated in flat or choppy water.

Psycho-chop / Voodoo-chop - Steep, large, disorganized chop that is challenging to sail through. "I got catapulted going too fast through the voodoo-chop by the bridge."

Catapult / Slam / Over-the-handlebars - A crash where you get thrown forward into the water. "I accidentally hooked in before I was ready and I got catapulted."

Hooked in - When you have the hook on your harness belt resting in the harness loop on the boom, supporting your weight from the sail. "It's hard to stay hooked in when the wind is gusty like this."

Swell - Medium or large-sized, non-breaking waves that form when the wind blows over a long, uninterrupted area. "When the wind is steady from the North it builds up nice swells that you can carve on."

Wave - What a swell becomes when it hits shallow water and starts to get steep and break.

Shore Break / Shore Pound - Waves breaking right on the beach, which suck because they are impossible to ride and because they make launching difficult. "I got denied by the shore pound."

Denied - When you are trying to get out past the breaking waves but can't make it because the waves smack you down. "I got denied twice before I finally made it to the outside."

The Outside - Away from shore, beyond where most of the waves are breaking. "The swells were really big on the outside."

The Inside - Close to shore, within the area that the waves are breaking. "I stayed on the wave too long and got caught on the inside."

The Impact Zone - The specific area where the waves are breaking hardest. "It was a great session until I went down in the impact zone and broke a mast."

Closing Out - When a wave is breaking along it's entire length, making it difficult to avoid or escape the breaking part or the whitewater.

Whitewater - The white mess of foamy, roiling water after a wave has broken. "I was trying to get out, but I kept getting pushed back by the whitewater."

Mushy / Crumbling - When the waves are breaking gradually, as opposed to rearing up and curling over abruptly. "The waves were kind of mushy, but I still got some good rides."

Mast Munchers / Crunchers - Big waves that are breaking hard.

Head high / Logo high / Mast high - Descriptions of the height of breaking waves. Logo high is over your head, but not quite as tall as the sail.

Ramp - A steep chop, swell, or wave in a position where you can do a big jump off of it.

Baf / Back-and-forth / Flatwater blasting - The typical kind of windsurfing where you're just going back and forth perpendicular to the wind, enjoying yourself but boring your spectators.

Bump & Jump / B&J - Like baf, but with some jumps thrown in. Usually takes place at venues with some chop and swells, but is not true wavesailing.

Wavesailing / Waveriding - When you're sailing in and around breaking waves, specifically positioning yourself to ride waves as they break.

Backside [waveriding] - When you're on a wave with your back to the wave, which is typical for onshore winds.

Frontside [waveriding] - When you're on a wave with your body facing the wave and the sail between you and the wave. It's the most fun type of wavesailing, but it requires well-organized waves and sideshore or offshore winds.

Going down the line - Traveling sideways along a breaking wave, staying on the part that hasn't quite broken yet. "Dude, I did, like three frontside turns going down the line!"

Teabagger - Kiteboarder.

Stoke - Enthusiasm, happiness, and excitement. It comes from the word "stoked", describing a fire that is burning hot because it's getting blown on.

Wind Thresholds and Kitestration

On the rare days that the weather is suitable for kiteboarding, I always seem to have an equipment problem. Most recently it was a busted pump. I had to pump like, 1000 times to inflate my main kite bladder instead of the usual 40. At the end I was tired and sweaty and the kite still wasn't fully hard. I thought it would be alright, but after just two minutes of riding, it folded in the middle of a power stroke and dropped from the sky like a scorched moth. It nearly self-destructed in the shorebreak before I could swim to it and drag the whole sandy, algae-entangled mess out of harm's way. Shit shit shit shit shit.

Windsurfing has been better to me. I managed to procure a loaner formula boom last week so I can rig my 9.8 again. (Thanks, you-know-who.) Friday I had a good sunset session in onshore winds, and today another good one in offshore winds. Neither sesh would have possible on kite gear, because of the lightness, flukiness, and / or direction of the wind.

All this got me thinking about the wind requirements for windsurfing versus kiteboarding, and inspired me to make the graph below. It shows the approximate wind needed for longboard windsurfing, formula windsurfing, bump & jump windsurfing, and kiteboarding. (Windsurfing on a big freeride board would be something intermediate between the curve for formula windsurfing and B&J windsurfing.)

Anyway, all the types of wind-riding are pretty cool in 15+ knots, but their rideability and planing thresholds are different below that. Here's why I drew the curves like I did, based on how each toy's handling changes as the wind increases:

Longboard Windsurfing-
0: Can't move.
1-4: Move slowly in any direction with the daggerboard down.
5-8: Move well in any direction with the daggerboard down, but have to force board to rail.
9-12: Board begins to rail itself and go upwind great. Railing straps can be used if the wind is steady. May be able to surf swells with the daggerboard up.
12-15: Powerful upwind with the daggerboard down, and can plane off the wind with the daggerboard up.
15+: Full-power planing with decent angles possible without the daggerboard. Have to be skilled with railing straps to sail with the daggerboard down.

Formula Windsurfing-
0: Can't move.
1-4: Slow slogging, limited upwind ability.
5-7: Stable slogging and ok upwind. No planing; at least not without constant, aerobic pumping.
~8: Concerted pumping will initiate planing, but hard to go upwind or downwind on plane.
~10: Less pumping required, ok angles while planing.
~12: Little or no pumping required to plane; high upwind and deep downwind angles possible.
~15: Intensely powered-up with awesome speed and angles and fully-planing jibes. Beyond this it gets kinda scary for most people.

Bump & Jump Windsurfing (manouverable board just big enough to float the rider)-
0-3: Can't move
4-8: Slow, precarious slogging with little or no upwind ability.
8-13: Stable slogging and ok upwind. No planing unless riding a wave.
~14: Can pump onto a plane, but not much power for jumps or manouvers.
15+: Few pumps required to plane. Good power for jumps, jibes, etc.

Kitesurfing-
0-6: Can't launch or fly kite.
~8: Can launch kite, but hard to keep it in the air.
~9: Can fly kite and body-drag ok, but not enough power to get up on board, and can't relaunch kite from water.
~10-11: Can ride board, but only by constantly working the kite. Can't stay upwind and tough to relaunch.
~12: Can ride and stay upwind, but have to work the kite a lot.
13+: Can "park" the kite and ride steadily most of the time. Can jump and stuff.

The thing is, with kiting, even though you have the lowest planing threshold besides formula windsurfing, you're basically dead in the water below that threshold. And the threshold is actually higher than it seems from the chart, since you have to account for lulls in the wind. Like, even if the wind is averaging 12 knots, if there are lulls to 8 knots, you're in trouble. I think that's why most of the kiters around Fort Pierce only go out when the average is around 15, and why, since the wind rarely reaches 15 between May and September here, the kiters disappear for the summer.

Anatomy of a Summer Windsurfing Sesh in FL

The windsurfing weather has been crappy here in Florida since I got back from vacation. It's the typical summer pattern; saturating heat and humidity under mostly cloudy skies, with hints of afternoon seabreeze usually squelched by over-spilling thunderstorms.

Yesterday looked like another bummer when I checked iwindsurf in the morning. Then there was a teaser wind blip caused by a thunderstorm. When there's a thunderstorm early, it tends to blow any chance for a seabreeze to re-develop, so I wrote off windsurfing for the day and did some other stuff. Branches started wiggling around 4pm, though, enough for me to put my formula gear in the van and drive down to the beach to have a look. It looked great! A nice 10+ knots of breeze, perfect for my 9.8 msq sail. I rode powered-up for two hours.

So that's how you get a good windsurfing sesh in Florida in summer. Patience, luck, a big-ass sail, and willingness to jump on any wind opportunity.

Windsurfers Have a Third Leg

When I first started windsurfing I remember looking at my dad's longboard and wondering how the heck anyone got their feet all the way back into the footstraps. What kind of sadomasochistic board designer put them where you couldn't even stand without sinking the tail? A few years later, I was able to occasionally get my back foot in one of the back straps, but only by almost doing the splits, with my front foot much further forward. The only time I ever tried to put my front foot in, too, I took off with terrifying, uncontrolled speed until I veered downwind and catapulted over the handlebars. I didn't try it again until after college when I moved to Virginia and got my own windsurf.

All that confusion and retarded progression was because I didn't realize I had a THIRD leg. In fact, all men and women who windsurf have one. It's the mast base. What I was failing to do as a youth was to transfer weight up off my first two legs, through the sail, and down into the mast base. If I'd done that it would have been much easier to get my feet back in footstrap territory without sinking the tail. And by maintaining mast base pressure (MBP) when in the footstraps I could have distributed my weight more evenly for a less bucking and swerving ride.

If you compare a windsurf board against a surfboard or a directional kiteboard, you can totally see why the footstraps are so far back. It's because the mast base substitutes for the front foot.

Remembering to use that imaginary third leg is KEY to almost everything in windsurfing. There are different ways to apply MBP depending on what windsurfing situation you're in. Hanging down on the boom when accelerating onto a plane, extending the body and committing weight to the harness when striving for speed and control, pressing down on the boom and sheeting in during a hard carve or jibe intitiaton... the list goes on. He who controls his MBP controls his destiny.

I'm in Windsurfing Magazine

Well, my life is complete now that I've got a goofy mugshot that appears twice in the June 2009 issue of Windsurfing Magazine. :)

The first appearance of my head in a bubble is for a little blurb called "Top 3 Reasons to Teach Windsurfing". The behind-the-scenes secret is that I actually sent in a Top 11 Reasons, but only 3 were fit to print. Since my blog has much lower standards for publication than the magazine, here's the 8 reasons that didn't make it:

Top 11 Reasons to Teach a Friend to Windsurf
1. So you’ll have someone to ride with. Duh!
2. It could be the only time you see what your 3.5 looks like when rigged.
3. You can foist your used gear off on your friend… and buy new for yourself!
4. You’ll double your t.o.w. by getting out on beginner-friendly days.
5. By removing the stigma of selfish escapism from your hobby you may be granted more “hall passes” from your spouse / boss.
8. When word gets out about what a great instructor you are, you can moonlight to earn extra cash or to meet members of the preferred sex.
9. It’s a good excuse to get the Kona longboard, SUP, or tandem board you’ve been eyeing.
11. If you don’t, our sport is doomed, DOOMED!

The next appearance of my head in a bubble is for the mid-sized freeride board test, for which I was one of a number of testers. It gives a little info about me, like that I'm an "intermediate" sailor (heck, I've only been doing it 20 years) and I weigh 160 lbs. It correctly lists my four favorite test boards, except for one typo. For the record, the Quatro Freeride 110 was NOT one of my favorites in the test, even though some other people loved it.

I wrote my subjective opinions of the boards in a previous draft of this blog post, but it has come to my attention that doing so may not be kosher with the mag. I'll see what the editor says about it before deciding whether or not to repost it here.

Windsurfing Quiver Spacing and Color Coordination

In human nature there is a fascination with sleek, symmetrical shapes. The fascination is most powerful when an object's form embodies its function as a tool, a toy, or a living thing. It's why girls draw cats and horses, why men collect knives and guns, why fly-fishers pursue trout, and it's one of the reasons I love windsurfing.



There's an obsessive satisfaction for me in ordering and organizing my windsurfing gear; blending aesthetics and "utility". One of the juiciest problems to solve is quiver spacing. The object is to acquire an array of windsurfing equipment that will cover the range of wind and water conditions you sail in, with minimal gaps or overlap. Money, storage space, and sailing time set limits on how much stuff you can have and use, so spacing of sail, board, and fin sizes really is key to maximizing your stoke:stress ratio.

Today I had a nice quiver-zen episode, with a rising wind that started perfect for my 8.7 sail / 150 liter board, then got perfect for my 6.6 sail / 106 liter board. I'd never made that particular transition before, but it was awesome how well it worked. It made me feel good about having given my in-between-sized 7.8 to my dad, clearing up some space. (In the pictures, the blue combo is the 6.6 / 106 and the yellow combo is the 8.7 / 150.)

Below 6.6 I'm still working on my spacings. I want to have sails with optima separated by about 3 knots in wind speed. When I had a 5.8 and a 5.2 they were only separated by about 2 knots, so it was hard to decide which to use. Now that my 5.8 is kaput, the jump straight from 6.6 to 5.2 is doable, but a bit much. Since the 5.2 is aging, I'm planning to replace it with a 5.5. Then I'll have nice 3 knot spacings from 6.6, to 5.5, to 4.7. (The way I'm figuring out the spacings is with my automatic sail size calculator spreadsheet. It's a good tool for this sort of thing. ) Below 4.7 I have 4.25, which is only 2 knots from 4.7, and 3.5, which is 5 knots from 4.25. 4.0 would be better, but since I rarely use my really small sails, anyway, I'm not in a rush to fix the spacings there. Eventually when I get it all worked out it's gonna be like this:

8.7, < 15 knots
6.6, 15-18 knots
5.5, 18-21 knots
4.7, 21-24 knots
4.0, 24-28 knots
3.5, > 28 knots

:)

Windsurfing Photoshoot Perils

I've been combining windsurfing magazine board testing with seagrass studies in the Kennedy Space Center by setting up camp at the Banana River Resort in Cocoa Beach. Stacking up work and play had led to some long days where I'm windsurfing before breakfast, mucking around seagrass beds until sunset, and scraping epiphytes in the lab after dark. Of course, doing fun things I don't get too tired. Actually, I'm not so crazy about scraping epiphytes (chlorophyll? - more like bore-ophyll!) but the rest of it is cool.

On Thursday morning the WS Mag Editor Josh Sampeiro was there taking pictures for the magazine. So I got to be in a photoshoot. A couple neat pictures are posted on the Editor's Blog, but of course the better ones will only be in the magazine.

It was hard windsurfing in a choreographed way with two other sailors. We'd have to line up together offshore, shlog upwind to a certain spot, then all get on a plane at the same time, maintain equal speed while sailing scarily close together, display "big, sh*t-eating grins" per Josh's instructions, and jibe or tack at the last second without hitting the pier or each other. If you were in the middle, you couldn't jibe until the person downwind of you jibed, and you couldn't tack unless the person upwind of you tacked. I was in the middle one time when the person downwind of me jibed pretty late. I panicked that I wouldn't be able to jibe without hitting the pier, so I tacked instead and "BAM" realized that the person upwind of me was jibing when her board hit my head. Josh said she put on the brakes pretty hard before impact, which must be what saved my noggin and her board from any visible damage.

Reflecting on the incident, I've thunk of some safety rules for tightly spaced sailing that I'll want to follow in the future:

1. Plan the run in detail, including who will jibe and who will tack and how much time and space each person thinks they need to do their move comfortably.

2. The downwind sailor should initiate the jibe first, and should start it with more room to spare than just what he needs, because it will take a second for the people upwind of him to see and react to his move.

3. The most tentative sailor should be the one upwind, because only the upwind sailor has the option to balk at the jibe and do a tack instead.

YRS With Chris

Yesterday afternoon was one of those "as good as it gets" days for summertime windsurfing in Virginia. The local seabreeze, which usually peters out around 10-15 knots, was boosted to a robust 15-20 knots by the broader wind pattern. Chris Coyne and I both rode 5.8 m sails at York River seafood. Here's Chris getting ready to launch.

[Sorry, pictures hosted elsewhere lost to time.]

We had to wade through a disgusting, 2-foot thick mat of rotting macroalgae and dead and dying fish and crabs. Algal blooms like this and the one in China are usually related to excess nutrients entering the water from human activity, i.e. sewage and runoff from farms and pavement.

[Sorry, pictures hosted elsewhere lost to time.]

Here was another sign that the Chesapeake Bay we windsurf in ain't exactly pristine.

[Sorry, pictures hosted elsewhere lost to time.]

The "eternal flame" of the Amoco refinery and powerplant across the river also evoked the heavy human impact on the bay.

[Sorry, pictures hosted elsewhere lost to time.]

Chris was sailing pretty well on his 5.8 KA sail and 160 liter Hifly Matrix (a heavy plastic version of the twin-fin Hifly Madd). He has improved a lot this summer. The one thing I still bug him to work on is to commit more of his weight to the sail to get on a plane faster and to get in the footstraps without sinking the windward rail.

[Sorry, pictures hosted elsewhere lost to time.]

The picture below shows Sam Franck in a good, committed stance with the sail fully sheeted in and the board trimmed flat. Chris, do this. :P

[Sorry, pictures hosted elsewhere lost to time.]

I thought of a little rhyme to help instill proper stance:

Extend yourself to sheet the sail
And keep weight off the windward rail
...

Poor Person's Guide to Windsurfing

Windsurfing can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Where there’s a will to windsurf, there is a way… even if you’re a broke student, a starving artist, or an over-extended breadwinner. You just have to be smart about it, invest some time and effort, and be willing to make creative compromises. The following is my guide to windsurfing on the cheap. (You also might want to check this basic info on windsurfing and windsurfing technical questions guide.)

James’ Guide to Windsurfing on the Cheap

1. ANY windsurfing is better than NO windsurfing. Don’t let the fact that you can’t afford new gear stop you from getting on the water somehow.

2. Get ready to do some experimenting and “tinkering” with your gear. Basically you are going to put together the windsurfing equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster, using used gear that no one else wanted. This will be an instructive and rewarding process. At the end you will have a better understanding of the equipment side of the sport than someone who gets everything new and complete from the store.

3. Secondhand gear is your friend. There are several ways to get it...

*Commandeer it from your aging or disinterested friends and relatives. There is a lot of perfectly functional windsurf gear collecting dust in people’s garages. More often than not, they’re happy to let it go for cheap or free.

*Get in the loop, locally. If you talk to and hang out with the windsurfers in your area, and join your local club if it exists, you will be the first to hear about good deals on used stuff. If you are a friendly, fun person who people want to sail with, they will often bend over backwards to help set you up with gear. Just be aware that serious windsurfers have sometimes forgotten what it’s like to be a poor newbie, and they may make snobby gear recommendations that are unrealistic for you and your situation.

*Scrounge at the shop. Unlike online dealers, real life windsurf shops often have lots of cheap, used gear. They may also host swap-meets at the beginning and end of the season, which can be a bonanza for savvy shoppers.

*Get in the loop, online. Sites like iwindsurf have a classifieds ads section, and gear for sale will also often appear on regional windsurfing bulletin boards and email lists. If you shop for windsurfing gear on Craig's list or Ebay it can be helpful to ask in the iwindsurf forum if something is a good deal before you buy it, but be prepared for lots of differences of opinion.

4. Figure out what you need. It’s useful to take a bottom-up approach and make a list of the ingredients required to assemble a working windsurf. You can base it on this diagram and list.

A board with plenty of volume for flotation. Consult my windsurfing gear calculator if you’re unsure about what volume you need. A longboard (a large board with a daggerboard as well as a fin) is an ideal cheapskate’s board because it is usable in all wind conditions, is easy to progress on, and isn’t overly sensitive to the particular sizes of sails and fins that you use. As a beginner windsurfer you should generally avoid shortboards (those with no daggerboard), because they require more advanced skills, stronger wind, and specific sails and fins. If you do get a shortboard, prepare for a frustrating learning experience with lots of waiting for wind and struggling to get going.

A universal joint that is compatible with the mast-track in your board. If you have an old longboard, it may have an odd mast track. Old, Mistral brand adjustable mast tracks often had an extra, threaded hole, making them compatible with modern single-bolt u-joints. Other mast tracks can sometimes be converted to a single-bolt system, although they may no longer be adjustable after the conversion. Ask at your local windsurf shop for help with this.

A mast-base extension that is compatible with your universal joint, has enough extension range to suit your mast and sail, and has robust pulleys and cleats for downhauling the sail. Buying a new aluminum mast-base extension and universal joint is usually a good investment even if your funds are scarce, because they are such a key part of your rig.

A mast that will fit the size and type of sail that you will use most often. Old fiberglass masts work ok with pre-1995 sails, but may be too fat at the tip to work in more modern sails. Newer masts (grey or black ones with carbon in them) work in both new and old sails and are lighter. A 460 cm mast is a good size for an average sized man, because it will work in sails from about 7.5 m2 (if it’s a new sail) to 5.5 m2 (if it’s an old sail). For a small guy or an average sized woman, a 430 cm mast is a good size, because it will work in sails from about 6.5 m2 (if it’s a new sail) to 4.5 m2 (if it’s an old sail).

A sail. Your bread and butter sail should be one that will get you planing on a good day. Later on you can add a larger sail for planing on marginal days, and a smaller sail for exceptionally windy days. In most areas, a “good day” means about 15 knots. So you can use 15 knots and the weight-appropriate sail indicated by the sail calculator to figure out what size sail to look for. If you are still working on the most basic skills like uphauling and tacking, then you may want to get a somewhat smaller sail.

A boom. You should get a clamp-on boom with a secure-feeling connection to the mast. It should have a large, robust clamp with a metal (not plastic) cleat in it. The size of the boom is dictated by the size of the sail. Your boom should be able to fit your bread and butter sail with a moderate amount of extension, leaving room for a larger or smaller sail if you add one later. A boom size range of about 170 – 220 cm is good to start with.

5. Develop a discriminating eye for gear and a sense of how much it’s worth.

*Some stuff isn’t worth the trouble, even if it’s free. In this category are: 1) Fiberglass masts that look “fuzzy” on the outside where the itchy glass fibers are exposed. 2) Boards with grievous damage, or missing, non-standard components that you don’t have the time or skill to deal with. 3) Tie-on booms, one-piece masts, and simple, triangular sails (unless they come as part of a complete, antique rig in excellent condition). 4) Colored plastic downhaul tools, which will split in your hand and cut it open.

*Some stuff is better than nothing, but may have compatibility and performance issues. Pretty much anything from the early 1990s or earlier falls into this category, and you shouldn’t pay more than a few tens of dollars for it, at most. Sails from this era can be recognized by being made largely of laminated cloth with bold colors. Boards from this era often had heavy plastic construction and rear footstraps on the centerline of the board. There were also a lot of longboards from this time that had daggerboards, but were stingy with width and volume, and thus were almost as hard to ride as shortboards, especially for full-sized dudes. These boards had anywhere from 140 – 180 liters volume and were about 300 – 340 cm in length.

6. Learn how to make minor repairs and improvisations.

*The most common windsurfing repair is taping over small tears in the clear plastic part of monofilm sails. As long as a rip isn’t too big, and doesn’t go all the way to a cloth seam on the sail, you can carefully clean and dry the area around it and put tape over it on both sides to fix it. The best type of tape to use is specialized clear sail tape that you buy at the windsurf shop. If you can’t afford that, regular packing tape works ok, and black “Gorilla Tape” works great if you don’t mind the looks. Grey duct tape degrades in the sun and isn’t so good.

*Dings in a board can be repaired with a stick of “plumber’s epoxy”, which is sometimes marketed at windsurf shops as a “ding stick”. It’s the same thing as plumber’s epoxy, just more expensive. It’s a clay-like substance that hardens in about an hour. If you make a lot of repairs with it, it will look like your board is covered with wads of chewed gum. If you don’t like the looks, you can sand the wads flat and paint over them.

*Regular epoxy can also be used for some repairs. There’s a whole art to board repair that I won’t get into here. If you want to learn more, check out the instructions on the Windance Website or visit the “Board Lady” Eva-M Hollmann.

*Lots of times old longboards are in perfect shape except for a rotted or torn daggerboard gasket. You can sail them without fixing the gasket, but they will be slower and water may shoot up through the opening. Your local windsurfing shop might be able to help you order a new gasket, or you try to find one online, or you could make your own. The cheapest way to make your own is with Gorilla tape. Lay two pieces out sticky side up, parallel, and overlapping slightly. Then lay one piece sticky side down over the seam between the other two pieces. Stick the tape down over the daggerboard slot and voila – instant gasket, quality not guaranteed.

7. Make your car work for you; don’t work for you car.

*If you are poor, the last thing you need is a new car with big monthly payments. Go for a cheap car, since it’s going to be messed up anyway by your nasty windsurfing gear. Station wagons are nice since they can easily accommodate roof racks on top and sails, booms, and masts inside. Your car can also double as your permanent windsurfing gear storage area. Since you’re sailing old, ugly gear, it’s ok to leave it outside on your car all the time, unless you live in a particularly desperate, high crime area.

*Roof racks can be expensive, but if you’re lucky, you can find some for your model of car on eBay or Craig’s List. If you’re handy, you can make your own. In a pinch, you can even strap a board to your roof without any racks. Just roll up some towels as pads, put the board upside down on top of them, and run straps through the tops of the doorways in the car (see picture). You’ll be fine unless it rains hard.

*For straps, it’s worth the investment in real surf straps. Straps with hooks or bulky ratchets, the type you are most likely to find at the hardware store, are meant for boat trailers and pickup beds, and are inconvenient for regular roof racks. Make sure the straps you get are long enough but not too long.

8. Make windsurfing number one.
You may think windsurfing is expensive now, while you are first starting. However, as you get more addicted you will find that windsurfing becomes more fun than almost everything else in your life, and it will seem perfectly natural to spend a large portion of your income on it. You will have no qualms about economizing in other areas to maximize your windsurfing. For instance, you can probably cancel your cable, sell your video game console system, cut down on your drinking, moderate the air conditioning, etc. If you are a single man you can decide to only go out with modern, liberated women who don’t mind going Dutch on dates. If you are a single woman, you can decide to only go out with traditional gentlemen who pay for everything. You’ll figure it out.

How to Teach Windsurfing

**NOTE- If you are trying to learn about windsurfing, or about a particular windsurfing problem or issue, one of these posts might be more helpful: Questions ABOUT Windsurfing, Common Windsurfing Questions**

Contrary to what you might think, knowing how to windsurf does NOT confer any ability to teach others.

This is because experienced windsurfers do everything by instinct. We make subtle moves and adjustments every moment in response to the feel of the board and rig interacting with the wind, the water, and our bodies. When it comes down to it, we can hardly even describe what we're doing, let alone convey it successfully to a beginner.

What we have to do as instructors is break down our complex actions and reactions into a set of verbal instructions that is short and simple enough to be understood, but complete enough that it will actually enable the student to go where she wants to go.

(Me teaching my sister at Club Mistral on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, Christmas '06)

The best way to learn how to teach is take an official windsurfing instructor course. I did the one through US Sailing, taught by Dietmar "Pete" Wells at Beach Sports in Hampton. It made a HUGE difference in my success rate for teaching and was well worth the money. If you're too cheap or too busy to take the course you should at least buy the handy reference manual; "Start Windsurfing Right".

In the meantime, here's my quick & dirty version of how to teach windsurfing:

1. Make sure the person you want to teach actually wants to learn. If not, don't bother. Note- If you REALLY want to teach that person, like if they're your your kid or something, you could try a sneaky approach. Get a SUP paddle for your longboard and let them dink around with that setup. Once they get some confidence on the board away from your overwhelming, instructorly presence, they may be ready to try it with the sail.

2. Make sure you have the right gear for the person you want to teach; a big board with a daggerboard AND a small, light sail with no cams. (No matter how gentle the wind is, your 6.5 sail is way too big for a beginner and your 140 liter shortboard is way too small.) This gear calculator will give you an idea of what to use: LINK. Also, make sure you put the boom at the right height. Around shoulder or neck height is good for beginners. (See the diagram for how figure out boom height.)

3. Pick a good spot (no waves, chop, current or shoreline obstacles) and a good day (5-10 knots sideshore is ideal).

4. Orient the student to the wind at the site. Make sure they can point into the wind and they know what "upwind" and "downwind" mean. Have them put their back to the wind and point their arms out to the side and explain that the directions they are pointing are the main directions that they will be sailing in, and that its not possible to sail directly upwind.

5. Start the instruction with a short lesson on land. Take the fin off, screw in a mast base, and set the board up perpendicular to the wind on the beach or the grass.

-Show the student what the different parts of the board are (front, back daggerboard, mast base) so they will know what you're talking about when you're shouting instructions later.

-Show where to stand when uphauling (feet on the centerline of the board, shoulder width apart, straddling the mast base) and when sailing (front foot next to mast base, pointing forward, back foot on centerline just behind daggerboard knob). Explain that you always need to keep your weight in the "sweet spot" of the board around the middle, even when you are walking around the front during a tack (see diagram).

-Show the right way to uphaul. Start crouched down, back straight, then slowly roll backward and stand up, going hand-over-hand on the uphaul rope until the top. Keep arms and back straight the whole time. At the end the body should be making a "V" with the mast. Butt sticking out is bad. Knees slightly bent is good. Let the student practice uphauling and getting into this position a couple times.

-Show how to turn the board when holding the uphaul by swinging the sail toward the back of the board to turn upwind or towards the front to turn downwind. If the student is light and you don't mind spinning your board on the ground you can simulate a tack while they swing the sail back and walk around the front of the board.

-Next, show how to grab the boom correctly with the front hand. Let go of the uphaul with what will be the front hand, point to the nose of the board with that hand (this helps to identify the correct hand), then cross over the hand that's holding the uphaul and grab the boom as close as possible to the mast. Then let go of the uphaul rope.

-From this one-handed position, the next move is to put the feet in the sailing position. Note that the feet go into the sailing position before the back hand goes on the boom.

-Show the student how to pull the sail up in front of them and slightly to windward BEFORE they grab the boom with their back hand. If they don't bring the sail up past vertical like this, they will have to bend their back and stick their butt out to reach the boom, and they will round upwind as soon as they sheet in on the water. This is one of those things that experienced windsurfers do without realizing but usually fail to teach.

-Once the sail is in position where they can grab the boom easily with their back hand, have them do it. Then show them how sheeting the sail in and out turns on and off the power, and let them try it until they're used to it. Tell them that they can ALWAYS turn off the power by letting go with their back hand, but that they should NEVER let go with the front hand.

-Briefly explain that steering while underway is done by leaning the whole rig toward the tail of the board to turn upwind, or leaning it towards the front to turn downwind.

6. On the water, let them uphaul and get in a good "V" position while they're holding the top of the uphaul. (Hold on to the tail of the board so they don't go anywhere.) Show them how to keep the board pointed perpendicular to the wind by swinging the sail toward the front or back of the board as needed.

7. Have them practice tacks until they can turn around in place without falling down. Don't even bother showing them how to actually sail until they are comfortable tacking. Otherwise they will immediately sail out of earshot and you will be shouting indecipherable tacking instructions while they panic.

8. Go on to the actual sailing instruction part, which they should be prepared for since their on-land lesson. You will have to do lots of reminding and correcting at first. A good goal for the first lesson is to be able to sail out, tack, and come back to the beach. If they get that down, then you can work on the steering and upwind / downwind direction control a little more, but don't try to cram too much into the first lesson. (See #8).

9. Quit while you're ahead; don't wait until your student is exhausted and frustrated. Resist the temptation to always push your student to the next level. It's especially important to keep sessions short and sweet if you're trying to teach a reluctant significant other. If that's the case, make sure you always follow up the session with some kind of rewarding activity that your sweetie likes.

10. General notes: Be patient. Be helpful but not overbearing. Don't condescend. Share stoke if the student is doing well and give self-esteem-boosting encouragement if the student is having a tough time.