This Page About Start Windsurfing

Start Windsurfing

Windsurfing is the most amazing of sports. It combines the thrills of surfing, the tranquillity of sailing, and puts you in touch with nature better than a good hike. It is a sport that you can go off by yourself for some amazing peace of mind, or sail with a crowd of 200 other windsurfers for unbeatable comradery. No sport other than windsurfing can give the unbeatable feeling of being out in the open, gliding effortlessly over beautiful, clear waters. It's a sport where you can cross great expanses with a friend or explore unchartered waters alone. A windsurfer has virtually unlimited access to the oceans, lakes and waterways on this planet. It's fun, it's easy - it's the perfect sport.

The main attraction is the enormous diversity and the challenges windsurfing offers to all levels of sailors. Whether you're 8 years old or 80, taking your first precarious steps on a beginner's board or working out how to pull of the latest radical freestyle manoeuvre, the sense of achievement is unsurpassed.

It's a sociable sport...

Windsurfers are in general a very nice bunch of people; helpful and always willing to chat. Windsurfing with other people adds even further to the enjoyment; big grins as you pass each other on the water, and lots of encouragement and advice available when trying new techniques or tricks.

It's good for you...

Both physically and mentally - windsurfing is definitely good for you. Even in the lightest of winds, windsurfing is a mobile and active enough sport to leave you pleasantly exhausted at the end of a good day, and usually promotes a sound night's sleep.

Regular windsurfing can keep you in very good shape. It works a lot of major muscle groups, and you can make it as strenuous as you want - windsurfing at Olympic level is reckoned to be the most arduous sport in the entire games. It's good for the head too. You can empty your mind of all other worries and stresses while you're out on the water; just enjoy the sensations of being afloat. It's very much a feelgood sport. Continue to learn more about windsurfing, please visit Windsurfing Academy.

Why start again?

Maybe you tried windsurfing 10 years ago and didn't like it then - so why should you like it now? Or perhaps you're just wondering whether you're strong and agile enough to take on such a challenge... In either case, let us put your doubts firmly at rest right now...

This is no idle claim or piece of marketing hype. Take it from us - windsurfing really never has been easier! A comparison of the equipment from now and just 20 years ago reveals a sport that has leapt from the stone age to the space age in those two short decades. Being a young and vibrant industry, manufacturers have never been slow in turning to and embracing new technologies and materials. Vastly improved understanding of the aerodynamic requirements and performance of windsurfing sails, along with widespread use of modern high-tech materials in just about every aspect of board, sail and equipment construction, has brought about incredible improvements. Boards and rigs offer much greater performance, are far more easy and enjoyable to use, and everything works and fits together much easier and efficiently.

The Boards

The average weight of a board has more than halved over the last twenty years, thanks to great improvements in both construction techniques and materials. Boards were originally built from polyethylene on a heavy PVC foam. Nowadays the vast majority of boards are built in light sandwich constructions using exotic materials like carbon and Kevlar around a much lighter foam core, and consequently weigh far less, while still being very stiff and strong. The average weight of a modern board is around 20 lbs : about the weight of a medium suitcase. Entry level, cruising and racing boards have also gone wider and shorter. These modern designs generate earlier planning and better acceleration in addition to being stable platforms for entry level sailors.

The Rigs

The 1976 windsurfing rig was an extremely cumbersome creature. Sails were made of very heavy materials and were shaped in such a way that they were difficult to pull from the water. Their shape - a direct descendent of basic dinghy sails as no-one had any better ideas at the time - were twitchy, unstable, heavy in the hands and very unforgiving to use, especially in stronger winds. Thanks to the application of advanced aerodynamic theory and very modern materials, sails of today are very light, very stable, very efficient, and bear little resemblance to their predecessors. They're extremely easy to use whether one is pulling them from the water or simply sailing along. The elongated triangle shape of 1976 is long gone, to be replaced with a design more resemblant of a modern aircraft wing, and a very constant structure with a fixed shape, maintained by numerous full-length battens and stabilizing components. Consequently, the sail is extremely stable and light in the hands, while generating far more power and speed than the rigs of yesteryear. You have a strong common bond in your shared love of this sport. Great days blasting over blue water, and great evenings too. Buzzing after a good day, regaling your pals with your lurid descriptions of the moves you pulled off and the ones that got away, and listening with enjoyable scepticism to their equally tall stories. Apres-surf is as good as any apres-ski!

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