Beginner gear

Ciamspeed · Joined: 30 Aug 2014 Posts: 1

Hi,
What board-sail combo would you recommend for a 5'4" 117lb girl?
Beginner, learns fast, will use it very often.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

BRIMAR · Joined: 03 May 2004 Posts: 115

For total beginners I always recommend Renting and taking lessons.
Once she's in the harness it's time for a transition board to learn to waterstart.
This board needs to be a size which will just barely allow her to up haul if she needs to.
at 117lbs thats around 60kg (each liter of volume will float one kilogram) that puts her on an 80-90 liter transition board her weight plus the weight of the rig and an extra 10 liters or so to make it easier for her.

You want to make it as easy as possible because IT'S HARD TO LEARN TO WINDSURF!

If it was easy they would call it KITING.

Sailworks has a very light weight four batten wave sail that will be easy for her to up haul/waterstart combined with a lightweight boom and mast id say a 4.0 is a good place to start.

Let us know how it goes:-)
Brian

keycocker · Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 3598

That lesson will be on a huge board that even two people can easily balance and a sail as light as a feather. We use a 2.2 with a kid boom and mast.
A 4.0 is half as good on the first day, esp with a normal mast and boom.
We loan this gear to friends with a ten minute lesson, then they are on their own.
It will make her first five sessions a breeze.
Then buy her gear if she loves it.
That trainer board will be of no use to her after that, but will be the smartest move she ever made in her sailing career.

DelCarpenter · Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 499 Location: Cedar Falls, IA

There is nothing easy about sailing an 80-90 liter board unless the rider already knows how to windsurf and you have planing winds!

A Starboard Start or Rio or any other modern board specially designed as a beginner board is what you want. The rig should be light. A sail size around 4.0 in winds around 5-10 mph is likely to be easy enough, but the depends on the learner..

Beginning the lesson with a stand up paddle session on the board that will be used for windsurfing can be helpful.

coachg · Joined: 10 Sep 2000 Posts: 3550

Where will the sailing be done & in what kind of wind?

Coachg

d0uglass · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:55 am Post subject:

Ciam-

You picked a great sport to get into. Windsurfing is awesome!

For the first 10 times or so you want a big board and a small sail. For an average weight guy, a big board would be defined as one with 200+ liters of volume, and a small sail would be defined as one around 5 meters squared or smaller. Since you're light, a big board would be defined as 140+ liters, and a small sail would be defined as 3.5 meters squared or smaller. If you are learning in medium or strong winds you will need an even smaller sail than that, like 2 meters squared.

It's also important that the board has a daggerboard (a big retractable fin in the center of the board) to stabilize it and keep it from drifting downwind when you're sailing at slow speeds. So a 140 liter board that is meant as a non-beginner board for a heavier person will not work well because it won't have a daggerboard.

There's nothing wrong with using a really big board with a daggerboard even though you are light weight. As long as you can carry it to the water, you're good to go.

Good luck,
James

PS- Definitely gotta have a lesson or two.