New to windsurfing, will this board be suitable?

[bred2shred]

[coachg]

[PeconicPuffin]

I have failed to make my point, and pissed more than a few people off unintentionally. I'm going to try again.

While we're not on the same page, I think bred2shred frames the issue I'm arguing most clearly:

[isobars]

I understand where Coach is coming from and appreciate the underlying research. But my goal was and remains simply to minimize frustration by improving my sailing skills. I was extremely disappointed when magazine tutorials, books, money (e.g., travel expenses including air fares and blank checks), TOW, and sacrifices (e.g., leaving a solid week of wind at home for prearranged lessons 900 miles away that fell through), and lessons at exotic locations all proved useless for many reasons. At that point I just wanted to break some progress barriers, but it was not to be. Intrinsic, extrinsic, schmentrinsic; I just wanted to make planing U-turns without falling in, not to mention the small stuff. Scores of my early WSing buds just gave up, I'll bet one STILL can't plane through a jibe despite moving to the Gorge decades ago, and I see hundreds of botched jibe attempts every day by people who live here or have been coming to the Gorge every summer for decades.

As someone said a few posts ago, even straddling the mast for uphauling isn't obvious at first, especially for any guy who tried that with those early mast sockets that released when pulled vertically. Why, hell, I've even encountered LONG-time WSers who STILL haven't figured out the right way to go BFF without sinking the tail!

[PeconicPuffin]

[windoggi]

Welcome to the iwindsurf forum gdawson6.....

[GURGLETROUSERS]

In reply to, how can you know what real satisfaction is without having taken a lesson, for comparison?

For many years I've been a self taught accomplished solo sea kayaker, with thousands of miles beneath my belt. (Several 500 miler solo camping journeys, a three weeker solo in Arctic waters, and solo English Channel crossings, all without back up, or people even knowing I was there.)

How can I rate satisfaction without having had the benefit of being 'instructed? ( By whom?) Easily! To pivk just one of a thousand memories - my first solo English Channel crossing in 1976. (A growing wind and sea state over the 7 hours it took.)

On setting up camp, with primus roaring and coffee in hand (spaghetti cooking) was one of the absolute highlights of my life. I'd completed a difficult crossing in non too friendly conditions, and paddled near to the limit of my self taught but refined ability. If that was not COMPLETE satisfaction (and pride) I know not what could be!! To suppose had I taken 'instruction. I'd have felt better is absurd!

It is not WHAT we do in life, so much as HOW we achieve it. It's pointless saying more, except, how can those who have never carried through a dream under their own dedication and desire judge those who have. How would they know!

[swchandler]

I pretty much said it all in my second post on page 2, but because I offered a bit of negativity in that post, I wanted to clarify things in the following post. At this point, with coachg's comments, I thought that I would take one more swing at it to make my point.

As a kid, I always steered clear of organized sports. Too much of a control thing for me. Even if the coaching methods are free of emotion, the control thing is at the heart of it. Is it a sound way of modeling the development of the student? No doubt, because that's what it's about. But that may not make it a fun thing to do.

If you step outside the teacher/lesson paradigm, you have all the time in the world to do what you want to do. Being on your own road and learning at your own rate allows you to control what's going on. You decide how much or how little time is spent and where you want to focus. It's all about freedom. That's the key. Needless to say, trading one thing for another has it's consequences. A lack professional instruction just might mean you advance more slowly, or tend to pick up bad habits. However, as I pointed out earlier, in my first day windsurfing and my later my first waterstart attempt, advancement happened very quickly. With regard to the latter, I seriously doubt that it would have happened any quicker with professional lessons. But like I said, I waited 1 1/2 years until I bought my first shortboard to even try a waterstart. It could be argued that if someone pushed me into trying to waterstart too early, it may not have been so incredibly easy to accomplish.

Getting back to gdawson6 and his new adventure into the sport, he's decided how he wants to do it and that's what counts. For him, it's a lesson or two and then working on his own to build the knowledge and skills. It's a great plan, and I'd like to think that his being athletic and quick to learn will accelerate his learning curve. I came over to windsurfing from surfing, so I know that having a comfortable feeling about being on the ocean and riding a board helps immensely in the learning process. During the course of the season, I hope that he comes back and let's us all know how things are going.

[PeconicPuffin]

[coachg]