subject: A Brief Introduction To Windsurfing [print this page] . You cant expect to be pulling out flips in your first week but you can expect to be up and windsurfing on your first day. There are hundreds of windsurfing clubs around the UK that offer beginners courses that will get you from uphauling your sail for the first time to advanced courses that will help you get the most from high performance sails.
Once they've been windsurfing a while most people find they tend to enjoy one aspect of windsurfing more then another. As in football some people may prefer to be a striker, whilst others may prefer a spot in defense whilst others only enjoy a kick about in the park or maybe they just love to do those fancy tricks that have no use in an actual match!
Whatever you like there's a discipline for you. And here they are in an easy to digest format.
Freeride- This is basically what everyone starts out as. It's like just like Ronseal, it "does exactly what it says on the tin". You're free to ride your board with no constraints, though normally for freeriders it's quite fast in a fairly straight line. This is great for riding with friends, as there's no pressure, its a good laugh and it can often turn into a bit of a friendly race for bragging rights, also you can have a bit of chat if your taking it easy.
Racing- This is for the more competitive windsurfers, you don't get more extreme then a load of windsurfers all racing for the best position around a course of buoys. You've got the wind blowing the spray spraying and you're all gunning for the inside line. If you fancy yourself as a competitive athlete mixed with a sailor and you like your drama, this is where you belong.
Freestyle- Not to be confused with freeride, freestyle is where the flashy stuff happens. Freeride is competitive, its like the gymnastics of windsurfing. The windsurfer performs a series of tricks, which can be anything from turns, loops, sail-spins or rail rides. A panel of judges mark on overall impression and technical performance to come with an overall score.
Wave riding- Not too dissimilar from plain ol' boring surfing, except that on a windsurf board you don't have to paddle to "catch" the wave, you just sail on up and go. This means that its possible to access much larger waves, where as the plain ol' surfer would need to be towed in. Once on the wave you can do pretty much anything you would expect a surfer to do and more. You may even fancy riding straight at the wave's face. But that's really only if you want go for a short flight.
Speed Runs- If you like speed this is where you belong. It's basically time trials on a windsurf board. So point A to point B as fast as you can. Also just a note if your unsure of the speed a windsurfer can reach, the world speed record for Wind Powered Water Vehicles is held by a windsurfer! Antoine Albeau recorded a speed or 49.09 knots, that's 56.49 M/H or 90.91 Km/H. So that's pretty darn fast!
