Hey guys! I just published another article on my site and wanted to know what you think are the things that make you love windsurfing. Here is the article:
howtowindsurf101.com/the-advantages-of-windsurfing-why-is-windsurfing-awesome/
I would love to hear your thoughts :)
Arne
You can obtain very high speeds in very radical conditions that would scare non-windsurfers.
But at the same time it is very hard to get killed doing it, or ending up in a wheelchair.
"Ahem".
The people.
You can talk to world pros just like you can talk to the local punters down the beach.
Everyone's keen to help out, give tips, drink a beer, hang sh!t on each other.
Finding like-minded individuals and doing something super fun is awesome.
Its a way of getting back in touch with nature.
You can stay in the human world and chase more money and being successful by having more things - or you can look for wind. Wind makes waves, makes the ocean different every day. Its part of the world's energy and humankind came from getting up when there was light and going to sleep when it was dark, eating when you could get something to eat. With windsurfing you feed off the energy of the Earth and Sun.
Windsurfing is like a filter on mankind and it filters out people who seek that kind of thing.
It is something that tends not to be hyped - windsurfers just do it, and when you do it, you understand what windsurfers get from it - if you are the type of person to be a windsurfer.
Windsurfing is not easy as you suggested in the article. It takes a determined soul to actually keep going past the first of many tiresome uphauling, falling in. One also suffered the indignity of swimming in with your gear, while a beachful of amused, bewildered onlookers watched you.
What about being blown offshore?
Countering all the negatives, I still believe it is a great sport for folks who don't give in on the first hint of difficulties. The fact that you can wander off to a corner of the ocean and do your thing is great. Of course, there re occasions that you will break gear and forced to swim in. That itself is a discipline as one has to maintain the equipment to a safe standard to avoid regular swim-in.
They say boxing is the ultimate sport as you are one-on-one with another person, with barely any protection. Windsurfing is a bit like that as you are mere inches from the water rushing past you. Waves can crush you and turn you equipment into a tangled mess. But you endeavour to improve so that being crunched by waves is not a regular event...Thank goodness !
Another benefit is that you, and you alone, can decide what level of skill you want to take yourself to. You can bob around on a One-design with a soft sail, hold loosely by a "swing-down" boom at a quiet corner, and no one is going stop you for that. Blasting around at Warp-speed is permissible too as long as you don't get in the way of others.
Age is not an issue as long as you keep doing it. So it is a form of "anti-aging" agent, much better than the creams and other dodgy remedies.
Happi windsurfing...
To truly be ones self,,,forgetting all your troubles associated with everyday life on land, and not having to deal with all the agro that comes with surfing crowded brakes.