Blog image courtesy of Jennifer Kroon

We get lots of emails asking about windsurfing lessons at the club.  There are full details if you dig around the website, but this is a slightly less formal overview.

When?

Lessons are nominally 10.30am Saturdays and 11am Sundays.  During winter, we don't run Sunday lessons.  Sometimes you can get enthusiastic members or day leaders to give you a lesson at other times, but don't count on it!  The weekend mornings really are the best time to learn, due to the wind.

The lessons are about an hour on land, and then open-ended on the water, subject to tide and wind.

Yes, it's possible to turn up and pass the written test and self-rescue with a cursory introduction, but we discourage this, since much of the lesson is about club rules and safety (yours and ours).  If at all possible, please come to the weekend lessons.

Last time, we looked at apparent wind and how it changes as you change point of sail. In that discussion, the speed and direction of the true wind was the same and the boat direction changed. Here we look at what happens when you're keeping the boat course the same, the wind direction doesn't change, but the wind speed does. It increases (a puff) or it decreases (a lull). You get both of these as you're traversing the Novice Area on a normal day (westerly winds), as the trees and gaps between them on the breakwater to the restaurant cause this uneven wind.

Again, we're using our Bahia-like dinghy and a 5 kt. wind. You're sailing close-hauled, so it looks like this:

The boat is 45 degrees to the true wind, but only 30 degrees to the apparent wind. Normal. Then you get a puff, say a pretty big one (10 knots, double the speed but out of the same direction). In that instant, your boat speed doesn't change (it needs time to do that), but your apparent wind does. It looks like this:

What better way to celebrate Sophie & Tudor bringing a kid into the world than roasting one...a goat that is!

Sophie & Tudor met at CSC a few years ago, got married, and are about to have their first child. It's a true CSC-style love story. Most know Sophie as our fantastic (co-)Port Captain and phenomenal windsurfer. What many may not know is that Sophie got her start at CSC in sailing and taught some of Tudor's first lessons...it's how they met! Sophie's still windsurfing like a boss in her final trimester - who would expect any less?

We hosted a party for Sophie and Tudor yesterday in celebration of the upcoming newest novice CSC member, along with the requisite delicious food. Oh and a bouncy house. Did we mention the bouncy house? (Pro tip: do not get in the bouncy house right after eating 3 desserts. Just, don't.) 

It's been a phenomenal season filled with lots of epic wind and novice sailors and windsurfers learning how to get around using this wind, thing - time for the deliciously warm months of Fall! :)

Introduction

At least once a week, people offer to donate their "old", "beautiful", or "moved to kitesurfing" windsurfing gear.  We reject almost all of it. This post explains why, and gives an idea of what we do accept, for those wanting to donate.

It's All About The Age

As a general rule, we don't accept boards older than about 5 years.  This beautiful, 30 year old, original Windsurfer definitely doesn't qualify.  I don't care how much fun you had on it in the 1980s. 

How about that 1990s board with all those footstraps on it?  Sorry, no.  And that beautiful fiberglass board? Still no. 

Christmas comes in June this year! New arrival of Tabou boards:

 - 116L 3S: Everyone loves the 3S, a gybing and carving machine! Here is a floatier one for heavier windsurfers!

- 118L Rocket wide: Full carbon speed beast to blast around the bay even in low winds!

- 100L Twister team edition, Time to blast some freestyle moves!