My windsurfing adventure

Windsurfing is not usually the best thing to do if you have a severe lack of coordination and balance, however I am not one to shy away from a challenge.

And a challenge it was when I went to Poole to take part in a windsurfing lesson with Joe.

This time though the tale does not end in a hospital visit, and the only injury I have is a bruised and slightly swollen knee.

Maybe this means that my balance is getting better? Though the amount of time I spent in the water instead of on the board may contradict this!

When we arrived at the watersport academy we were immediately handed a wet suit to put on.

Here I would like to smugly add that I got mine on the right way, while Joe had merrily put his on the wrong way round with the zip going up the front.

I feel I can gloat about this, as I am usually the one who gets things wrong!

With the wetsuits properly in place we headed down to the lake for a lesson in how the different parts of the board worked.

Maybe I should have paid attention to this, as it would have saved a lot of confusion later.

In my defence I was distracted by an ice-cream van that passed us.

So with our knowledge of the board complete (well Joe’s anyway) we paddled out into the lake dragging the boards.

Looking at the board I couldn’t see it being that hard to stand up on, so I leapt on it....landing face down in the lake approximately 3 seconds later.

This happened again too many times to count until I proudly stood on the board in a crouched position determinedly not moving for around five minutes.

Joe meanwhile had taken to it a lot easier, and was able to surf a short distance.

Now our instructor Steve decided that I was ready (?!) to try and surf and shouted instructions like ‘left foot by mast’ and ‘right foot behind centre board’.

I felt this was the time to point out that I have trouble telling my left and right, andI hadn’t been listening earlier and so didn’t have a clue what he was talking about!

There was one thing I can say for Steve is that he does not give up, and he was determined to get me up and surfing by the end of the lesson.

He achieved this by pulling the sail along as I stood on the board holding on tight. But he said I can count this as windsurfing!

So now that I am a windsurfing expert I am looking at other sports to try.

Kite surfing looks fun, though Steve went pale when I suggested it and said I needed a bit more windsurfing practice first!