Big old newb - 6 months on

Forgive me father - it has been 6 months since my last post.

That was when everyone here helped with advice on what gear I needed, I settled on a xantos 152 board and a Aerotech Charge 6.2M sail (and other gear). I've also got my harness and lines working since then.

Gotta say the Windsurfing community is really friendly and helpful - and thanks to everyone both ont he forums and in the water.

So where am I since then. As mentioned I bought a harness (Dakine Tabu) and I would really recommend going to a shop and trying one on, rather than just picking one up somewhere on line.

In the last few weeks I've managed to get confindent enough to go out in the high 20K winds, and can now get on the plane (provided there is enough wind etc.) Thanks to some guy with a grey moustach who pointed out that my back hand was to far out I can now get the power going.

Today I managed to do a water start. 1 gust came up and I got up, adjusted my direction and the gust dropped, pulling the rig and all on top of myself. ohh well

Still gotta hold the plane enough to get in teh straps yet, but getting really close, and tommorrow looks like being a good day.

Thanks to everyone and I hope you've had a great xmas and have a great newyear.

FoS

Good on ya FoS.

The trick in getting into your straps is to hang a lot of weight in the harness. Be careful not to carve the board upwind by over-weighting the windward rail while you do it.
The number one rule is keep the board flat (side to side flat) for everything except turning.

Good luck.

Awesome to hear of new people successfully getting into windsurfing. Not enough newbies these days.

People are going to probably jump on me for this but one thing that really helped me when learning to get into the straps was to really widen my stance and get my back foot in the strap first. Much of the fear and error in learning to get into the straps is that as soon as you lift your front foot to put into the strap you risk being catapulted. So by putting the back foot in as you learn you almost nullify the catapult chance. I still use this method in serious chop and over powered winds where getting and staying on the plane is no problem. This will not work if you just barely have a planing wind, because it will sink the tail. But works great in powered up winds if you're not too confident.

For the record, once comfortable, front foot is better because you can load it up early in increase acceleration and maintain the plane.

Good sailing to you.