Funny how they never were into windsurfing. Then the little one said they she wanted to do it. So I built them this rig and now the big one loves it too!
I'm using a 105L board, the sail is something like 2.3m2, mast 190 an old standard top part where a skinny extension fits in. An old Chinook alloy boom (super strong, my dirt boom!) I think it goes down to 120?
Let's see how long it'll take for them to go, turn and then sail along by themselves!
Kids learn so quickly!!
it's amazing how good they can get in such a short amount of time. i started my kids off on similar gear when they were really young and within a short time had progressed to better kit. can't speak highly enough of the redback sails from severne or high 100+ lt freestyle boards.
The only thing that seems to hold kids back or help them loose interest is a lack of time on the water when life or other sports get in the way.
Completely. I asked the bigger one to correct something and it was instantly done. I was like well that's cheating!
I can add a panel at the bottom to make a bigger sail but it won't handle like a real sail in planing winds that's for sure. What sail size did they go through?
Hopefully they won't learn so fast!
Select to expand quoteManuel7 said..
Completely. I asked the bigger one to correct something and it was instantly done. I was like well that's cheating!
I can add a panel at the bottom to make a bigger sail but it won't handle like a real sail in planing winds that's for sure. What sail size did they go through?
Hopefully they won't learn so fast!
started with home made sail, then 1.5m soft sail when really young. 2 girls and a boy.
eventually went for severne xs3 on 110lt freestyle board. son got hooked on first planning run on that setup and hooked on longboards when wind was light. Racing with friends and sailing across to local island at a young age.
After the beginner sail he then went to 2.5m Redback at about 10yo and onto 85lt jp pro kids board around 11/12. We then added 3m Redback, 3.4m Redback and 65lt wave board. 13 yo added 3.8m then 4.5m and 5m simmer tricera at 14. recently sold redbacks and went to s1 pro. All throughout that time we sailed longboards and shortboards. depending on conditions, he uses the 110lt, 85lt and 65lt. kids need more gear with smaller gaps. Amongst all of the local kids height and not age seems to have been the defining difference with gear. Taller kids can use bigger gear.
i'f I had my time again I'd go straight to the redbacks from beginner up. Kids learn so fast it's hard to keep up with gear and the Redback allows them to progress unhindered. I do feel like having gear for beginners held him back when young. By 10 he was in the straps, harness and planning and we were talking waterstarts. He plateaued there as I didn't yet have the gear for him to progress at that time. It also seems to be that 2.5m is about as small as you can go for planning windsurfing but 3m is better.
Most the local kids, including my son got pretty good really quickly with regular time on the water. In my sons case as he got older soccer started to dominate big parts of the year so we spent less time on the water and he stopped progressing and in some areas took a few steps back.
More recently I could see we were at a cross road so we began to dedicate one day on the weekend where we surf or windsurf as a family. That has made a huge difference to his enjoyment and skills are improving again. Other kids of similar age we sail with whenever possible all seem to have had a similar journey. It isn't until the parents dedicate time on the water that big improvements occur.. Like anything in life when we improve at things we enjoy them.
We've taken the wind out of the equation. If it's light we use shortboards and do light wind freestyle and have a lot of fun with it, sail tricks originally learnt on the longboards and beginner freestyle moves like switch stance (non planning) and duck gybes and flare gybes. All just mucking around. Loads of fun and great for the skills. This weekend the plan is to get the longboards out and go fishing. When it's pumping his thing is jumping, practicing fast tacks and gybes. Still struggling with gybes but I think he's almost there.
I've told him it's ok if he breaks gear doing stuff. We'll fix or replace it and now I'm encouraging him to try everything. Recently got an 80lt quad he's enjoying and planning to focus some more time in small surf.
Great story and great thoughts.
We'll see what happens with their willingness to keep going. They are of similar size so may fight over gear!
