When much of windsurfing was about this sort of stuff, the sport was enormous. One in every three families in France owned a windsurfer.
Sure, it's not exciting or glamourous, but neither are SUPping, paddling a plastic kayak, jogging, or a lot of the cycling people do - and yet people do it in their millions. If messing about on a pond is bad for a sport then why have SUPping and kayaking done so well?
And this seems to be taken at an inland summer camp in the USA. What's the alternative - teach kids slalom sailing on a pond? Just completely ignore the sport?
I just googled "how to ride a bike", "how to kayak", "how to surf" and "how to SUP". Most of the videos that came up were pretty similar to this video. The "how to ride a bike" vids were taken in parks, quiet roads or on netball courts. A couple of the surfing vids were taken in 12 inches of slop. The kayak and SUP vids were taken on small bits of sheltered water or in quiet conditions. All those sports are doing well, so obviously their image isn't being hurt by such videos.
This is great for the sport . Although the teaching is not perfect and there is a lot more to it , it shows it in a very simple and appealing way for a beginner. It needs to look easy to get beginners to think about giving it a try . The fun ( or hatred ) can start straight away. When talking to people about sailing it is either , " this is the best thing ever " , ( which it is ) , or , " i kept falling in and the sail was so heavy and i never tried it again ". Cant win em all !
The hardest thing is to get someone to try. I give it a green thumb 
Yes return to easy and graceful is good but...
OMG that video is shocking though.
No attaching the boom, zero downhaul and then plugging the mast in vertical. I can just imagine somebody trying to do that in a little bit of wind with the sail luffing like crazy.
Then she uphauls with the sail upwind of her. Oh my.....
The very first step should be a diagram of board across the wind, sail downwind. Or at very least a statement about have the wind on your back
The paddling out is great but a statement about cross shore to cross-on winds would be better so it is safer and also don't have to paddle out (can start right at the beach)
A total beginner thinks they have to do it exactly like the video. If somebody followed this in 15kn they would be bruised getting smashed rigging..... at worst- If they were not on a lake and thought you just paddle out in an offshore wind they'd be in strife real quick..
I know its for summer camp but people get on youtube fora lesson after buying old stuff on gumtree and get in trouble...
i have no problems with the stuff being old or on a lake i love that type of sailing,i was teaching a guy who brought a tyronsea falcon of gum tree on Saturday he had a lot of fun.i more worry about a lack of setting up knowledge displayed by the trainer and some wrong advise of sailing ,i noted a lot of reply's to the video were thanking her for showing how to set up gear . there is a lot of old gear around that been brought by people just to give it a try with out spending to much money .my friends gumtree buy cost 50 $ and turned up with a smashed mast split boards and pieces missing ,i lent him a mast a base and ext and repaired his board for him took him to the river and showed him how to set it up ,spent about 5 minutes showing him how to up haul and he was away .by the end of the session he was able to tack and gybe and make his way up wind
Select to expand quotegrich62 said..
i have no problems with the stuff being old or on a lake i love that type of sailing,i was teaching a guy who brought a tyronsea falcon of gum tree on Saturday he had a lot of fun.i more worry about a lack of setting up knowledge displayed by the trainer and some wrong advise of sailing ,i noted a lot of reply's to the video were thanking her for showing how to set up gear . there is a lot of old gear around that been brought by people just to give it a try with out spending to much money .my friends gumtree buy cost 50 $ and turned up with a smashed mast split boards and pieces missing ,i lent him a mast a base and ext and repaired his board for him took him to the river and showed him how to set it up ,spent about 5 minutes showing him how to up haul and he was away .by the end of the session he was able to tack and gybe and make his way up wind
Agree 100% there is a lot of times here when people ask about gear and are told that the old stuff is no good. Well, its very very hard to use but if you have no money its perfectly fine.
Really good innovation in beginners gear has unfortunately created some gear snobs and most of us fall into that trap sometimes when advising beginners
But still, if I thought that the "way to windsurf" was to lie down and paddle out downwind a bit before starting I'd have ended up dead.... I've never seen a lake.
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But still, if I thought that the "way to windsurf" was to lie down and paddle out downwind a bit before starting I'd have ended up dead.... I've never seen a lake.
yeah if i was teaching that in the sea hear with the croc hanging around i don,t know how it might end lol
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there are plenty of starter videos ...
some better than others ...
my advice is always for newbies to start with someone who windsurfs
like discussed earlier
and perhaps get some information before - reading and/or videos
joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/p/how-you-can-start-windsurfing.html
Definitely at a Summer Camp in America, I did one in 1989, Camp Code in New Hampshire, teaching sailing and windsurfing.
You're not teaching kids to rip apart Hawaii, all you want is for kids to move forwards and get a kick so they want to have another go tomorrow.
The lakes like the one in the vid are amazing.
If you have a kid who's looking for travel, send them on Camp America as a councillor (that's what they used to call us), a great experience.
And no, how can it be bad for the sport, it's all about getting young kids involved.
