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What Your Instructor Is Working On

7/25/2012

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I can very effectively teach people the basics of windsurfing, but I am by no means a very skillful windsurfer myself. What I am mostly working on mastering is known as the planing jibe, a downwind turn in which the board keeps skimming over the water, slowing down only minimally. Two days ago (July 23, 2012) we had great wind here on Sayers Lake, perfect for practicing these jibes. So I did.
First, here is what a beautifully executed planing jibe looks like. The sailor is Matt Case, an instructor with ABK, the windsurfing school that has taught me almost all I know about the sport. I shot the video. (Don't forget you can enlarge the video by clicking in the lower right corner of the window.)
...and here is a 6-minute video showing 9 of my attempts this week, recorded by my GoPro camera attached to my boom. Five attempts resulted in me falling into the water; four were successful (not beautiful!) in that I didn't. (Please ignore the first 30 seconds, which were shot with the camera upside down. I liked the clip nonetheless, so I left it in.)
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Judith's Second Lesson

7/25/2012

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Judith had taken a lesson from me in July 2009 and done very well in extraordinarily light wind. She was back in Centre County, PA from Utah for a visit last week (July 19, 2012) and took a second lesson. The wind was stronger, although still light. She did great as we sailed over a large area of the lake. The video below is a composite of "footage" ("pixelage"?) from the GoPro I wore on a helmet plus "footage" shot by Judith's mother from shore.

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Breezy Day, Jibes, Tubers...

7/17/2012

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It was a great breezy day for July. One gust was long enough to cross the lake 3 times, with successful planing jibes connecting the traverses. (Previously, the fist jibe failed as the wind quit.) There were some kids in a tube, being pulled by a whole crowd of people not looking where the boat was going. They missed me by about 30 feet. (Be sure to watch the video below.)
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Just a Little Late Afternoon Sail

7/16/2012

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A Long Sunday Promoting/Teaching Windsurfing

7/9/2012

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Yesterday I carted 3 boards and 4 rigs to the beach at Bald Eagle State Park. From 1--2 I gave a park-sanctioned demo/mini-lesson, and then I gave a group lesson to a family of 5, followed by a lesson for a family of 3. Got home at 8pm. Raised $100 for Habitat for Humanity and $100 for Project Vote Smart, and informed maybe 20 people about windsurfing here, including 2 or 3 folks who said they've always wanted to try it. Thanks to Matt the Environmental Ed. guy in the park for his great help (including taking some of these pics).
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Susan B Came Back to "Rent" and Practice

7/9/2012

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In her first lesson ever, Susan B. gained enough confidence that she came back (on 100-dgree Saturday July 7) to "rent" gear and practice windsurfing on her own. After a while I took a few minutes to check on her from the top of the levee, and shot the video below (left) wherein she does a tack and another turn which was an effective jibe despite a sail drop in the middle. (I have not yet taught her to jibe, beyond briefly showing her a pivot jibe.) Later, I came down to the lake shore and shot some more video (right) showing her jibing despite not really having been taught how to do so.

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Her husband Chris saw how much fun it was, so a month later (August 12) they came for a joint lesson. This is Chris practicing a tack.The video at right shows him beginning and finishing the tack. (The middle part was censored.)

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Tom & Joni came up to visit on July 1

7/3/2012

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Tom & Joni came up to visit for the day. While Tom and I sailed, Joni and, separately, my GoPro videoed the action. See below. This short collection of video highlights includes: Tom practicing simple light-wind freestyle on his impossibly tippy board; me getting the shortest full-on planing run ever and NOT falling when the wind dropped to zero in a microsecond; me doing a planing jibe but falling because the wind dropped to zero as I was starting to re-accelerate clew-first; and some schlogging close to shore with the geese.

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    This is Bill vdB, sharing little vignettes of windsurfing on Sayers Lake, in Howard PA. and sometimes elsewhere.

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