Blog Archives - Better World Windsurfing School

Mother-Daughter Lesson

8/26/2016

Danielle and her daughter Taylor came for a lesson. It was Taylor's first ever attempt at sailing. Danielle had had one lesson from me a year ago. My GoPro had a dead battery, so I'm thankful that Danielle took these (top two) photos. The bottom two photos show Danielle a year ago.

The above is video shot by Danielle, edited by me.

Olympic Windsurfing 2016

8/26/2016

As an American I'm mildly interested that Pedro Pascual (men's RS:X racing) and Marion Lepert (women's RS:X racing) finished 28th and 16th, respectively. However, as a Dutch-American I am pretty thrilled that Dorian Van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands won the gold in the men's (for the second Olympics in a row), and Lilian de Geus of the Netherlands finished 4th in the women's.

Family Afternoon

8/23/2016

Beth and Gavin brought their two children (4.5 years and 8 months) along, so they took turns sailing. Being young and athletic, they did exceedingly well. They never even got their hair wet.

Gavin went first. Since he had experience surfing (waves, not wind), he had little trouble balancing on this big, wide board. Soon he was trying some relatively advanced moves. Beth went next, and was even steadier on the board, although she isn't much of a surfer and had never sailed before.

That Other Sport

8/20/2016

Stolen from Windsurfing Now magazine, volume 2 issue 3.

Dennis Learned Fast

8/17/2016

In his first ever sailing experience, Dennis got to where he was able to repeatedly do these pivot jibes, each time sailing back upwind and tacking, to try again. Very few beginning windsurfers reach this point in their first lesson.

The above photos are frames from the video. The video shows Denny doing a pivot jibe, as seen from two cameras (one on shore and one on the end of the boom).

Susan Working on Non-Planing Jibes

8/12/2016

My friend Susan, who got her first windsurfing lessons from me in 2012 and who bought her own gear the following year, came over for a light-air sail. Here she is working on pivot jibes.

Two-Day Mother-and-Son Lesson

8/9/2016

This mother and her son from Pittsburgh got 2 consecutive afternoons of instruction. The first day had very little wind; the second day was windy enough to really challenge them and to give me a chance to demonstrate planing. Their $300 fee went to Doctors without Borders. As usual, video was shot after they learned the basics of sailing around.

To watch this 5-minute highlights video (shot mostly by a GoPro camera mounted on my boom), click here.

Lesson for a State College Family

8/6/2016

To watch the above video, click here.

Five Days of Windsurfing Lessons for Two Boys

8/5/2016

These are the 13 and 14 year-old sons of a former physics student of mine at State College Area High School. They got all-afternoon lessons on July 12, 26, and 28 and August 2 and 5. The video and stills are from the latter four of these days. By the end of their time the boys were sailing around pretty adroitly and were starting to do pivot jibes and (maybe inadvertently) some other more advanced moves.

The photos below are all still frames from the video at right.

The above is an 8-minute compilation of video footage shot by GoPro mounted on my boom's clew and using a camera on shore. To watch this video click here.