I’ve been learning to windsurf this summer, and I love it! The feeling of being on the water and looking back to see your board gliding across the water, it’s just spectacular.
I learned how to windsurf at sleep-away camp on a freshwater lake in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. My friends and I would go out after breakfast each day to set up the boards. We would paddle away from the swimming area and get up on our boards. The first few days it was mostly just paddling because we were beginners. We would then spend the next 3 hours hanging out on the water and having fun. One of the days it was too windy, so I had to swim 3 of the 5 boards into shore. It was tiring and intense, but I enjoyed the adrenaline rush.
After my sleep-away camp, we flew to Vancouver, Canada, to see my Grandma and finish preparing (both mentally and physically) for our year abroad. In Vancouver, I did a windsurfing camp on Jericho Beach. After a day of practicing, I got much better. By the end of the week I had gotten the hang of steering, turning, and catching the wind. One big difference is that we were in salt water, not freshwater. I was having so much fun that on my first day I jumped into the water with my mouth open, totally forgetting that we were in saltwater, and swallowed a ton of seawater.
My friends and I spent about ¾ of the time windsurfing and practicing our tacking and jibing (turning). The rest of the time my friends and I played on our boards. We’d go out with two of us per board, with one person sitting on the front paddling, while the other one stood on the board and steered. Once we got out far enough, we would jump into the water and splash around. We even pranked each other that there were big sharks or whales in the water. This usually resulted in one of us getting pushed into the water and then a lot more laughing.
I had a great time and I am so excited to windsurf more in the future!