Sailboarding

That's what I've been learning and doing over the long weekend. That and slowly configuring a new computer.

I'd been exchanging sailing stories with a companion on some of our earlier parish mission trips to Guatemala. He said he'd also been sailboarding for a while. I said I'd like to try that sometime. Now I have the old Windsurfer that had been up on the rafters of his garage.

People who have tell me of the unpleasant experiences that convinced them to drop an attempt at a new sport usually are telling me of the injury they got learning from a friend. I've had much better results investing in lessons. In this case, it was sailboarding lessons Southport Rigging offers at Lake Andrea in Pleasant Prarie,

Here's The Basics of Windsurfing, an old guide by BIC Sport. The board builders and sellers try to reassure people that sailboarding isn't hard to learn or do. I say sailboarding is much easier to learn than sailing. There were three of us in our lesson. Southport first had us learn and practice on an on-land simulator. Then they put our boards in the water, and we spent a few minutes standing and walking around on them. Then they mounted the rigs, and we were all boarding within a few minutes. That's basic sailboarding. If you want to progress to the skill level of boarding in gales or leaping waves, that could be hard.

The sailboard began as a surfboard with an unsupported mast mounted on a universal joint and a split boom around the sail. Sailing the board, your hands hold the boom. Your forward hand supports the mast and your rearward hand controls the sail. When tacking, the boom crosses the board to the rear. When jibing, the boom crosses to the front. Instead of the boom crossing over you when you tack or jibe, you step around the mast.

The next nearest shop is Isthmus Sailboards Madison, Wisconsin, who provide this Windsurfing Sail Rigging Guide. Like sailboat rigging, and sailing itself, it's clearer after you see it for real, and do it yourself. I managed to attach my old Windsurfer's boom successfully, and it's attached without the clamp of more modern boards.

Here's some information on Choosing a Windsurfer, Tips. Safety Sources. The biggest change in sailboarding is the evolution to wider, shorter, planing boards. They're more stable and have higher top speeds than my old Windsurfer. I took mine out for my first solo yesterday and did a lot of falling off. For some perspective, falling off a sailboard into a warm lake beats a fourth fairway shot into the woods any day.

Windsurfer Magazine sums up in its Intro to Windsurfing [15 pp. pdf].