Ok so I am a kite surfer doing blasphemy! Anyway I am getting a bunch of donor gear that will be free and I may as well learn.

Has anybody done this reverse move like this and tell me how easy/hard windsurfing will be to pick up? Thanks for the infos.

You can windsurf quite easily but moves like jibing in big seas will make your kitesurfing look like primary school learning.

I have heard windsurfing is much harder to learn than kiting. Your kiting experience and balance will help of course, but don't be discouraged if windsurfing takes longer to learn than kiting. A few lessons along the way are hugely useful, at the very least ask some windsurfers at your local for help and advice with sail rigging and sailing.

Newer gear that is aimed at learners makes the process easier and less frustrating.
Let us know what donor gear you have. Donor gear is often old stuff that has a very steep learning curve indeed!

Enjoy!

Some of my mates have gone from windsurfing to Kiting and its a lot harder learning to windsurf than to kite so they tell me.

One has come back to windsurfing after getting very good at kiting and he definitely thinks windsurfing is harder.

But your used to the pull of the wind and know how to use a board so it shouldn't be that bad.

Get lessons !!
Get lessons !!
Get lessons !!

Yep learn correctly from the start.The correct basics will make more advanced moves like gybing and high wind stuff easier.Good luck!

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KenHo said...

Get lessons !!
Get lessons !!
Get lessons !!

One of my good friends is actually a instructor so I had planned on it, I was just curious on the difficulty

Thanks for all the other responses too they are very helpful.

Windxasy I will let you know once I get it :)

yes!!.... get a lesson to learn the very basics, even if it's only one

not because it's dangerous to try to learn without one, but because it's a frustrating sport to get the hang of the basics.

Be easy on yourself and realistic, and be prepared to fight with it for a couple of months worth of "weekend sessions" to learn to uphaul, do light wind turns, and sail slowly in a straight line

some people do pick it up quicker than others, but for most it's a slow but rewarding process

Getting the basics on the right gear in favourable conditions with an instructor is pretty easy.
Nearly everybody starts on crap gear in unfavourable conditions with no instruction and fail accordingly.
Gybing is intrinsically quite difficult. Everyone has a good side and a gumby side. Work on your gumby side more than your good side.
At some stage you will get beaten up by every piece of gear you own, and hate it all with a bloody passion, I promise you that. Despite that, you will also experience exhilaration and joy rivalled only by the best highs evar !!
It's like snow ski-ing. You get good at a certain level of equipment and terrain, then as you step up to harder conditions, your competency slides back, and has to be re-gained. That's part of the appeal. You can never really get complacent about sailing.

It will be difficult and frustrating. In fact it still is after all these years.
Even when you become proficient on small gear in high winds, you still frustrate at the next move.

However the feeling of succeeding at new moves, or simply improving, is just incredible.

After all, if it was easy, they'd call it... you know.

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KenHo said...

Getting the basics on the right gear in favourable conditions with an instructor is pretty easy.
Nearly everybody starts on crap gear in unfavourable conditions with no instruction and fail accordingly.
Gybing is intrinsically quite difficult. Everyone has a good side and a gumby side. Work on your gumby side more than your good side.
At some stage you will get beaten up by every piece of gear you own, and hate it all with a bloody passion, I promise you that. Despite that, you will also experience exhilaration and joy rivalled only by the best highs evar !!
It's like snow ski-ing. You get good at a certain level of equipment and terrain, then as you step up to harder conditions, your competency slides back, and has to be re-gained. That's part of the appeal. You can never really get complacent about sailing.

I was a downhill skiier usto race in another life. :)

In that case, you know exactly what I mean.
Flat water is like groomers.
Open ocean is off-piste, waves are back-country.

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SlicerDicer said...

KenHo said...

Getting the basics on the right gear in favourable conditions with an instructor is pretty easy.
Nearly everybody starts on crap gear in unfavourable conditions with no instruction and fail accordingly.
Gybing is intrinsically quite difficult. Everyone has a good side and a gumby side. Work on your gumby side more than your good side.
At some stage you will get beaten up by every piece of gear you own, and hate it all with a bloody passion, I promise you that. Despite that, you will also experience exhilaration and joy rivalled only by the best highs evar !!
It's like snow ski-ing. You get good at a certain level of equipment and terrain, then as you step up to harder conditions, your competency slides back, and has to be re-gained. That's part of the appeal. You can never really get complacent about sailing.

I was a downhill skiier usto race in another life. :)

^^^^ what they all said.

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KenHo said...


Flat water is like groomers.
Open ocean is off-piste, waves are back-country.

Love the analogy.

Skiing and kitesurfing will help a lot.

DEFINITELY get experienced people to check how you're rigged before you go out. Even great kit can make a learning experience rubbish if it's badly rigged.

Select to expand quote

KenHo said...

In that case, you know exactly what I mean.
Flat water is like groomers.
Open ocean is off-piste, waves are back-country.

SlicerDicer said...

KenHo said...

Getting the basics on the right gear in favourable conditions with an instructor is pretty easy.
Nearly everybody starts on crap gear in unfavourable conditions with no instruction and fail accordingly.
Gybing is intrinsically quite difficult. Everyone has a good side and a gumby side. Work on your gumby side more than your good side.
At some stage you will get beaten up by every piece of gear you own, and hate it all with a bloody passion, I promise you that. Despite that, you will also experience exhilaration and joy rivalled only by the best highs evar !!
It's like snow ski-ing. You get good at a certain level of equipment and terrain, then as you step up to harder conditions, your competency slides back, and has to be re-gained. That's part of the appeal. You can never really get complacent about sailing.

I was a downhill skiier usto race in another life. :)

Well I live open ocean no way to avoid that lol

Learning to windsurf in open ocean is like learning to ski in moguls.

Select to expand quote

SlicerDicer said...

KenHo said...

In that case, you know exactly what I mean.
Flat water is like groomers.
Open ocean is off-piste, waves are back-country.

SlicerDicer said...

KenHo said...

Getting the basics on the right gear in favourable conditions with an instructor is pretty easy.
Nearly everybody starts on crap gear in unfavourable conditions with no instruction and fail accordingly.
Gybing is intrinsically quite difficult. Everyone has a good side and a gumby side. Work on your gumby side more than your good side.
At some stage you will get beaten up by every piece of gear you own, and hate it all with a bloody passion, I promise you that. Despite that, you will also experience exhilaration and joy rivalled only by the best highs evar !!
It's like snow ski-ing. You get good at a certain level of equipment and terrain, then as you step up to harder conditions, your competency slides back, and has to be re-gained. That's part of the appeal. You can never really get complacent about sailing.

I was a downhill skiier usto race in another life. :)

Well I live open ocean no way to avoid that lol

Today. Finally got him on the water.
He's genuinely sailing there, towing me most of the way.

what a little champion!

hard work is paying off hey michael .

Lots of practise on the front lawn. To be honest the hardest part is creating enthusiasm. I think it was the "Jaws" scene in Windsurfing Movie II. He'll literally run in to watch if he hears the music. Also he he wants to learn electric guitar. Only. Kids are, um ...special.

So yeah, he made it all way across that pool, and back a few times. Took of on a broad reach twice quite fast, didn't crash till he hit the beach. Shame is end of summer.