Hi guys,

I've started lurking this area after the General section became inundated with shark threads and started wondering about windsurfing.. Actually it is something I've been interested in for a long time but have never gotten around to it.

I've looked through a few pages here on Seabreeze, YouTube and general web searches. There appear to be two prominent operators here on the west coast that seem appealing for beginner lessons, however there are two glaring anomalies. Being well aware that both operators are probably members here but both operators advertise their products openly on the net, I feel safe to ask the obvious question.

1. Why does one offer lessons over 8 hours opposed to 4 and
2. Why the big price difference (with the 8 hour course being significantly cheaper)

Or am I missing something?

I'm not necessarily price driven and would pay a little extra for one on one lessons during the week if possible. I would also prefer lessons in the river (all those shark threads does mess with a blokes mind ).

Any thoughts, advice and if your prefer, please PM.......

I learnt over the Christmas break with 2nd wind. Jez is a really great teacher and very patient. His website though needs updating as the price is quite a few years old. It was $160. 2nd wind do the lessons in applecross. Nice and shallow and not as choppy as pelican point if windy which is good for my skill level. Less weed too. 2nd wind you do 4 hours on Saturday where you're learning and the 4 hours on Sunday is practice with jez out on the water with you checking your technique and giving pointers.

Can't compare to windforce as I really don't know anything about them. 2nd wind really don't have a hire service so I head over to pelican point and hire their boards in the afternoon for some practice.

Thanks Taz, more time on the water can't be a bad thing. 2nd Wind is on my side of the river so they might be the go.

Forgot to add that if 2nd wind have boards free and you learnt with them, hire for 15 an hour whilst the lessons are going on but there is fairly light wind in the morning so you wont learn more if you keep doing that. As jeez said to me you really will need to get your own gear so you can go when you want.

Hi Toph,

Welcome to windsurfing. Jez at 2nd Wind has been teaching forever. You'll be in great hands with him or Windforce - you can't go far wrong.

A few bits of advice:

1) Get out and do it NOW... the season doesn't last forever!

2) Don't go and buy any old equipment from gumtree. You'll inevitably buy the wrong thing. You'll very quickly progress through beginner equipment so it generally is not worth owning. Do some lessons, hire some equipment from Peli for a couple of afternoons and then you'll be in a position to purchase some equipment that you won't grow out of in five minutes. When you do - go and buy it from a shop - all the shops are very good about looking after entrants to the sport because they know how much money you'll spend over the coming decades when you get hooked.

3) If you get the opportunity, spend some time handing the sail on dry land in a light breeze. Sounds daft but 10 minutes on dry land can save you hours of learning on the water.

4) The scene is very friendly. If you've got a question or can't work something out, just ask someone - just about everyone is very happy to give advice.

Have fun! Welcome to your new obsession....

Thanks FlickySpinny, an obsession I hope it becomes. I'm sure in time with meeting a good bunch of peolpe it becomes much easier to just 'get out there', but hopefully equally as good on your own too.

Lessons certainly are hard to come by with bookings way out in advance, but the time will come. I have been looking at equipment on Gumtree so thanks for you advice there. Gear seems reasonably cheap second hand but damn expensive new. I'm assuming that if you out grow your equipment quickly, people just want to off load what they can just as quick.

Thanks once again everyone.

Money spent on a good rig is well worth it Toph, while boards will change as you progress and come and go later, your rig will always remain, a good modern boom, mast extension and sail with matching mast will make a huge difference in your progression, don't buy without consulting someone with a bit of knowledge, good luck!

Hey Toph,

The equipment you see second-hand may be very old / old-style or equipment that few people use - for example 5-year old cammed race sails are not very popular second-hand. However, they are cheap.... and would be the worst possible thing you could purchase right now (with the possible exception of a kite).

You'll grow out of beginner gear (160 - 200 litre board, small beginner rig) pretty quickly, so there's not much point owning that stuff. It's also pretty hard to buy second-hand anyway because people a) don't buy it in the first place or b) hold onto it to teach mates or kids.

Brand new RRP is expensive. However, if you walked into any shop around town and said that you've had a few lessons and can tack and gybe on a big board and want an improvers package (board, mast, sail, boom etc) you'll find that most of the shops will pull out some ex-demo gear or some good quality second-hand stuff and set you up with a great set-up at reasonable cost. Remember, they have a vested interest in making the sport accessible and getting you hooked... it means you'll buy more stuff!

For example, a mate who sailed lots 10 years ago and just got back into the sport walked into a shop south of the river and asked for a complete package to get him back on the water.

He walked out with a 1 year old unmarked 93 litre carbon wave board, a 1 year old 5.8 sail, mast, boom, deckplate and extension for well south of $2k. All perfectly matched, great gear that'll he's having a lot of fun with.

That would be the approach I'd take, because it'll mean that you get a mast that'll match a sail that'll suit your sailing. I cannot outline how easy it is to go and buy a heap of junk because it's cheap and then struggle with it. I did this when I started and sailed terrible equipment for years. How I persevered with the sport I'll never know.

^^^^^ What he said.....

I did the same after taking a 7+ year break from windsurfing. Walked in to see Jez, and walked out with a complete set of gear to go wave sailing again, for a fraction of the price that it would have been if new. Only the mast, boom, and extension/uni-joint were new, but I'd requested them that was as I didn't want to be out the back at Lancelin wondering how I was going to swim back in. Board and sails were a few years old at most and are still going strong.

I'm happy to pay to a bit less and have gear that might not quite be the latest and greatest. With my only average wave-sailing skills, I put my gear through the washing machine fairly regularly, so picking solid gear is more important to me.

Well I'm all booked in and ready to go. Bit bummed that I couldn't get in for this weekend though
So, I know you need to crawl before you can walk, but what wind strength should I be getting excited about for learning? 10-15 be good?