Be honest. Is it really the kit that’s stopping you planing?
PHOTO Hart Photography.
The lives of high achieving sportspeople make for interesting reading if you’re looking to improve in your chosen activity. Although they inhabit a dry, regimented world of strict training timetables, dieticians, conditioning coaches and analysts poring over massive data sets, they are still just humans attempting to take whatever they’re doing a step further. And where your paths are totally similar is that, just like you staring at your favourite rig crumpled in a January shorebreak, they too have setbacks and periods of total awfulness, which they have to overcome and learn from.
The one man I particularly enjoy listening to, because he’s a genius and regular bloke rolled into one, is Sir Ben Ainslie, the UK’s most successful yachtsman. In 5 Olympic Games, he won 4 golds and one silver. After the London Games, he immediately went on to mastermind one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history as his team Oracle USA overturned an 8-1 deficit to win the America’s Cup in 2013.
ELUSIVE RESOLVE
In a recent interview given from his America’s cup HQ up the road from me in Portsmouth, he was asked the perennial question, ‘What do you see as the secret to your success?’ My heart sank a little. The theme of the podcast was ‘determination.’
Sir Ben was once described by his friend and fellow yachtsman Ian Percy, as ‘the most competitive man on the planet.’ I therefore assumed he would deliver the old sermon about ‘going for your dreams … never saying never … wanting it more than the other guy etc.’ All very true, but as all sofa-dwellers will testify, determination on that level is an unlearnable, and even undesirable, quality.
This story is from the Issue 393 - March 2020 edition of Windsurf.
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This story is from the Issue 393 - March 2020 edition of Windsurf.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
New School
Slingshot’s windsurfing brand manager, Wyatt Miller, has noticed that kids are drawn to playing with wings and puts forward an interesting case as to why he thinks this could help entice them and others into windsurfing.
Changes
Wave sailor Flo Jung reflects on our changed world during his lockdown in Germany.
THE LAST WAVE
Lockdown stirred the creative juices of reader Björn Alfthan, who peers into the future to present a fictional story set in the wild waves of Norway, five years from now.
STILL IN THE GAME
After a horrific fracture in his leg from a crashed aerial in 2018, Alessio Stillrich is back! John Carter talks to the highflyer from Gran Canaria about his move to the Simmer team, recovering from injury and how he learned to windsurf in Gran Canaria!
MOVE ON UP - GET ON THE FRONT FOOT
This month we look at how our front foot weighting can affect and improve different aspects of our main windsurfing moves.
SOUTH' KIPA
Nik tweaking it over home waters.
A NEW NORMAL
On a trip to La Tranche-sur-Mer in France last year, Tris Best estimated over 80% of the windsurfers were foiling. This summer in Portland Harbour, foiling activity has increased dramatically too he reports. With the market offering plenty of choice to recreational windfoilers, our test team check out some of the latest foil offerings.
TACKING – THE SEQUEL
Having given you time to practice, Harty concludes his tacking series by critiquing various tacking options, including the carve tack, as well as offering solutions to common slip-ups.
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Realising we may be about to enter an extraordinary period in our lives, Harty decided to keep a windsurf-centric lockdown diary. Here are some of his choice excerpts.
REDEMPTION DAY!
Renowned for its windsurfing and variety of spots to sail at, Kimmerdige Bay is a wave sailing jewel on the south coast of England. Timo Mullen gives a guide to its shores while reflecting on why a recent session there was a reminder that there is no place like home!
