New School

Every sport needs it’s next generation to survive and windsurfing is no different. So how do we inspire and teach our sport to our children. Last year Polish uber-waterman Kuba Gasiewski introduced us to his radical new teaching technique in one of our most popular articles, ‘Child’s play’. Now, a year down the line, he reflects on its success and developments of his ‘New school’ program at ION CLUB Le Morne, Mauritius together with Timo Mullen and Ben Severne’s thoughts on Kuba’s innovative approach.

- Kuba Gasiewski, Timo Mullen & Ben Severne

Let’s take a closer look at modern life. Comparing it to my child-hood is quite difficult, even though it wasn’t too long ago. Now-a-days most children have iPhones, iMacs, iThis and iThat. They are even off icially called “The iGeneration”. These days everything must be shiny, catchy, easy, accessible and effortless. Where does it lead us to? How does it make this generation different to the ones before?

MAKE IT FUN

When I was a kid there was quite a limited amount of things to do. You could climb trees, play some football or other outdoor games with your friends and there was 30 minutes of cartoons on the TV at 7.00 p.m. That was pretty much it. So when I first got a hold of windsurf gear I just kept trying and trying. Even though back then it was way more difficult. I had a 3.5m sail that felt twice the size when it would fill with water, boom that was moving all over the place and a heavy 3.70 m long and narrow board and I was only 10. Now as an experienced instructor I think about early windsurfing days as a mission impossible. Yet, back then it was possible! Maybe there weren’t so many distractions? Today kids have too many other shiny things to do then lifting up a heavy sail. Of course there are exceptions who like the challenge that comes along with windsurfing but it’s much less likely to happen. Most kids will try a few times and walk off – “this is boring and too hard”. The best way to convince them is by making the experience easy, effortless and entertaining. Making sure they fully like it before facing the hardship of the sport. Why not make it simply FUN? Rather than base teaching on an idea that it’s going to be fun once you learn it, let’s have fun while learning and wait for the right moment to expose the child to the challenges. I think tandem sailing is the easiest way to achieve that.

GROWING