Having not windsurfed for 5 months, due to an injury I was wondering - is windsurfing like riding a bike? When you hop on your board are you straight back into the gybes, or rusty as the scaffold at the bottom of the lake?

My own experience was... quite rusty! The first tentative reach was OK. But then next I went into a long slow catapult, for no apparent reason. Tacking - was straight into it fine..... Then a gybe - foot position OK... rig flip errr I forgotton when, and where. It took me 4 or 5 goes before I did a dry one. And as for anything else like jumping well I was very mistimed, or too scared!

After about an hour on and off the water, my forearms were screaming at me.

At least I am back.... And the lake didn't feel as cold as I thought it would... considering the last time I got wet in anger - it was 30C in the Canaries.

Hi Tim, it's great to hear that you are back on the water.

I would have been there too but I had Christmas Part 2 to attend... my sister decided to go on holiday during the first one so we had to have another one now!

As you know, prior to me joining Brog I only got to sail once a year whilst on holiday in North Wales with my family. Although progress was pretty slow due to the 50/51 weeks between each holiday, I did find that I seemed to pick up from exactly where I left off the year before. Sure, the first session was a bit ragged but after that I was doing whatever move I had cracked the year before (beach start, waterstart, whatever else it was at the time).

To be honest, many of us don't sail our best when the weather is cold as our brain is so busy telling us not to fall in that we start doing things differently and then fall in because of it. I know that I often sail like a complete muppet when it is cold! You may also have had a little worry in the back of your mind that you might still not be ready for windsurfing or that you were worried of injuring yourself. Both of those would have affected your sailing quite a bit.

Don't beat yourself up about it... you'll be sailing like normal within a few sessions. The important thing is that you are back on the water.

Mike

p.s. Tired forearms? Mine are weak as anything now that I am not sailing several times a week (which I seem to manage during the summer)!

I hope it is like riding a bike, i havent been out for four years and am planning a trip to brogbrough in the near future (as soon as my new wetsuit arrives, i am substantially bigger than before)

i used to be a reasonable sailor but am going to tak out a nice big floaty board just in case!!!!