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Peter Hart Q A

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Category: Latest
Published: 31 August 2012
Written by peterhart
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31 Aug 2012

Peter has been an active member of the Tushingham team for many years now and is well known across the industry, but we wondered how well we all actually new him! So we sat down with Peter and asked him a few quick fire questions!

  1. Name  Peter Hart
  1. Age?   Mature
  1. Current sponsors?
    Starboard Tushingham Spartan Da Kine
  1. Nomad / fixed abode?
    Live with wife and 2 kids  in old farm cottage (in need of some repair) on West Sussex coast
  1. Years windsurfing?
     35! (should be able to turn round by now)
  1. How did you first get into the sport?
    I was working as a student teacher in a French lyceé and borrowed a board for the weekend off the gym teacher. Drove to Marseille and for 2 days thrashed around cluelessly in a gusty force 5-6 offshore wind. I had no idea but as the sun was setting on the last day, I made it go for 50 yards AND caught a small swell. Hooked! The next year I started the Southampton Uni windsurfing club. After  Uni taught skiing and windsurfing for 3 years and then became a full time pro rider in 83.
  1. Favourite discipline?
    Waves (of course); just ahead of cruising around the Chichester harbour with a SUP and a sail seeing how many pubs I can visit before the tide goes out.
  1. Competition discipline?
    Course, slalom, waves and speed. Specialised in slalom and speed.
  1. Competition results?
    UK slalom champ 88 and 91, 3rd World Production Speed in 91. First Brit to get a top ten PWA result.
  1. Favourite UK location?
    Home around the Wittering shores and Tiree
  1. Favourite International destination?
    Ireland (Donegal) closely followed by Mauritius
  1. Plans for the next year?
    Full speed ahead with my clinic tour both abroad and in the UK. And editing a new series of technique DVDs and aps.
  1. What are your ultimate ambitions you want to achieve in windsurfing?
    Continue to refine ways to help people to improve. Discover ever more subtle techniques to protect my damaged knee (or find bigger pills). Keep on enjoying it!
  1. Best kit set up?
    94 Kode and 5.75 Storm; 77 Quad and 4.7 Rock. For cruising the 141 Futura and 8.5 T Bird is pure Tiramisu
  1. Favourite move?
    Back loop (when it goes right – it’s my least favourite when it goes wrong). Actually forget that – nothing beats the feeling of shooting out onto the flat and dropping into a screaming bottom turn in front of a proper big smooth, translucent waved.
  1. Best windsurfing moment?
    Breaking 40 knots in competition in Fuerte was quite special. As was getting on the podium at a PWA event.(and any one of a hundred days on deserted beaches in Ireland)
  1. What gives you the biggest buzz in windsurfing?
    Helping someone get round their first forward loop seems to produce a lot of emotion (although I could do without all the kissing and hugging from big hairy blokes)
  1. Have you ever thought about giving up?
    Crawling up the rocks with lacerated feet and a smashed board and rig at Hookipa, it crossed my mind for about 10 seconds!
  1. How do you prepare before you go out on the water?
    An hour of pilates followed by a jog, a stretch and a few minutes meditation … is what I should  do. In truth I usually just rig and go. Kids see – time is precious
  1. How do you plan your windsurfing sessions (ie what you do on the water)?
    It depends so much on the situation.  I think if you get too hung on cracking a certain move you can very quickly go stale – so I’ll have 2 or 3 things I want to work on. But I feel I sail best and enjoy it most when I have an empty head and just react spontaneously to what’s in front of me.
  1. Favourite food?
    Sushi and Thai Green curry. Rotis from the “Roti Hut” in Barbados – and Bella’s home made fish cakes on the cliffs of Bathsheba (and ANYTHING cooked by my wife of course)
  1. Drink of choice?
    Marguerita
  1. Hardest move to crack?
    All of them! Back in the day the planing duck tack on a wee board took forever to master. It took me longer than it should to learn to Vulcan.
  1. Three top tips you can give to someone starting out?
    1. Getting the right kit and set-up will save you years of frustration. (“Don’t worry about the equipment, you wont be good enough to tell the difference.” Is the WORST piece of advice.)
    2  Find a windsurfing mate who you  like … but you also like to beat at stuff. A little healthy competition is fun and does wonders for your progress.
    3 Don’t get bedazzled by the joy of strong wind/planing. Whatever the wind, just get out there. All the key skills can be practised off the plane.
  1. Other hobbies interests?
    Surf, SUP, ski, a bit of tennis, biking and most of all, trying to make our band sound acceptable! Sounding a little ‘Waltons-esque’ but getting my kids up to speed on the water and in various sports is endlessly entertaining.
  1. Three things people might not know about you?
    1. I was schools gymnastics champion
    2. I got arrested in France for holding up a post office (it was mistaken identity – all they had to go on was that the suspect sounded foreign had a small foreign car. I’m foreign and was driving a Morris Minor – guilty!)
    3. I presented 2 series of the program ‘Windsurfing’ for ITV in the early 90s. What do you mean you missed it? (It was repeated at 3 am every Tuesday!)
  1. Describe your ideal session:
    It involves waves, mates and a pub.
  1. Finally if you had never got into windsurfing what do you think you would be doing now?
    Probably involved in journalism or film making of some kind – or more likely, stacking shelves at Lidl. 
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Authors: peterhart

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