the wife took the kids to the theatre today to see red riding hood.

i exited early with the 20-25 kn forecast looking like it was coming true.

7 year old daughter was sitting in the couch giving me a disapproving look as i said my goodbyes.

eventually she piped up and said,

daughter - when are you taking me windsurfing next dad

dad - not today darling it's too windy

daughter - ok but i want to go again.

dad - what are you reading over there

daughter - neil pryde catalogue......

^ agree, and underway.

lol, yeah i think the neil pryde catalogue was a wind up.

she knows this is a non pryde family.

Better than the response I get from my 13 yo daughter,

Dad: "Hey sweetheart wanna come for a windsurf with Dad?"

Daughter: "Get Real!!"

hardie said...

Better than the response I get from my 13 yo daughter,

Dad: "Hey sweetheart wanna come for a windsurf with Dad?"

Daughter: "Get Real!!"

lol she obviously knows you can't sail

@hardie,

i was lucky i think, i've always encouraged the kids to help me with the gear and let them play on my boards. then i took my daughter to a women in windsurfing day and she was inspred a little by it. she had had some dry runs on land and one go on the water then up at burrum heads she saw one of the many kids that go there windsurfing and that was it. from that moment on she was very keen.

eldest daughter uses my 125lt freestlye board which turned out to be a fantastic kids board. 2 year old son is keen also and 4 year old daughter has tried but is not quite strong enough yet.......

@fitz,

i think you may be looking at a tandem purchase.

@jolee,

my kids love the neil pryde catalogue. i asked them why and they said the colours. so hates off to the pryde team. as much crap as they get about there graphics it does appeal to a younger crew. daughter wants a NP one rig or a fly. there here favourites.

she has askedme if once she's better would i buy here all the gear...... i said yes of course but i may need to use some of it. hehe....

lol,

i was going to say it's shiny and all girls like shiny things.

Shirley, you can butcher an old board by punching a keel-hole through, then bogging it up ?
MAybe putting a powerbox, or deep Tuttle box in the centre, so you can bolt a big ol fin in there ?

Gestalt said...

hit up the beach again this arvo to give my daughter another go.

this lack of centreboard is really becoming a problem now she is up and sailing.

does anyone remember the thread where someone made a suction cup centre fin? it was genius.

A few months ago before temps got cold I invited my kids to come down to the lake and have a go at windsurfing, the second eldest 16 year old son had a go on the TC Hunter but became frustrated. A bit more time and a wee bit more wind will see him going again...when the temps warm up. But I could tell he's keen.

However, I'm targetting my youngest 13 year old daughter as the next victim of my plot to introduce windsurfing to the family. Unfortunately all attempts failed to get her interested but at least she was at the lake. I brought a old Bombora Antartica that was recently given to me sans footstraps and gave her a canoe paddle to SUP around in, she's a small 13 year old so the board had plenty of float and the paddle OK. She was having a ball.

I achieved one thing with her, I got her on the board, next summer I'll slowly coax her to using the smallest sail I can get my hands on and modify an old Bombora boom to suit....just have to find a mast to use.

I've set the rot that even my eldest 18 year old son wants to have a go. If he does my 15 year old will challenge him....they are oh so competitive, it's a good thing as they will push each other and see who learns first. It's all good.

I think SUPing on either a SUP or windsurf board is great prep for windsurfing.
I've found when teaching people that if you put them on a board with the sail in their hands, they are os focussed on the sail that they forget to balance with their lower body.
Taking the sail away and teaching them to just stand on a wobbly board makes a world of difference very quickly.

cheers james, that's the thread.

it's fun getting the kids into it.

jamesf said...

Gday Justin,

Heres the thread where we were discussing kids gear:

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=56231&SearchTerms=kids

The plastic centreboard makes a HUGE difference. But it creates a lot of drag so only use it as long as they need it.

Looking forward to getting my young fella on a board - he is 2½ and dead keen, so wont be too long i expect.

cheers
james

I'm inspired by all this. Thanks for the link James and thanks Gestie for the idea to cut down an old sail, I've got an old '90s Gaastra Wave foil ready to be butchered. Also found in the old kitty bag a Bombora rope uni! Geez how these things haven't petrified in storage amazes me. These uni's are great for landsailers too BTW....I knew they'd come in handy one day....well OK 25+ years later then.

KenHo said...

I think SUPing on either a SUP or windsurf board is great prep for windsurfing.
I've found when teaching people that if you put them on a board with the sail in their hands, they are os focussed on the sail that they forget to balance with their lower body.
Taking the sail away and teaching them to just stand on a wobbly board makes a world of difference very quickly.

Trouble is...
my daughter said to me the other day
"I don't think of myself as a windsurfer anymore, I'm a stand up paddler!"