I went windsurfing again last weekend, for the first time in quite some time.
It had everything that was missing from my past couple of trips out. There was a lot of wind, more than I think I have ever seen before in Jomtien. As such, I could get moving quite fast. I was using a harness, so if I made any mistake without immediately correcting, my 6.6 meter sail would pick me up and toss me into the water (or on top of the sail.
I very quickly tired out. Sailing wasn’t so difficult, but crashing and up hauling that huge sail was exhausting. It didn’t help that I was using a much faster but skinnier board, which meant that I had to work harder to keep the board level while I uphauled. To make it more exciting, the wind and changing tide had some 4(ish) foot swells that kept me rocking.
The wind was blowing far too hard for me to properly tack or jibe with my experience, so I just went out until I fell with the sail on the other side of the board, then turned around and came back.
I had no trouble as long as I was on the board, in fact, I felt great.
But the harness around my stomach was making me feel sick and the stress of uphauling was exhausting me. I hit the point where I knew I was done. I just had to up haul one more time, sail the couple hundred meters or so back to the beach, and call it a day. I got the sail up, but immediately got hit by a swell unprepared and barely and enough time to push the sail in the right direction so I wouldn’t have to tack again before falling into the water myself.
I crawled up on the board to relax for a moment, but the rocking motion was exacerbating my stomach issues. I stood up with a little effort, hauled the sail into an upright position, and sailed back towards the beach, careful to keep the sail in an outward position that was both slower and less likely to toss me off. By this time I had figured out the exact maneuver to try in order to stay on the board when the wind pulls me forward. I just needed to feel it in time to sheet out, and push the mast forward. That instantly lets all the wind out of the sail and allows me to get control back over the sail before falling off.
Luckily I had no trouble and I was able to make it back to the beach (stopping spot on in front of the shop, proudly enough). I only had to pull the board and sail far enough onto the beach so it wouldn’t float away and the attendants would take care of the rest.
That’s when windsurfing is fun. I want to leave the beach dead tired and recovering from a minor scare from the thought that I’m out in the beach. I never go very far out and I’m never truly in danger. I’m certain I could swim that distance back at the absolute worst, and I’ve got a floating board on top of that. It’s just a little bit of excitement that keeps the sport fun.
Because when everything goes right, just cruising on a windsurfing board is pretty boring.