Aidan is a lucky 12 year old kid. His parents bought him a nice Tahe 160 windsurf board for him to progress on. Sadly the board had a freak warranty issue and I was asked by sponsor Steve at Northline if I could take the replacement board closer to Sudbury for Aidan's dad Dave to pick up the board. I was very happy to help and reached out to Dave to see if they wanted a quick lesson along with the board delivery? YES!
With the weather looking warm and wonderful, a Wednesday afternoon rendezvous was arranged at Key Marine Resort. We boated down the river to the Launch Pad where a light 6-9 knot breeze was coming from the SW. Perfect conditions for an intermediate lesson.
As we got closer to the island I showed Aidan and Dave the sailing area and the water was so clear it was easy to see the old cribs from the coal wharf. We took the board and sails out to the point and had a warm-up lesson on the simulator.
Aidan is working on planing, footstraps and jibes. He is really talented and easily handled the 5.2 Idol I rigged for him in the light, non planing wind. He was sailing back and forth, working on tacks and jibes. He stayed upwind easily. I went out and shadowed him on my Fanatic Viper HD but didn't really have much to comment on other than his front foot position.
Dave took my 5.6 Idol out and did a bit of sailing too. More than sailing himself, I think he enjoyed watching me doing downwind 360s, duck tacks, backwinded sailing, sail 360s and other lightwind tricks. Aidan did his first ever duck jibe! I loaned Aidan my buddy Scott's windsurfing binder for his school project. Maybe getting a Tricktionary will be on Aidan / Dave's Christmas list?
I sensed that Dave liked seeing all the foiling gear at the Launch Pad. His gang at the lake haven't tried foiling yet but I'm guessing that will happen in the future. I hope I get a chance to have them back to the Launch Pad on a higher wind day - working on shortboard skills in the consistent SW winds we get would be a lot of fun.
Comments