Liz Taylor (not that Liz Taylor - but she is also movie star!) had her land lesson yesterday. Today it was time to get on the water with the skills she had perfected on the simulator.
Liz held the 2.6m beginner sail as we towed the Fanatic Viper HD board upwind. It was blowing 9-13 knots, nice and warm, 20c from the south. I connected the sail and board and positioned her to have her first run in her normal snowboarding stance.
No problem, she uphauled, and was easily steering the board with her front hand on the mast. As we got closer to an island, I had her lean the sail back and she started her first tack. Liz got all the way around and then got too excited and had her first fall. Not even a yelp as the water was still 19c - amazing for October 5th.
Back on the board and now in the neutral position slowly heading back to Key Harbour. Once she was really comfortable we started looking through the sail and using 2 fingers on the boom to get going faster. A bunch more tacks, a few splashes and uphauls and then time for some pretty confident video clips!
Eventually Liz was getting close to the Launch Pad and I showed her how to jibe and steer straight downwind. Right to the dock and she stepped off - a very successful first time windsurfer! Yeah Liz.