FIVE WOMEN ON A WINDSURF CLINIC
Words – Leslie Barton; Photos by Nicolas Jones.
Leslie Barton has just returned from a Jem Hall Clinic in Prasonisi where she was one of 5 women and 10 men and told us “I’ve been on a few clinics but this was the biggest female contingent I’d ever sailed with on a clinic”. Full of enthusiasm after the clinic, Leslie shares her experience –
“Coaching clinics are just a getaway for the lads and an excuse for a few beers every night with a bit of skills advice thrown in for good measure right? Wrong!
More women, girls, chicks, surf babes, grannies and mothers are getting in on the fun, putting in the hours like they’re pro-windsurfers for a week, with amazing results, then going home fired up and ready for action at their local surf spot.
I’ve just returned from a fabulous windsurfing clinic in Prasonisi, Rhodes which left me hungry for more and delighted with the progress I made over six days on the water thanks to the warm Mediterranean sunshine, great wind and inspiring coaching by Jem Hall.
Prasonisi (Greek for ‘green island’) is situated at the southern most tip of Rhodes, 90km from the airport, and is attached to the mainland by a large spit of sand. On one side is the Aegean Sea, on the other is the Mediterranean and as the wind blows across the spit from the Aegean it creates fabulous flat water conditions on the Med side that are perfect for beginners, freeride and freestylers alike.
Photo – Jem coaching Bettina on her stance
I’d previously been on a women-only week and a mixed clinic where I was the only female windsurfer, so I was interested to see how different it would be on my first clinic where a third of the 15 participants were women. The five women were all at different skill levels, ages and of different nationalities but we shared the common mind set of female windsurfers participating in a male dominated sport. But this coaching clinic would prove to be a very liberating and motivating experience for us all.
Patricia (Spanish) and Bettina (Austrian), who were in Prasonisi without their partners, are both passionate sailors with set goals for what they wanted to achieve on the clinic. Each day when the wind kicked in and Coach’s video camera came out, they morphed from water babes into fearless warriors, pushing their limits and striving for perfection!
Nina and her daughter Cathrine were on a family holiday from Norway and reaping huge benefits from sailing in temperatures around 28 degrees, wearing board shorts or a 2mm summer wetsuits for a change – it’s amazing how much progress you can make when you’re warm and not worried about falling into ice cold water.
Photo – Patricia going for a 360
And me? Well apart from continuing my long quest for the perfect carve gybe and tack, I love the group coaching atmosphere and the total immersion into windsurfing for a whole week.
The clinic environment is perfect for setting and achieving new goals; safe, secure and most of all brilliant fun with lots of post sailing banter during lunch and dinner. Each day was absolutely full on and none of us wanted anything different. Patricia, a regular to Jem’s clinic’s, spent the week tweaking her planing 360’s and in particular keeping her weight forward and the sail back to prevent the tail from sinking as she carved the board round. She also amazed the group one day when the wind picked up to 35 knots and she continued sailing on 4.2m Ezzy Elite and RRD 88l FSW, when most of us, including the guys, were blown off the water.
When asked about her fearless determination, Patricia explained, “Every woman in our sport is a warrior: kit is heavy, conditions can be brutal and you get many beatings. It can be frustrating to try a move hundreds of times and not even understand what you are doing wrong!”
Patricia’s warrior attitude rubbed off on Bettina too, whose new found energy and will power really showed in her improved carve gybe entries and exits. She was unhooking earlier and sailing off the wind to gain speed before beginning the carve. And by having the courage to look out of her exit and not at her kit, she was able to sail clew first for longer, before flipping the sail successfully, resulting in a lot less time spent in the water!
The biggest improvements of the week came from Nina and her daughter Cathrine who normally sail on a lake with a rocky launch. Consequently, Cathrine didn’t know how to beach start and just relied on up-hauling. After a demonstration from Jem and numerous attempts with encouragement from her fellow clinicians, she finally got the hang of it, but she didn’t stop there, she quickly moved to deep water beach starts and then by the end of the week amazed us all by water-starting! Both mum and daughter learnt how to plane earlier and use their harness and foot straps more consistently, something they’d never managed before. Nina was thrilled with so many major achievements in one week’s windsurfing.
“Jem Hall and his Prasonisi clinic changed everything for me and my windsurfing. Now I cannot wait to practice more until I go on another clinic to learn more from the best and most inspiring teacher I have ever had.” – Nina W., MD, PhD.
Photo – Nina watching a beach demo by Coach
With a huge range of pre-rigged Neil Pryde sails to choose from, we only needed to adjust the footstraps on our JP boards, and carry them a short distance to the water. When the wind shifted it was pretty easy to change up or down a size with Martin Baltensperger’s team at the ProCenter on hand to remove booms and wash down used sails for their clients.
We each tied a yellow streamer to our booms for Coach to spot us on the water; also useful for identifying each other. Jem is an all seeing and all knowing coach and consequently every small detail of our technique was scrutinised and discussed during the invaluable feedback sessions both on the beach and in the evenings where we watched videos and photographic evidence of our bad habits and weaknesses. There was nowhere to hide!
Photo – Catherine changes rig
But these sessions were light hearted, full of hilarious comment, yet hugely informative. Providing you were able to sail within range of the camera your day’s sailing could be assessed and either praised or pulled apart as necessary but either way the feedback was brilliant, fair and a perfect after dinner activity when accompanied by a glass or two of your favourite Greek tipple.
I found it interesting that during these sessions more often than not it was the women who were being praised for doing exactly what Coach had asked us to do. That said, the guys on this clinic were a very dedicated and passionate bunch who were also keen to progress and made full use of Jem’s expertise. But it’s a well known fact that men and women are wired differently for learning and many windsurfing instructors I’ve spoken with agree that in general the fairer sex listens more intently, takes time to process the information and then puts into practice exactly what they’ve been taught (unless like me when you’re seriously overpowered on a 3.5m, it’s a matter of stay low, hang on and get back to the beach any way you can – sorry Coach!)
The wind was kind to us almost every day, around 15 to 25 knots on average, and on the two light wind days we girls went shopping or laid on sunbeds with a good romance novel…. Like hell we did!
We took out big volume boards and small sails to practice our manoeuvres in slow motion. Getting the feet and hands in the right position, turning the head and allowing the shoulders and torso to follow, breaking down sequences and committing them to our muscle memory, which is crucial to nailing the moves in strong wind and waves. If you think this sounds like boring slog, think again.
We all had so much fun on the light wind days. Bettina and I kept following and copying each other, which was pretty comical and pushed us both into trying new things. She said, “I would never normally sail like this this on my own, it’s really great observing and learning from each other.” Everyone sailed on one leg, we practiced clew first sailing, tacking and tacking and tacking again at very close quarters, one handed sailing, Heli-tacks, duck gybes, face to wind sailing and Piet from Holland who hadn’t sailed for 20 years even produced some old-school back to sail moves! As a group we ranged in age from 14 to 64, in height from 5ft to 6ft 5in with varied windsurfing experience, but during light wind practice we felt like 10 year olds again, learning from our play. The whole group agreed that when they went home they would spend more time doing light wind training and some even discussed splashing out on WindSUPs for this purpose.
In addition to having fun and topping up the tan on this ‘holiday’, it was the determination to succeed that motivated everyone. We girls had the added motivation of trying our best to kick the guys’ arses but then there’s nothing like a bit of healthy competition between the sexes – something you don’t get on a women-only clinic. Patricia agreed saying, “Mixed clinics work well. Ladies do look out for each other and are more supportive. But flying past a guy feels great!”
Some women I’ve spoken to in the past have expressed a preference for all female groups because they expect a mixed group to be a testosterone fuelled combat zone of egos and lumberjack sailors. But the Prasonisi clinic was nothing like that.
In fact, it’s fair to say that everyone agreed whole heartedly that the dynamics of a mixed group is a very healthy combination for men and women and encouraged us all to help and ‘self coach’ each other, instilling a ‘can do’ attitude in everyone, regardless of gender or skill level. We all looked out for each other on the water, analysed and discussed on the beach and became firm friends in the way that you do when you’re thrown into a situation with like minded, passionate people for a short period of time. We weren’t ‘female windsurfers’ and ‘male windsurfers’, we were WINDSURFERS!”