John Hibbard – “When George told me about his plan to windsurf along the coast and camp I was immediately in. Having hung-up my competition jacket in 2009, I haven’t spent much time with a boom in my hands. It was an exciting prospect to get back out there with the boys – especially when I heard Muzza was already on board. Spending time with him is a joy! He is such a unique character that just makes any journey a lot of fun.
Tacking out of the River Erme took a little longer than planned due to the light 6 knot, onshore wind and 4 knots of incoming current, but after a tacking race upwind, followed by a few U-turns to get back to Muzza who seemed intent on fishing, filming and generally doing anything other than sailing in a straight line, we were eventually in the open ocean. That was when I realised I was approaching this whole thing with my competitive head on, focussing on getting from A to B as quickly as possible. I decided to take a leaf out of Muzza’s book, cracked open a cold one (don’t drink and sail kids!) from our ‘emergency’ rations and re-grouped with the guys.
Sailing slowly a mile or so out to sea gives you plenty of time to look around. It’s a different perspective that most will never experience, a little like looking at your life from above. We realised that our misspent youth was not misspent at all, but rather it allowed us to feel totally capable of going wherever we wanted in an almost over-confident, yet calculated way. We were in our element, we weren’t blasting along at 30 knots, but were enjoying windsurfing in its absolute rawest form.”