Old Men Windsurfing
With a decent forecast for wind, Steve and I planned a windsurf session on Sunday once again. I therefore didn’t go for my usual Sunday morning run — I didn’t think my joints were quite up to that before a windsurf session. I had at least managed a nice mountain bike ride on Saturday afternoon, so if anything, my legs were still recovering from that. I’m sure it wasn’t that long ago that I’d have gone running before breakfast, mountain biking in the morning, windsurfing in the afternoon and then probably done something else in the evening as well.
These days, one decent session is probably enough. Steve arrived around 10:00 am, so we had a coffee, walked to the beach, watched some videos and caught up. It’s always good to have a chat and see what Steve has been up to — after 25+ years, he’s basically part of the furniture at this point (in a good way). We’ve done quite a lot together over the years, and he’s still up for most of the same adventures. We’re also both getting creaky at about the same speed, so he understands the reality of it and is probably quite happy to take it a little easier now and then as well.
Eventually, with the wind still blowing and the tide now having dropped sufficiently, we headed over to the beach with our windsurfing kit. There was no real hurry as the wind was set to last all day, and things would only improve as the tide dropped further. I was soon rigged, but waited around for Steve to get ready so we could head out together.
For some reason, it was quite difficult out there. I was on an 89-litre board with my 5.0 m sail and was a little overpowered really. I headed all the way down to the estuary, struggling to keep any ground upwind through the incessant whitewater. The plan had been to head towards the lagoons at the estuary mouth where the water is flatter and we could hopefully have an easier session. However, I fell in on the gybe and then struggled to get going again thanks to the strong currents. Despite having plenty of wind, the current was grabbing the board, spinning it around, and I was drifting out to sea at quite a speed. If you zoom in on my Strava GPS trail, you can see how far I drifted in just a few seconds while trying to waterstart. Once I worked out what was going on, I was back on the board and heading to where I’d started — through walls of whitewater. Maybe sailing in these channels wasn’t such a good idea.
Steve was now on the beach a little further along. He hadn’t quite made it to the estuary mouth and seemed to be struggling to get away from the beach. I made it back to my starting point, headed up the beach, and made a few adjustments to depower my sail to help cope with the gusts. Really, I should have rigged my 4.5 m, but I thought I’d better get back on the water and head down to check that Steve was OK.
Steve was fine — he just couldn’t get away from the beach on that tack and was walking back along the sand. Phew: no broken kit or body parts!
He’d had enough though, so he decided to pack up and watch for a while. I had a few more runs back and forth and did eventually settle into it. Things felt a little easier as the tide dropped, and I relaxed a bit as everything began to come together — but it was never comfortable or easy. It felt like a struggle the whole time. I don’t think that was completely down to the fact that I’m not as young as I used to be, I think the conditions just had the upper hand today. Someone walking along the beach had taken a couple of photos of me though, and seemed quite impressed with the whole performance.
I was pretty tired by the time it came to packing up and heading home. Steve came back for another coffee and then headed off, while I gradually became more and more decrepit as my back started to seize up. By the evening, I was hobbling around and groaning like an old man.
Two days later and it hasn’t really eased up. I couldn’t sleep last night because of the back pain, and I’m not exactly feeling flexible and bouncy today. I don’t know what it is about windsurfing, but it’s definitely hard on both body and kit! Anna has now banned me from windsurfing until we go on holiday — she’s had enough of holidays spent with an injured husband. Of course, being a husband comes with lots of ‘bans’ to ignore, so we’ll see what happens next time it’s windy!
Maybe Steve and I should look at some slightly less intense activities as an alternative now and then though. Maybe just a nice day hiking in the hills over the winter will be more appropriate.
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You once learnt how to play chess,maybe you and Steve shout get the chess board out instead of a sail board !
Hope you are feeling better now x