WATERSTARTING WOES PART 2

If the 'getting up' bit of the waterstart is demanding a disproportionate amount of your time and energy, read on. Harty has some remedies.

-  Peter Hart

It wasn't until I blew the first gybe some half a mile out on a very swelly sea, that I realised I'd forgotten to attach an uphaul. It was windy. I tried pulling the rig by grabbing the base of the mast but even with my youthful strength, I was a few joules short. This was 1980.

News of 'sinkers' and waterstarting was drifting in from south sea islands but it was yet to become a common thing. This was a crisis situation where necessity had to be the mother of invention. Twenty tricky minutes later I popped up (some way downwind), breathing hard, but mildly elated... and disappointed that no one had witnessed it.

I tell this not as some vain boast, but because many of my peers had a similar experience in that they all managed to waterstart pretty much on their first attempt; not because we were a bunch of especially talented 'wunderkinds', but because we'd already been windsurfing manically for about 3 years. Racing had helped us develop efficient stances and freestyle had taught us all about power control in unusual positions.

The lesson in all this is that water starting is a barometer of your general standard. All you're doing is handling the rig and steering the board... but from the water. If a gale is needed to lift you up, or the board won't stay on line, there are flaws in your basic game.

Just like getting planing and many other moves, improvement means doing it more quickly and with less power. When flying the rig last month, I suggested that if it's taking you much more than 10 seconds, then something is up, and you need an alternative method. It's the same this month with the 'getting on' bit. If there's more than 10 knots and you're not rising up immediately, then work is needed. And it may not even be a water starting issue ...

TIME, PLACE & KIT