Windsurfing In Curacao

Island Surf

Guess what we did Tuesday morning? We went windsurfing! There is a little windsurf shop on the water here in Spanish Waters and for the past few months we have been sitting on our cockpit watching them zoom by. As you may or may not know already, John and I have started in earnest our graphic design business. While in Curacao we have had time to think about what direction we wanted to head, and being our own boss while doing what we loved seemed an unbeatable option. While on this course we got in contact with Hilde, the manager of Windsurf Curacao, and ended up trading design for lessons.

Windsurf Curacao

With the design heading for the printers we arranged for a lesson at 10am this morning. The shop was just opening up when we pulled onto the beach with our dingy. Windsurf Curacao is situated on the western coast of Spanish Waters. It had a definite surf-islandly atmosphere with driftwood benches and chairs, surfboards propped up by the water, and the obvious fact that is was indeed a surf spot on the islands.

Our instructor for the morning was a young Dutch guy named Manford ( I am so sorry if I am spelling this wrong), who was teaching for the first time in months due to a broken ankle. He did mention it was from windsurfing… hmmm. The first thing he showed us was the “simulator.” This imposing sounding devise is a windsurf board with wheels centered on a platform where you can practice the moves without being on the water. He had us practice our balance and getting the sail up a few times. Having living on boats for the past several months we at least already knew all the names: such as mast, boom, keel, downwind, and upwind.

In no time we were all in the water and after a few more practice tries getting the sail up and learning how to turn we were feeling pretty good. Of course we had the beginner set-up where our boards where huge, the sails were tiny, and we were barley hanging on at first but it was a blast.

Surfer kids

While others watching might have seen two shaky people slowly floating around, from our vantage point we were cutting through the water at break neck speeds! We were told we were doing pretty well and our confidence rose. That is until the instructor threw us the final challenge: a tight figure eight course up and down wind. Unlike what we expected it turns out that windsurfing is actually even more difficult with little wind compared to too much. Thinking this new challenge will be no problem we both hopped on our boards and…just stood there slowly floating backward! After another few minuets of figuring out how to go forward again I was able to start the course. When I looked up to see how John was doing he had floated a pretty good ways downwind and was trying to work his way back. Thus it went on for the last twenty minuets or so of our lesson. By the time the instructor called us back to the beach I had managed a few of the ugliest figure eights and John had just managed to get back on coarse. But once he got on course again he was able to get a couple of figure eights done and we were both pumped and excited by the time we got back on the beach. We had to do this again!

We have a few more lessons planned over the next few weeks so hopefully we will be able to report that we are wind “surfers” in no time. Once we get that accomplishment off the list next on the list is surfing, kite-surfing, diving, and of coarse more sailing that we want to learn and get good at while we are out here.

Here are some shots taken during the a busy afternoon at the windsurfing shop. Enjoy!

Windsurf Sails

Surfer Boy

Windsurfer

Windsurf Boards

Racing By

Spanish Water Windsurfer

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