windsurfing=spiritual

[joel barde]

I'm writing a feature about windsurfing for a UVic journalism class. My story is about the spiritual high associated with a great day on the water. So if your interested, tell me why windsurfing is important to your life.

[Kite Kook]

are you looking for windsurfers only, or do kiters count? It may seem that kiters are souless hedonistic yahoos, but some of us know where you are coming from...

[more force 4]

Chees, Joel, this is a hard subject to write on, probably why no content for your paper yet! There are some similar threads on Boards and google rec.windsuring you might try and find, there was some pretty good writing on the subject about 8 months ago. While I write about windsurfing, I expect most of this is true for kiting as well.

A really good day windsurfing is probably about as rare as a really good day in unbroken powder skiing/snowboarding. Usually, something is wrong - its foggy/snowy and you can't see clearly, or the snow is heavy, or its been cut up already, or the wind has slabbed it, or.... But when conditions are perfect, and your equipment is maatched, and you have the skills, there is almost no feeling like it. Windsurfing is so much the same - the tide is pulling you downwind so you have to claw to windward the whole time, you are overpowered, you are underpowered, the current is making a lumpy unpredictable chop, you forgot to move your harness lines forward for the smaller sail, you should have switched boards or fins, etc etc.

It still seems like an extreme sport to me. I came from a dinghy and keelboat racing background and always considered the conditions needed for shortboarding to be extreme. I used to get butterflies in my stomach on the drive to Nitinat. A 25 knot wind is really experts-only in a dinghy, and a white-knuckle ride on a keelboat round-the-buoys racing, and for both equipment breaking, capsizes or knockdowns and torn sails are the penalty for making a mistake. But the same conditions are just nice 5.0 for a 90 l sailboard. For me, just being able to go out for a few runs on a stormy winter day when no other sailing craft ventures out has a sense of acomplishment, even if the sailing itself isn't exactly fun. To see people like Kus and Art and BWD make it look easy is awesome. To get back to the skiing comparison, its a bit like skiing down black diamond runs on a gnarly day of fog, blowing snow, and crust when all the sensible people are in the pub. But you know that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

It is such a difficult sport to be even half good at. For years, my goal was to be able to waterstart and get into the straps. I could barely imagine being in the harness and standing way back there in the straps in control. And when I first was planing fast and actually got in the straps and almost in balance (not in control, mind you, I remember wildly veering around oncoming sailors at Nitinat) it was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment I've ever had. And the same with finally clicking with waterstarts. And the same with finally sailing away dry from a jibe. And the same with finally planing away from a jibe. And the same for the first jump, and the same for the first landed jump. If I ever get bored improving my gybes, there are all the gybe varieties, tacks, helitacks, 360s, etc to keep it interesting, even without risking injuries with the aerials. And waves are another whole level of skill and complexity.

There is always something to learn about the weather, sea conditions, tides, local knowledge, and equipment. The learning curve is endless.

And the people it attracts - including most kiters - tend to be really interesting people, regardless of their working profession or income level. And a place like Nitinat, where people mix and actually talk to each other and socialize over a fire, is way too rare in our society.

[JL]

Read any sailing log entries by: 'Bobson' to get a feel for the enthusiasm. Read 'Kus' for some extreme reports with a great sense of humor.

[kooke]

Hey Guys,

Enthusiasm, stoke, fun, and a feeling of accomplishment are all parts of windsurfing or kitesurfing but do they really comprise the "spiritual" aspect of what we do? I think the spiritual aspect is separate from these elements. Few of us actually speak of this side of our sport, but I think it's there for most of us. At first we might sail or kite for the reasons above, but eventually there is a deeper reason, I believe. A good session has me feeling more grounded and connected with everything around me. Even the light looks different. My general frustration level goes down and I have more room for compassion.

Or that could just be the endorphins talking

[SGH]

There definitely is a spiritual side to it. I know that I have gone out on days feeling like the world is a crappy place to be and an hour of sailing makes in wonderful again. That is both in conditions where I am combating with the elements and my equipment and even going out in days where I am only actually holding up the sail (low wind/big board).

Now I am far from an expert sailor, or even a competent one, (I am new to the sport) but part of what seduced me into windsurfing was the Zen-like feeling of being in the water with the wind on my face, no sound but the swish of the water and the wind and my own singing (really) .

My favorite time to sail is sunset and I have been guilty of having to de-rig in darkness (I've often thought that maybe I should get some running lights for my gear ) - that and carry a good flashlight to locate missing pieces in the darkness.

[KUS]

Nice Thread: On every first tack out when I hit the plane in the straps I thank God for this beautiful day....I usually yell it...and on a sunny, unobstructed blue sky day I call to my late grandma up in the sky to watch me go Silly? maybe, true? definitely.
(hmm, I usually utter somewhat different sentiments later when swimming in a mile or dealing with broken gear, wounded body...)

The only sport where when my blown knees hurt, my back aches or my torn open blisters are screaming, I feel nothing but anticipation of the excitement and adventure ahead. I can sometimes barely walk, am freezing and late for work yet I find myself rigging up Nothing else much matters or hurts til the next day or things actually feel much better, been a mystery to me for years (You'd think knees feel worse after a choppy jumping fest sesh but it's the opposite for me)
I have noticed however that the magic is not the same when I've been getting lucky with lots of sessions....it's more special when you score a few weeks apart, kinda like you have a monthly limit or something: more sessions, fewer special points so getting spoiled in Maui or Baja for weeks on end may not be such a good thing overall (for me)

I can't say that being overpowered or being beaten up in the surf, hitting logs or a reef etc. makes a bad session for me, it just lets me know I have tons to learn and I need to improve so I don't suffer next time. Also sailing with WindDoc, Dunkinguy, Morewind or BWD, Art, the likes keeps the stoke and pushes you to be a better sailor.....felt the same when playing ball/hockey or when I was a propatroller in my other life. It is definitely a bit of a solitary sport but having Ruskie, MF4 or one of the regulars or kiters out makes it more enjoyable watching them too.
BTW: pristine sparkling powder day shared with another buddy of similar ability (three's a crowd ) still scores a notch higher for me....maybe I DO need a DWD Maui Wave soon to compare ultimates

Being played with by Mother Nature on an extreme day (Survial at Sea sessions, as Ross aptly termed them) or doing Zen laps with slalom gear at the lake in the evening when I'm all alone on the lake: Powerful Stuff

[kitesurferdale]

Spiritual, hmm yeh, for me after any sail, you probably could come upto me and say anything in any tone and more than likely it would just sail on by with the wind, I am truly in a different and happy place every time I get off the water. I have skied since I was three, played competative hockey into my late teens, played college volleyball (our team ranked at one time as 6th in Canada ) & badminton and while all these sports are fullfilling in one way or another, I can't say that I get that feeling of being totally at peace like I do while I am out cruizin and after I get of the water and reflecting on just how great I feel about life. I can even go as sofar as to say that when I am at work, shit is hittin the fan, etc etc, all I have to think about is the times out on the water sailing with my friends and things begin to perk up and life becomes truly less of a struggle. I chaulk that up as taking a stance of the glass is half empty to half full attitude and all it takes is the great memories of different sailing sessions over the years.

[more force 4]

Following up on Kus' blown knees observation, it is remarkable that the few times when I have been too sick to go, but decided to go anyway it looked so good, I've actually felt better during/after the session than before - and in the case of the 10 day flu last year, spent several days in bed followed by total blah feeling, often dizzy, but felt great from the session on.

Almost all the aboriginal people on the Northwest Coast used cold water bathing as a part of spiritual training. Mostly this involves (many people still do it) using a remote freshwater creek pool and immersing yourself while scrubbing your body with evergreen boughs, and praying at the same time. The Ditidaht's ancestors did even more extreme, with diving underwater for as long as they could hold their breath to train for whale hunting (often the successful whaler would have to dive to sew the whale's mouth shut so it didn't fill with water and sink or be too heavy to tow). Whaling training was just as much a spiritual excersize as a physical one. So I think the feelings one gets when repeatedly immersed in cold water have been used as spiritual training for a long time here. We are coddled by wearing wetsuits/drysuits, but I think we benefit from some of the same physical/mental/spirtual phenomena.

Even though I'm a hard-core atheist, I find myself thinking about just how wonderful it is to be alive and interacting with the world when I'm windsurfing (that is, if I'm not totally concerned with immediate survival).

Oh, and I almost forgot, the day last summer at Nitinat, sailing by myself, the only one out on the lake, blasting back and forth in a heavy 'mizzle' as a front came through, when I couldn't see the shores from the middle of the lake, and the trees all foggy when I came in close, was absolutely mind-blowing. Spiritual I guess. And the gods must have smiled on me, because it was the first time I put together a string of fully planing gybes. Unforgetable (cf. beginning of paragraph!)

[jjjim]

I've sailed for a long time and at 53 I'm beginning to get old. I still love windsurfing even though I've probably seen the best of my days. It dosen't matter.
Windsurfing offers many meaningful experiences which are spiritual. But let's define spirituality. As a non-religious individual the best definition I have some across which I can relate to is that spirituality is that which makes one feel part of a greater whole. Surfers have long spoken of synching with nature's rhythmns, feeling a part of the universe in ways that mundane life just dosen't offer. And the friends we make and the joy we share is certainly, as well, of tremendous value to our well-being.
But I believe the deeper meaning we experience is nothing more or less than a celebration of SELF. On the surface this may seem a triviality. We are deeply social animals and much of our existence is spent fitting into the world. But the thing we seldom discuss is the lone experience of the individual. We loose ourselves to the greater whole but find our unique selves in the personal experience of, say, windsurfing.
Ultimately, the experience of SELF is what really matters. Everything else comes after. This may be at odds with notions of spirituality. Strangely, one can feel utterly alone in the universe and part of a greater whole simultaneously. I know I do. So I think spirituality is a rather poorly defined quantity. I'm not sure it really communicates anything or if it really exists at all. The experience of self, on the other hand, is fundamental to our existence.

[Arthur Two Sheds Jackson]

When I come off the water it is like Mozart and Iron Maiden all rolled up into one magic doobie and smoked allegorically. It is a high that is way more than just physical so yeah definately spiritual.

[JL]

After a session I find I'm tired & wet with a large thirst.

[Vic]

In response to JJJim - Well said, I couldn't agree more, and I have 25 years on you !

[Russian Dood]

Vic, you are my hero! Hats off to you... Many times!

[craig myers]

The spiritual side of windsurfing for me is the invisible force. A force you share with a craft so responsive and nimble that it is like an extension you own self. This is a force you cannot see, only the effect it has on your environment around you, the way it distorts the water, the way it moves the trees, the way it burns the skin on your face even though there might be no sun in sight. This is the really cool part, even though this force is invisible, it seems to move a lot like a substance you can see, water.
Your body tells you that you are completly immersed in the same forces even though your mind is sending you rational signals that it is not.
Kitesurfing amplifies this force since its entire energy is routed through your living tissue into the board beneath your feet. The power of the invisible force is a frightening thing at times with this set up, and the only way out is committment.
Committing your entire self to a force many times greater than you is a spiritual journey that cleanses you. While you are involved, there is little room in your mind for thoughts other than what you are trying to acheive with the craft. This might be the only time in your day when you are focused completely on one single thing. The groove.
This is a tonic of health for humans seemingly surrounded by a multi-task environment of constant low level tension. This is our savior.

carkeek craig