Finally in the water! Depending on your temperament, you will have come to touch the water at different times: there is the impatient that the first time you unload the car directly into the sea and mount it all with water at the knee, there is the pragmatist who he mounts the strap with the screwdriver and, when he puts his feet into the sea to try his hand at the WS, he has already read several titles starting from the Glenans Navigation Course and then concluding with the bound press of this indispensable site.
Does it make sense to talk about getting on the table? Yes, whether you are the Impatient or the Pragmatist mentioned above: both in fact underestimate how important it is to approach the equipment well in order to reduce physical damage and thus be able to prolong the stay in the water to make initial attempts.
How to go up
It was not difficult to get there but I say it: you go up the opposite side from the sail. If the water is deep and you are already tired you can pass the equipment from hand to hand in order to make it turn and be able to present you on the right side. You will avoid swimming.
The best method of climbing on the table is simple: you have to push yourself with your arms and try to climb immediately with the sole of your foot. If you have a whole wetsuit the gesture will be very difficult so you can help yourself by first supporting the knee which will be protected by the neoprene and will not abrade.
As soon as you go up, try not to roll on the sail, but stay initially a little off the edge from which you have just climbed: due to the tree constraint, the board cannot tip backwards and to find the right position you should take advantage of this stability. Remember, however, that before starting to recover, the feet must be positioned as per the manual or in such a way that the pressure of the sole of the foot falls approximately on the axis of the table.
Be careful
Two things to avoid: nutcrackers and abrasions. The first is rather dangerous for the hands and consists in remaining with the hand pressed between the tree and the sail. They tend to underestimate this thing especially those people who have tried their hand at the old windsurfer boards in which the mast foot entered the board by force without being rigidly blocked in the latter, allowing them to get really sick with this type of “maneuver”.
The abrasions, in addition to the above mentioned knees, are really of every kind. The only limit is the imagination. Don’t go up to “bearskin”, for example. It will not help you find more stability. I don’t write these things to make people laugh but because in years of teaching I’ve really seen everything. Beyond the tastes or the fact that some students must also bang their heads to understand things, I guarantee that with bare skin the abrasions are really annoying and the burning with sea water can make you stop earlier than expected, much earlier ..