it took awhile, but i'm finally back

My absence and lack of commitment in windsurfing during the past year would have rendered me a terrible, terrible backslider if I were to liken it to a religion. I came up with more than enough silly excuses to stay away from ECP, e.g. too busy with school-work/life (when it's just really poor time management on my part), bad weather conditions (the list goes on).

Doesn't take a genius to figure out the more I stayed away, the more terrible I became at the sport, so it's not really surprising that I've not really been making much progress in my windsurfing journey. In fact, it's more or less come to a standstill after I hopped back to use the longboard. Since I came back from HK last year, I've been trying to get myself better acquainted with SK's longboard. It's a whole new cycle of learning all over again. Sigh.

Things were quite bad when I tried to be regular again. There were (and still are) many instances where I lost my balance every time I tried to do my tacks/gybes, and it got really tiring when I had to up-haul over and over again when I dropped my (freaking heavy) sail into the water. I'd lost whatever sense of balance I had back then, and I lost the strength that I used to have too. :(

I sustained new bruises from carrying the equipment each week and they make my already-horrible-looking legs look even more unsightly. And there was a nasty one too when my left rib rammed into the boom after the rig was catapulted by the wind.

All that failure was disheartening, to say the least...
And it felt awful to feel disconnected with friends whom you were great with once upon a time too.


But I'm not quite ready to give up on windsurfing yet.

It's given me some of my best friends in and out of university, and helped me form a sense of self-identity I never had prior to getting acquainted with it. Through it, I got a taste of what it feels like to win a competition after putting in much sweat and effort (literally, physically) for the first time in my life. Victory was sweet, with strong hints of saltiness. I think it'll take me a long time to forget how I clambered back to shore, exhausted, but relieved and the hug I gave to my mentor, after ending a few rounds of nail-biting races.


And so, I'm desperately trying to make up for all that self-induced lost time now.


To kick-start things, I signed up for the basic instructor course when I got an invite in mid-February. We had to pay a handsome fee for it (in addition to the other requirements), and that's my expensive  reminder to stay committed this time round. It helped that school's nearly over when I attended the lessons.

Over the past few consecutive weekends as the lessons were being run, I tried to squeeze in a bit of surfing whenever it was time for breaks from the lessons. As luck would have it, the wind's been blowing rather nicely (by Singapore's standards); we even had a sunny South-West on one fine Saturday! It's rare to have the wind and sun appearing at the same time because good winds usually imply impending storms. So, that's a good sign!

After putting some consistency in place, I'm slowly (but surely) getting used to the equipment and the elements again. I've been regaining my sense of balance and a bit of that strength needed for holding onto the rig while it's up, and I can do (chicken) tacks and gybes without falling into the water most of the time now (at least for light wind conditions!). Progress for beach starting is slow, but I think I've somehow felt what the 'correct version' should feel like. Chubs also pointed out my mistakes so I'm looking forward to work on them again soon.

Honestly, I know that I still have a long way to go on this path and that there'll be so many more problems to face in future. But I'm ready to make a commitment for the first time in a long while, so AJ, make it work man!


ps. No new bruises sustained over the last weekend. Another good sign, surely!