June came in hot and we just have been getting smoked with wind here on Maui! Shawna and I just finished an incredible Aloha Windsurfing Clinic and it was AMAZING! We were blasted with wind everyday, in fact the first 3 days may have been a bit windy but it got everyones attention to say the least! With a big crew we had our hands full all week long and the energy that was flowing throughout our team was awesome. I was fired up everyday to get into the days and watch people learn! I felt like everything was smooth as silk. We have a great program and delivered information that we could see people were grasping and putting it into use on the water. Everyday we would go over video analysis and really study each other so we all are learning as we go. Most everyone was at a similar level and this created a pretty tight knit group!
The big word of the week was CRUNCH! Handling the high winds takes a stance that prepares you for battle. Shawna calls it the crunch, kinda like a half sit up. You would have to see it in action to appreciate what it can do for you! We had very few catapults all week long and this is largely due to this stance!
How about the turns…… Well that is pretty tricky in the high winds and we had to iron out a lot of bad habits! Shawna has a good checklist that she threw out… It goes something like this- "Did you reach far enough back on the boom? Are you low enough? Are leaning into the turn? Is your front foot sliding out fast enough. Did you continue to stay low. Do you step up and stay low. Did you look up wind again before throwing the rig forward. Did you slide you hand up to the mast before you flip the rig and stay low enough?" Once you can do all this, you have the ingredients to make jibes in both light and high winds as well as use these techniques for learning your bottom turns etc….. Our theory is build the right base and everything from there is achievable! If you have been thinking about joining us for an Aloha Windsurfing Clinic, sign up now!!! Next one is October 13-20th