I got out windsurfing for the first time this year on Wednesday. The winds were pretty crazy and despite a few good crashes and the cold water I had a pretty good time.
When the wind is really cooking like it was you have to move yourself further back on the board and put your feet in foot straps because if you don't the power of the wind on the sail that transfers to your feet is too much - you can't keep a grip on the board with your feet and you get launched head over tails.
As I was getting back into the foot straps and trying to control the whole set-up in the wind it occurred to me that this was a very tai-chi type of move. Basically I had to slowly and smoothly transfer all of my weight to my back leg and then remain balanced and sturdy on that leg while I slowly lifted my front leg up, out and into the front strap -- then I transfer all the weight to my front leg while I do the same with the back to get into the back strap.
Instead of doing the move slowly and controlled I could have (and usually do) just try to get my foot in the strap really quickly, because if I put my foot down wrong I either throw the balance of the whole board off and end up struggling for control or I duff it and get a good taste of lake water (gross).
It's funny how I relate kung-fu and tai-chi to other things in my life that may not seem at first to really have a connection from windsurfing to being on a motorcycle to shoveling snow off of my roof (open-x stance saves man from falling off his house!).
3 people spoke up:
ok I'd really have liked to have seen that saving x-stance!!
It was a matter of throwing snow over my shoulder, losing my footing and then stepping back into an open x to save me from land on my back or rolling off the roof.
landing, that is
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