The best part of living in Houston is the wonderful fall weather.

Now that I'm not spending my weekends feeling guilty about not flying, I've been taking windsurfing lessons from a guy down in Texas City. The first weekend, I mostly just managed to stand up on the biggest board he had, and sometimes managed to move in something vaguely like the direction I was heading.

Last weekend was much better - we went to a smaller lake (instead of the bay), and I managed to figure out turning around by the end of the lesson. I made it back and forth across the lake 3 times, including turning around at both sides, without falling off. This is a major improvment.

So I'm getting the hang of the basic muscle memory stuff, but I feel like I'm lagging behind on theory, so I ordered a book from Amazon this week. I'm hoping it'll give me a better understanding of the aerodynamics of the sail (which works just like a wing, except when it doesn't), and the board (which clearly has a "step", but I can only find it by accident) and the interactions of the sail and the board, which lets you turn (for now, I've just been trying various sail positions until either I stumble on the right one, or the instructor gives me hints).

And I'm hoping it'll give me a clearer path of what I should be learning. Clearly, standing up was important. Going in a straight line was important, and turning around was important, but I'm not sure what the next big step is. I'm sure he'll tell me next time I show up, but I always feel better with a more pre-determined path.

It's interesting. I'm having enough fun with it to go out and find a new usericon for my LJ, and certainly enough to keep taking lessons. At some point, though, I suspect I'm going to have to buy my own rig, and that's not going to work if I don't also get a car. I'd been thinking vaguely about a smart, but today I saw an adorable classic Beetle - orange with daisies on the side - and said, 'Wow, that would be the perfect car to strap a windsurfing board on top of!'. But I hate to get back into the whole car thing again, with all the expenses. There used to be places that rented lockers on the water for gear, but they mostly all blew down during Ike. So I'll see what's happening next summer - if I can rent a locker, in a place where I'm likely to find other windsurfers, I'll probably get a cheap used rig. If I can't, I'll have to decide if it's worth the expense of a car.

Tags: windsurfing