When Bray Lake arrived at Neilson Dahab last week, a small group they may have been but what they did not have in number they certainly made up for in volume, humour and achievement on the water (not to mention a good amount of partying too).
James arrived with 7 others to a very quiet week for Neilson, allowing each teaching group to have maximum 3:1 student to instructor ratio. Andrew and Rich weren’t all that sure how much windsurfing they would do, if any. This swiftly changed when they heard that their instructor was to be Kat, the only girl on the team! They gave it a good effort on the first two mornings, telling Kat not to take it personally but the afternoons were to be spent on a sun bed, with a beer.
Ollie and Emma were lucky to have Hassan to themselves and spent as much time as possible on the water mastering the harness and by the end of the week both were planing in it too. Emma couldn’t get enough, and on the Neilson non-teaching days was straight in for some extra coaching sessions with Phil. Ollie also was also often not seen for hours, being determined to get comfortable with his harness and go back to Bray with new skills. Their improvement certainly reflects their efforts.
The intermediates, Mark and Tom, were at first thought to be a couple by their Instructor Ben. As he got to know them the signs of a good marriage were showing through as they argued about who was best, always answered each other back and then made up with a kiss and a hug when it was all over. All they seemed to want was to go fast, and both improved in their blasting control and use of the footstraps, as well as waterstarts.
David and James were with Kamal working on duck gybes as well as other technique tuning. James and I ventured out on the tandem on the first day, terrifying other windsurfers in speedy as well as surprising ourselves with the ability to turn it around looking like we knew what we were doing! It was so much fun, James decided to go for a repeat later in the week with Andrew on the front, getting him planning for the first time ever.
As well as achievement on the water, a lot of banter was going on off the water. Emma, Tom and Mark behaved like children most of the week, Andrew and James made notable efforts in Tree Bar along with everyone else’s putting in the effort on dance floor, and the presentation night, even with only 14 guests, managed to make for an amusing, comical evening!
All in all a great week, a lot of fun was had by all!
Neilson is now a very quiet place without them, although Emma left with the hope to return in 2 weeks time. There was also quite a few promises to be at Bray Lake this weekend to show off their new skills…forecast looks windy but will they brave the cold after 25degrees out here….
Contributed by: Danielle @ www.getwindsurfing.com
