Consciously Incompetent

The final week of my windsurf course was a very intense assessment week. I was expecting it since I’d gone through the same with the dinghy course last year, yet I didn’t find it quite as fun this time - I didn’t feel as ready or prepared and thus became quite frustrated at times. Our group, which had grown from four to eleven students during the six weeks I was there, was split between two coaches who taught us how to instruct. It was rigorous, not least because of the ways in which the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) lay out the strict methods for teaching. I found the whole experience ever so British (and dare I say tedious at times) and this wasn’t only due to the many 'safeguarding against child abuse’ chats, quizzes and lectures we had to sit through. I may jest, but I should add that I do actually value the way the RYA has structured and organised their programmes and know that, globally, it's a well respected organisation whose structure and courses others often attempt to imitate.

Cheesy footage from week four/five of the course. A great demonstration

(as pointed out by my Dad when looking at the sail) of a person too afraid

to sheet in and go fast!

Among our theory lessons, we were taught about the four stages any student will go through when learning to windsurf. Firstly, a beginner is ‘unconsciously incompetent’: they’re crap but they don’t actually know it. The next stage is ‘consciously incompetent’ - they are crap... and they know it! Moving on from this, they become ‘consciously competent’, which is when a student has begun to master the skill, yet still has to think about it. Only when a skill becomes natural can a person be considered ‘unconsciously competent’. Of course, with every new skill or trick a person tries to learn, the cycle begins again. Having never seen this progression cycle before, I was quite amused by its wording and believe it can be applied to many aspects of life! Sadly, the ‘consciously incompetent’ stage is where I remained for much of the assessment week in terms of getting to grips with becoming an instructor.

The RYA have a set script for teaching beginner windsurfers (of course they do... Oh how the Brits love their heavily prescribed curricula) and we were to learn this, along with all the actions that accompany the words, by heart. We demonstrated the different skills both on land on a windsurf simulator and on the water, and were continuously assessed as the week went on. While it took me some time to learn the words and the exact hand, foot and body positions on the simulator (the coaches were quick to correct even the slightest toe out of place), being assessed in this regard wasn’t as nerve-wrecking as when we had to run our sessions on the water, our every move being watched and notes about our performance being made on a waterproof pad (no joke). There’s a lot to consider and it was like learning to drive all over again… Sports and physical skills have never come natural to me and I was always going to be challenged when having to demonstrate the actual windsurfing (a very new skill for me), to perfection, while being in the right place in correlation to my students on the water and saying the correct words from the script.

Late night rehearsing

Nevertheless, I managed it and, after having let my nerves get the better of me one particular day, I decided to work with my strengths: I laughed my way through in the hope that a positive attitude and a bit of enthusiasm might see me onto passing. We spent the evenings practicing together, either on the simulator (beers in hand) or with brooms at the house. Very funny and a great bonding experience as we tested each other on the script, shouting and mocking one another if we got just one word wrong.

By the time the week was over, we were all ready for a break. Seven of us passed with four very disappointingly being given an action plan which should see them passing after a little more coaching.

Bleugh - what a week! What a summer! What a learning experience!

Now, a fully qualified RYA Start Windsurfing Instructor, I am ready to be let loose into the world! I have already sent my CV on to a few schools in Sydney Harbour in the hopes that I can live the dream and teach sailing, windsurfing and stand-up paddle boarding there for a few months later in the year. Let’s see whether that actually works out.

It wasn’t all learning, practicing and studying during the last week, however. The final two Saturdays were, as always, days off and we managed to get out and about as a group. We hopped over to Kefalonia on the ferry one day and, on my final night in Greece, went on a road trip up the mountain to a private villa with an infinity pool that I’d enjoyed last year. Lots of fun and I felt very appreciative to be able to share these experiences with my new (younger!) friends. As ever, I’ve been going a bit GoPro mad. Holly and I amused ourselves by taking multiple angles of the same shots with our two cameras so I should also credit and thank her for sharing her footage for the ‘family’ home videos I put together for us.

Island-hopping to Kefalonia