This was going to be a real challenge, windsurfing had always looked like brilliant fun - gliding through the water on the lakes and marinas of Merseyside…..but I imagined my version would also include falling off clumsily, arms flapping like a wild animal whilst screaming for help? But is it really as difficult as it looks - I took a trip down the Merseysports at the Queens Dock to find out!
 | | Practice makes perfect! |
I joined in with a group of teenagers from the Christian Fellowship school who were spending their last lesson of the day doing their favourite sports from kayaking, sailing and windsurfing (lucky for some!). They bustled into the centre excitedly and queued up for their wet suits or waterproofs ready to get wet (and maybe a bit cold!), as I squeezed into an adult sized wet suit and joined them briefly before heading for some training on dry land. I met with windsurfing instructor Charles Hassat and informed him apprehensively ‘I’ll never be able to do that you know’, despite the warning he seemed ready to take on the challenge and got me set up on a windsurfing simulator explaining that 15 minutes training on land could save me weeks of struggling in the water…it’s a crazy idea - but it just might work! Practising on the safety of dry land I learnt how to get on the board, where to put my feet (very important!), how to pull up the sail, how to turn around, how to not fall off (theoretically!) and lastly how to actually glide along the water i.e. windsurf! There was a lot to think about, but learning these things step by step made me feel slightly more confident, maybe I could windsurf - I was ready for the water! | "I got it all right for a few minutes and felt like the pros gliding elegantly across the marina - then I crashed into the wall on the other side..." | |
The water looked pretty, deep and cold. As we pulled the board over the edge of the water the instructor asked if I was going to make the dramatic entrance or the quiet one, it was going to be cold either way so I jumped right in and as I waited for the cold to set in I was pleasantly surprised, as it wasn’t that bad! Charles the instructor explained to me that the water in the Queen’s Dock isn’t part of the Mersey at all and has to be tested regularly to meet required cleanliness levels, which it passes with incredible honours each time. This was good as I was about to get used to being in the water! Ok filled with the confidence of my on land practice session, I tried to jump on the board and land on your knees….but ended up doing a kind of belly flop seal impression. I gradually stood up wobbling slightly to the sound of the instructor’s seal impressions (funny guy!) it was a lot harder on water. Then time to pull up the sail, knees bent arms straight - yep got that bit right too - wow I was actually doing it!! Now all I needed to do was turn around to face the right direction and I’d be off, little steps, little steps, this wind surfing business wasn’t as hard as I expected! I’d started off quite well and headed out towards to main part of the marina (and where the students were ready to laugh at me) oops - a slight wobble, feet in the wrong place and with a big splash I fell off! After starting off quite well it all started to seem a bit more difficult, I fell off when the wind caught the sail shortly after the first plunge, then again when trying to turn the board around, then I let go of the wrong part of the sail…..you get the idea! But the part to focus on here is that despite getting very friendly with the water in the dock - I did actually manage to windsurf from for a short time on my first lesson!
 | | Oh dear - fell in again? |
There’s a lot to learn on you’re first attempt, as Charles the instructor told me most beginners just stand up and grab the boom (the handle bit on the sail) with both hands and fall straight in. In reality only one hand is ever on the boom to hold the sail while the other hand on the mast bit (‘boom’ was the only techy bit I picked up!!) to steer. I got it all right for a few minutes and felt like the pros gliding elegantly across the marina…..then I crashed into the wall on the other side before I could turn round and fell in! I learnt a lot in one lesson, and would definitely like to do it again. For anyone who’s thinking of having a go - it’s actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be, it is possible! I spoke to a few of the students about what they thought of the water sports they’d been doing: "I’m Hannah and I’ve been doing sailing, my favourite part is when the wind goes in the sail and you go really, really fast so you feel like you’re gonna capsize." "I’m Nathan and I’ve been kyaking, I wanted to do kayaking because I wanted to try it for the first time, I like getting wet and watching other people get wet! It’s my first time in the Mersey but I’ve done it in Wales before, it was good fun the instructors are good they have a laugh."
 | | Some of the students were sailing. |
My names Greg, I’ve been doing kyayking…you can have fun and games with the football and that, it’s water polo so you’ve got to throw it to each other and you have tow different teams and it’s brilliant! I’ve done windsurfing, that was brilliant, I think it’s more unique than kayaking and you get to jump in and that - it’s cold though! My names Gemma and I’ve been doing rafting today, it’s good because you have fun and you can work together with all your friends, we have a blow up raft and it holds about six people and you paddle around and you can jump in and stuff, and it’s fun! The brilliant instructor who managed to get me to windsurf was Senior Sailing and Windsurfing Instructor Charles Hassat, I asked him what makes Merseysports a good place to try out these activities? “We get a big variety of people coming down, we get everyone from age eight right through to pensioners. There are plenty of water sports centres around the country but getting to them can be a problem for some people, here were are in a city centre location effectively, we’re less that a quarter of a mile from the Albert Dock, we do a lot of school work with local schools and it takes them on average about 15 / 20 minutes to get here and to get to other water sorts centres would be unfeasible because of the travelling. “This is the Liverpool Watersports centre, we are the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) centre but there are plenty of other groups who use the centre, Liverpool’s rowing club is based here, the British National Canoe Polo squad train here, the Dragon Boats Society who are down here and the Japanese boats with the big dragons heads on them are moored up here." Details
 | | Ready steady go... |
The centre has 4 full time instructors, and the sports you can take part in are canoeing and kyaking, windsurfing, sailing and powerboating. They’re open every day of the year, apart from 3 or 4 weeks when they close for Christmas. Prices are - £18.00 per year for membership then £8.50 per hour instruction for adults and £12.00 00 per year for membership and £5.50 per hour instruction for under 16s and some concessions. Other details can be found on the Merseysports website below.
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