Duncan Dumbreck joins Boards for his next installment of SWA Monthly…

You’ve not heard from me for a couple of months (since I arrived back from Minorca). It has happened for various reasons and I’d like to take the chance to explain why and what I have learned from the experience.

I just got back from a long weekend in Cardiff attending the last of the Puravida SWA Wave Trilogy. This was the only one of the three events that I have attended this year. The main reason I thought was that attending events means taking a weekend off work. The associated hassle and loss of earning with doing this just didn’t seem worth it. Last weekend it got to the stage where the forecasted wind had all but gone, and I hadn’t sorted my fancy dress out, and I thought “is it worth it?” As soon as I heard myself say that I knew something was wrong.

Until last weekend the last event I had attended was in mid November. Moreover the last time I got in the water was further back than that. For someone who used to find it hard to go two weeks during exams without windsurfing, three months of drought is pretty hard.

The problem is I find it hard to strike a balance. I am either working hard or I am playing hard and really struggle to find a well-fitted balance. I think this is a problem that a lot of people have.  I was missing all sorts of incredible forecasts and all in the name of earning money to be able to go windsurfing.

To me looking back at it now I ask how did I get to be in that situation? Not doing what I love when I could have, because I didn’t want to miss out on earning money. It is not even as if the money I was earning is good. I work for near enough minimum wage at the moment. WHY?

As I said I think that the balance is hard to strike, work is important, but why bother if you don’t get to do a bit what you love? The trouble is that it is easy to get distracted by other things when you forget how much you love windsurfing.

To stay motivated to earn money to windsurf it is important that you get to go windsurfing, to keep your head in the game so to speak.

This for me is where going to events is key. If a forecast doesn’t happen for two or three weeks it is out of your control and although it may be frustrating it is not down to your lack of motivation. Events happen whatever the weather. People turn up and talk about windsurfing all day come rain or shine, sleet or snow. This for me is more than enough to get me fired up again and so you see an article before you, the product of my renewed motivation.

At this point some people think I’m likely to start spouting off about how great SWA events are, and it would be easy to do so. But for me any event, if windsurfing is involved is enough to re-spark the obsession.

Before I went away to Minorca over summer you might remember that I went to National Windsurfing Festival. Before that I had been in a pretty similar situation to last week, working too much and not windsurfing at all. Again I very nearly didn’t go. I am so glad I did go, as with the weekend just gone I didn’t get out on the water, but being around other windsurfers got me fully fired up again.

So what have I learned? Well one thing is that it is important to be able to recognise when you have lost the love, work play balance is hard to achieve and getting it back once you have lost it can be quite an effort.

What can be done? For me going to events, whether SWA, BWA, NWF, whatever it doesn’t really matter, getting there is the key and I’m sure that for others this cure would also work. Making sure that you have events planned out for the year to keep you eager for another session.

What does this tell us? Well, I’d say that it makes windsurfing excitement contagious. Anyway that is a discussion for another day, but what I will say is I will be seeing you at Nottingham Pondlife, (shameless plug I know!)