WindsurfingUK Issue 3 May 2017 | Page 68

68 TRAINING SLALOM WORDS AND PICS: RUSSELL GROVES SOMETIMES YOU THINK IT IS BETTER TO TRAIN ALONE IN SECRET, SO WHEN THE SEASON COMES, PEOPLE WILL GET A SURPRISE, YOU’LL HAVE THE SPEED AND BE SET FOR POLE POSITION. YOU HAVE YOUR GPS AND IT IS EASY TO LAY A BUOY FOR GYBE DRILLS AND PRACTICING YOUR STARTS – TWO ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF RACING, WHATEVER YOUR LEVEL. But you have no way of knowing if you are better than anyone else. It’s all very well nailing down the finer points but when it comes to measuring your speed – another key piece of the puzzle – having others to test your mettle against gives a bigger picture view. Why spend a month training and tuning slalom kit somewhere warm and windy? Sounds like there’s an obvious answer when you ask the question out loud but then not everything is black and white. uk WIND SURFING