10 COLUMN ZARA & PETE DAVIS
DAVIS
LOWDOWN
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
WINDSURFING DUO
PETE AND ZARA DAVIS
Pete:
A little bit of competition
is good for you. Often,
especially after a long
wind drought like we have
just had, we are so
grateful to get out on the
water that taking part in a
competition is the last
thing on our minds. But
believe me it is a fantastic
way of improving your
windsurfing.
It doesn’t matter if you’re into big jumps and wave riding,
freestyle, flat water slalom blasting or just going up and down
with your mates there is some competition out there for you.
I have heard all the excuses: “I haven’t got the right
equipment”, “I am not good enough!”, “don’t have the
time”, and so on. These are what it says on the tin, excuses!
The benefits of competition are many fold. First and foremost
it improves your sailing. In slalom for example, instead of
gybing where you like you have to gybe at a mark with a load
of other super keenos – you soon sharpen up your skills. It
also gets you to up your game when faced with better
opposition than your usual crew at your local beach no
matter what discipline you’re into.
Secondly you get to see a bit more of the UK and maybe the
world with comps held all over the place at all sorts of levels.
Seeing and sailing new spots is good for the soul and if
nothing else it makes you appreciate what you have on your
own doorstep or have access to.
Thirdly and in some ways the most important, you will make
new friends that will stay with you the rest of your life. There
is no better bonding experience than going head to head with
a rival even if it’s at the back of the fleet or during an early
round. Sharing that with a beer afterwards is a way to make
a lasting friendship.
You don’t have to be on the latest gear or even the right gear
to have a go either, so what is stopping you? Whatever
you’re into there are loads of events around the country
organised by the UKWA, BWA, RYA, NWF and Weymouth
Speed Week. Have a go it’s worth it.
uk
WIND
SURFING
Zara Davis is the current Women’s Speed
world record holder and sponsored by
O’Shea, Simmer, Sonntag, AL360,
Synergy Worldwide and Walnut Grove
Clinic. Hubby Pete works tirelessly behind
the scenes for the UKWA and organises
the yearly Weymouth Speed Week as well
as being an accomplished windsurfer
himself.
Zara:
When you read this I would have been to the ISWC Speed
World Championships at Sotavento beach on Fuerteventura
and hopefully achieved my third World Championship. My
windsurfing career has been very fortunate but as Pete has said
in his bit, we all started as beginners at our local spot. Mine
was at Brogborough Lake near Bedfordshire – a small lake
about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK.
But these hotspots where super keen people who just love to
windsurf start and encouraged like myself and John Skye are
vital to making the champions of tomorrow. When I started, the
RYA T15 program was not in existence. It was down to parents
to not only take their kids to the sea but buy the kit, wetsuits
and everything else needed. That’s not too bad if parents are
already windsurfers. The older and smaller kit gets passed to
the youngsters. But as we have established the pool of
windsurfers is getting older and smaller – how do the kids who
don’t have windsurfing parents even hear about windsurfing and
how brilliant it is?
T15 by the RYA is an amazing way for youngsters to try before
you need buy anything and don’t think it’s just windsurfing
experience they get out of it. They make lifelong friends, learn
how to compete, to lose and to win with dignity and humility
and these are lessons for life.
I remember a young girl in my T15 group that started as a shy
thing that can now stand in front of a crowd, adults and kids,
and hold a lecture, deliver a sailing plan for the day and has
gone on to be an accomplished sailor and coach. I know that
all sport will deliver these extras if they are delivered right but
the T15 program helps – all volunteers give the kids the best
chance. Hopefully the making of the champions of the future.