Starts

There are three ways to get started in windsurfing:  you can either start from land (Beach-Start), start in the water by standing on the board an pulling up the sail (up-halul), or you can start while laying in the water (Water-Start).  

There are two types of Beach-Starts.   The Standard Beach Start where the water is more or less not moving and the the Advanced-Beach-Start where the water is rushing in and out in the form of a rip current, also known as shore break.   This requires a very specific technique and I will add this to my tutorial at some future date.

In the beginning you probably learned to start from the water by standing on the board and uphauling the sail.  A physical demanding technique indeed, requiring good balance, a strong back, and friendly winds!  But eventually you will need to learn the Standard Water Start and use the sail to pull you out of the water.  After this technique has been learned then the Light Wind Water Start is a helpful technique so you can water start in almost any condition.

Going beyond the purely functional techniques are a few creative methods to play with while you are hanging out at the beach.   The Clew Forward, Fin Forward, Fin & Clew Forward, Switch, Switch & Clew Forward.