Ras Sudr, Egypt » News » Simon Bornhoff clinic

26|09|06 +++ Simon Bornhoff clinic

As team rider for Fat Face, Da Kine, Bic and Tushingham, ex-champion Simon has tested thousands of windsurf boards and now writes for BOARDS Magazine in the UK, Planche Mag in France and Surf a Vela in Spain as well as running various windsurfing coaching courses.

For four weeks Simon will be seeking out the innate windsurfer in all of us here in Ras Sudr, or at least trying to turn us into a better one.

While one week the group may be practicing waterstarts or how to use the footstraps or a harness, the following week a new group will work on their carve jibing, smaller-board use, duck jibes or what Simon likes to call “feasible freestyle”.
By keeping the group size small (about 10 people), Simon is able to provide personalized coaching in a fun and relaxed manner, getting the best out of each person’s sailing.
Rather than bombarding his pupils all week with endless technical windsurfing jargon, Simon prefers to work on a small number of skills which link in to many different areas of the sport.

“Learning isn’t about being told what to do,” explains Simon. “I prefer to instill in my pupils a system with which they can coach themselves and diagnose their own sailing faults in the future.”
A typical day at the windsurfing clinic might include beach work – with an explanation/demo and actual active simulation of actions – as well as video shooting and playback at the club mistral centre. 

But Simon’s favorite part is in the water.  There is nothing better, he says, than one to one coaching on the fly, sailing with his pupils and giving them instant feedback.

Shouts of “do that again and you’ll owe me beer” carry down the wind to cajole eager university students, while for the silver surfers a slightly more reserved method is employed.

Simon is understandably proud of the amount of repeat custom he gets and listening to people here in Ras Sudr, the feedback is certainly all positive:

“At the beginning of the week, I was no way near as confident in my riding,” says Mark Duly, “I was just going along but now I feel in control.”

Steve Lane says of SB (as Simon is often nicknamed): “He just has a knack of breaking down your mistakes and picking on the biggest one”, while his wife and fellow pupil – Louise Lane – asserts that “Simon is really very good at motivating you.”

So much so that Andrew French finally did the frontloop he had dreamt of for so long, “I think Simon knew that I wanted to get a loop in before I left Egypt and he saw I had had a good day and pushed me in to trying it.  Now I’ll have the balls to do it again.”

And where better to try and push yourself that bit further than Ras Sudr.  Simon sums up:  “For me, the reason I come here is it’s the perfect environment to coach.  There’s shallow water, it’s uncrowded, there’s very clean wind and my clients always make a lot of progress here.  It’s very good for freestyle as well, so it gives me a chance to play.”

The next clinics in association with Club Mistral are in Margarita in March, Alacati in June and Ras Sudr next September, without forgetting the Advanced Waves clinic in Mauritius in November 2007.

Bookings can be made with the tour operator Sportif, UK - Call ++44 (0) 1273 844919
Or e-mail Simon sb@windwise.net for advice on the right course for you.

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