First Russian freestyle training camp “Dahab Freestyle Camp” conducted by me, Yegor Popretinsky, and Vladimir Morozov was held in Dahab windsurfing school “5 Squares” from 21.11.2009 till 05.12.2009.
5 participants arrived – the youngest 11 years old, the oldest - 47. All of them were “self-trained”, that shows that freestyle is available to all who is eager to learn and spend valuable time on the water. We found all the usual mistakes of self-learners, for example “Peters Stand” when the rider’s body is twisted as if he is in pain all just to get into the wind flow. We had corrected same mistakes with all riders that will help them to learn many turns and jumps in the future. After correction of mistakes we started to learn new moves. 2 participants wanted to learn jibes and succeeded in it. 4 of the participants desired to train freestyle. We had to change their individual plans every day. In a fortnight we had 5 windy days during which the guys learnt to slide “in the nice way”, planning jibes and jumps. We “analyzed” all the basic elements (Vulcan, Flaka, Speedloop, Gecko) and developed proper movements. In slow wind days they were practicing light wind freestyle and even learnt such moves as helicopter one hand, upwind 360 diablo, switch duck tack, reverse one hand sail 360 and other difficult light wind tricks. We were starting every day with exercising, yoga and qigong that helped the participants to feel their body and to avoid injuries. In addition we used different “sail machines” which help to developed correct freestyle movements.
We had lots of theoretical studies, discussions of videos and our explanations, followed by the performance on the water. Every day we were filming the participants and in the evening everyone could see the mistakes on the large screen and have our recommendations how to avoid them in future. At the end of Camp every participant received the individual “home task” – list of exercises and tricks for individual work.
As a result we have “almost” speed loop, flaka and vulcan from Dima and Yura, “volcanism” from Igor, secure jibes from Roma and Sasha and heartbreaking freestyle from Russian young gun Kostya. You will be able to watch it in the video that will be placed on website
www.go-dahab.ru. Certainly we would like to have more windy days, but we managed to do most possible on the shore and on the water, transferred the huge amount of knowledge and all this information will develop in the new quality in course of individual training and practice.
See you in our next camp that will be held on March 15-28 in Dahab “5 Squares” windsurfing school!
