I heard once a friend of mine from Singapore saying that if there are no coconut trees on the beach, it’s way too cold to go windsurfing. Some say that under 10°C is too cold to go windsurfing. Some prefer to stop windsurfing, when there is ice forming on the boom. Each one of us, sets their own minimum temperature to decide when it gets too cold to go windsurfing.
Personally, I had always set my lowest temperature to a min of 10°C. I never owned a long arm wetsuit as I never felt I needed anything warmer. 3/2 was my thickest wetsuit.
I always watched those sailing under 10°C, from inside my van and considered them crazy, or actually very passionate and motivated!
Well after sailing the PWA in Denmark, Sylt and La Torche, practically half the tour in around 10°C, I decided it was almost a good choice to also start windsurfing in colder temperature to get used to the cold!
I bought my first pair of open gloves, and tried to get used to the extra padding of neoprene boots as well.
Started with 8°C, went down to 6°C, 5°C and coldest was 3.5°C till now. I have to say that there is a difference between 8 to 3°C. The biggest difference is actually when rigging and to find the motivation to jump into the wetsuit that almost never dries up in the winter. Once on the water, I feel that it’s almost warmer than skiing, when sitting on the ski lift on a cloudy day waiting to go down the next slope. I do my best not to fall in the water, but I guess the cold is more the idea, more than what you actually feel by going windsurfing in these colder weathers.
So here we are with some pictures from Lake Garda on the first day of winter in December from Tommy della Frana.
