RQYS Mainsheet 2021

Women on Water (WoW!)

FEATURE

Windsurfing’s popular label as an ‘extreme sport’ is a flimsy myth, reckons LAUREN WHITFORD, and she’s keen to show others what they’re missing.

No doubting RQYS Sailing Academy Assistant Lauren Whitford’s passion for windsurfing, of all the on-water sports options available through RQYS. Pic: Sarah Motherwell Opposite page: a happy selfie-with-crew of the RQYS Sailabration team in action. Pic: Supplied

FEATURE • WoW!

Squadron members who have wondered about all the activities afoot around the neat assemblage of containers by the eastern beach next to ‘the loo with a view’ may want to stop and climb the stairs to take in the action inshore on Waterloo Bay. Out in the dazzling array of skimming, skating (and sometimes flying!) kite surfers, windsurfers, foilers and sailboarders you will likely find RQYS Sailing Academy Assistant Lauren Whitford. “I love windsurfing because it’s partly sailing but it’s also so different, and so independent,” Lauren says, “you’re not sitting in a boat, making it work: it’s you on the board and it’s really awesome when you’re up on the windsurf!” Just seven members comprised the nascent Windsurfing Green Fleet when Lauren got ‘hooked’ by her Dad and younger brother; just a few short years on, she’s the state class representative and on the board of Windsurfing Queensland. Lauren said that “now I’m working in the Squadron Academy, I’ve been able to help with club windsurfing more – and we have a lot of people finishing the introductory courses and coming along with a pathway into the Green Fleet. We have six people hiring out gear for windsurfing. They’ve joined up and we’re starting to build a solid foundation now.”

For RQYS members, the club is seeing about a dozen people each Sunday “and we help them so they can start competing and they go off the beach from here. Some hire gear, some bring their own once they’ve taken to it.” Lauren says there’s a real sense of community among the local Manly windsurfing fraternity. “I really love being involved because everyone wants to help everyone improve and have a good time. It’s always supportive and about having fun. “We are pushing the windsurfing initiative,” she adds, “because it’s also so much fun and it’s an escape on the water: it’s helped me to gain independence and push myself – because you have to!” Lauren laments the off-putting effect of the ‘extreme sport’ label and that few women are as yet involved in the sport.

“There’s no reason women should be held back,” says Lauren who, at age 19, is certainly setting an example. “It’s such a small class [so far] and women not competing put me off for a while, but we’re bouncing back.” Windsurfing instructors Shari O’Brien and Lara O’Brien are two of Lauren’s role models and she is looking forward to Lara coaching the Green Fleet “You’re supported and pushed to grow outside your comfort zone, but being involved in windsurfing will bring you so much confidence and fun. Lauren recalls that “our family mantra was always ‘time on water!’ – and ‘just keep pushing yourself, ’ Dad told me,”

Mainsheet 2021

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