I don't ever want to go through that again. Call it the 'Crucible' of the Windsurfing world, but getting your US Sailing Windsurfing Instructor Certification is hard as hell. When I received my manual in the mail, the material looked overwhelming, but little did I know how exhausted I'd be even after day one.

The US Sailing Windsurfing Instructor Certification is a curriculum designed by US Sailing to teach windsurfers how to teach windsurfing. The 4 day course covered everything from windsurfing theory, physics, safety, weather, sports physiology, rig design, communication techniques, coaching fundamentals, and demonstration skills. After all this input we are then evaluated on all of the above as 'mock teacher simuations' along with swimming, windsurfing, and rescue skills test.

It was a lot to fit in in 4 days. But Tinho, our Instructor Trainer helped us through. Tinho hails from Merritt Island, Florida. He's got a windsurfing history of nearly 30 years and he's definitely earned the title 'guru' as used by the many windsurfing publications he is in and has been in. Along with design patents used on much of the windsurfing equipment I use today, he owns and runs his school, Calema, which in itself is a site to behold. At his location he can teach 30 students, in 3 hours what we teach here in Alameda, in 2 days of 3 hour instruction with 6 students. The man and his school is a machine! My fellow classmates and I were starstruck during the duration of the course.

Being starstruck though did not make me whine any less. I was exhausted every single day of the course. From Thursday to Sunday I was up at 7, at the beach at 9, freezing to death through lectures until lunch, tripping through simulator demonstrations, and resuming freezing mode while performing swimming tests and balance techniques in the water, to finish up and finally be at home around 8pm, cram that days reading fast enough before I fall asleep only to wake up the next day to do it all over again. The thing that surprised me the most was not only my lack of energy through the course but my immature attitude of 'damn it, I want to go out, this is cramping my social life'. Oh poor little ol' me, couldn't go out for four days. That's embarrassing to admit, but eh, it happened.

The course taught me immeasurable amounts of windsurfing knowledge. I soaked up like a sponge, total brain food. It was great to learn the theory behind what I love, why mast positioning is important, what a 'kicker' is, what the rounding of the nose of a board is called (the rocker), and learning new stances that improved my old maneuvers one-hundred fold. I am still a new and young enough windsurfer that teaching me new ways of doing things won't throw me off as much as my older classmates. There were a few arguments, trying to convince Tinho that something doesn't make since, but Tinho didn't budge and eventually the 'older ones' were convinced.

After repeated stressing and being calmed down by fellow students in the course, I had no reason to be worried. I passed with flying colors, we all passed. My teaching presentation was great, Tinho loved my voice (I'm very loud and clear), even used me as an example to the other students, and only suggested that I work on my tacks and tuning up my stance on my back leg. I was undecided about going out for a victory windsurfing session, but in the end I decided to head home and rest up, as to not take out my exhaustion on my boss the next day.

What to do from here? Now that I'm certified I can go teach anywhere I'd like. I can even start up my own school if I so choose. I would definitely like to travel a bit and teach in Baja, Hawaii, Brazil, or even on the East Coast. But until then I'm going to take all this in, and let it soak and settle. The whole experience was incredibly rewarding, and I can't wait to put it to use.