In these days, in which we start to talk about a slow return to normal life (after Covid pandemia), the discussion on the actions (es. petitions), that someone would like to carry on to ensure that we can return to practice windsurfing asap, is circulating on the web (and in particular on the damned social networks). I don't want to bring this discussion back here. On the web, the opposing factions have already been unleashed between those who agree, and those who find these actions unacceptable, given the sanitary, and perhaps, also in the short, economic difficult situation, in which we find ourselves. Let everyone think what he/she wants. All I say is that our rulers are likely to have more important things to think about in the next weeks/months, and therefore such actions and petitions are quite useless. When we will be able to circulate almost freely, we will return to the water. There is not much more to say.
But what I found more interesting is another reflection, which I propose here. When I read about such actions in favor of the return to windsurfing, I asked myself what windsurfing means for me, and why I want to go back to the water soon.
In fact, those who contest these initiatives, think inadmissible that there are those who think to these passions, compared substantially to a game, at a time when there are the problems related to Covid pandemia (by the way, incidentally, I would like to point out that there has always been, and there always will be suffering in the world, and people who die of hunger, diseases, wars, and then I find it a bit hypocritical to say that, for the suffering of these days, one should not think of having fun ... then it could not have been done before, and it will never never be possibile in the future, in solidarity).
Is windsurfing a passion for me? Is it a sport? It's a game?
I thought that for me, windsurfing is not a sport in the athletic sense of the word. I am not an athlete of this sport, I do not aspire, nor have I ever coveted to excel in this discipline, I have never competed in regattas. It is, however, a physical activity, in the sense that I also practice it to keep myself moving and trained, and therefore to feel good from a physical point of view.
It is certainly a passion and a game too, and, in this there is nothing wrong (and why there should be?). Life is complicated enough (and not from today) for everyone, and it would be not normal at all that there were no moments of detachment from the daily mess of life. Our mind wouldn't resist very long. Of course, there are those who make a life with few moments of leisure, and many difficulties, but I doubt that they are people who can be considered serene, not to mention that many are depressed, or at the limit of depression.
It is a game that I like because it gives me funny physical sensations: the wind that strongly blows over me, the pleasure of sliding on the water, the contact with water, always very fun; and then there are all the technical aspects, first of all the learning and improvement of the maneuvers, which certainly represent an intriguing and fun element of windsurfing.
But, thinking about it, I realized that I do windsurfing, because it is one of the activities that gives me a more intense contact with nature, which is fundamental for my way of being, for my personality.
I love nature, I love its landscapes, its perfumes, its strengths. I seem to belong to it. If you keep me in a town, only among concrete buildings, for too long, I literally go into pain, like a fish out of water. I love being in the middle of the rough sea, and in the waves, in winter. As I have already written in some reports, every now and then, before a new waterstart, I stop to admire it. I love the lights and shadows of dawn, in the early morning sessions, at PrĂ de la Fam, Malcesine (on Lake Garda), or in Valmadrera (Lake Como). I love endless ocean beaches, and the power of the ocean. I love the sincere panoramas of Sardinia, and the horizons of southern France.
All this represents my "home", my habitat, and they are sensations and pleasures that I find exactly, in the same way, when I go to the mountains to walk, to do cross-country skiing, to climb, when I went offshore sailing at Egadi, in Sicily.
And I miss all of this, damn .... and I do not feel, neither selfish, nor superficial, when I dream of returning soon to what I belong to ...and makes me feel alive.
And for you, what does windsurfing represent?
Hello. Fabio
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