At 13, I decided I wanted to learn windsurfing at my local boat club. There was just one problem: no one around to teach me. So I taught myself, piecing it together from YouTube videos, online forums, and a lot of trial and error.
The odds weren’t exactly in my favor. I was young, the gear was outdated and poorly maintained, and I had no one to correct my mistakes in real time. I capsized more times than I can count, and got stuck out at sea more than once — which, looking back, were probably the moments I learned the most (usually the hard way).
But slowly, it clicked. What started as a frustrating, self-taught struggle turned into something I could actually do well. By the time I windsurfed at Goa in May 2014, it had gone from a stubborn teenage project to a skill I genuinely enjoyed.