Ross A. Laird

I’ve just returned today from a three-week holiday at Shuswap Lake. No phone, no TV, no distractions from what should be the central pursuit of an active and vital existence: windsurfing. Shuswap is not generally a windsurfing mecca, but every few years the fall storms blow in early. Such was this year, and I had about five solid days of train-wreck sailing. Wonderful.

As I’ve been telling dubious listeners for many years, windsurfing is the ultimate sport for psychological development. More than any other activity, windsurfing teaches grounding, centering, and boundaries, the core skills of interpersonal relationship. One of these days I’m going to offer a group for exploring windsurfing as personal growth.

When I learned to windsurf, in 1977, it was an extraordinarily difficult sport to master. But these days, shorter and wider boards enable beginners to learn the basics in a single day. (A couple of weeks ago, my eight-year-old son was up and running in about twenty minutes on our new Starboard Start board.)

Now that I’m back to work, I plan to try for a few more fall sailing days squeezed in between workshops and parenting and consulting. I’m heading off this weekend to the Whistler Writer’s Retreat; Whistler’s Alta Lake can be excellent for windsurfing, so who knows?

Within the next week or so, I will get my fall teaching schedule posted here on the site and sent out in the newsletter. I’m streamlining my teaching, letting go of some old gigs, trying to focus more on trauma, addictions, and spirituality. Also, I’ve committed myself to completing the transcript of the new addictions book by year’s end, so it should be an interesting season.