About Ben
I first got on a windsurf board at Poole Harbour when I was twelve. Not long after, my dad took me out in a storm — which very nearly put me off for life.
It didn’t.
In my early twenties a friend suggested we hire some kit and it all came flooding back. I was hooked almost immediately — I ‘borrowed’ my uncle’s rig to practice and soon found myself running out of work to sail every moment I could. I did eventually give his kit back… I think..
That’s the thing about windsurfing. Once it clicks, it really clicks. And that moment — when it all comes together for someone for the first time — is exactly why I do what I do.
What windsurfing did to me
I wasn’t looking for a sport. I was just a young guy looking for something to do at the beach.
What I found was an identity.
Windsurfing made me strong. It made me weather-aware, ocean-aware, physically confident in a way nothing else ever had. It put colour in my skin and salt in my hair and muscle aches I’m genuinely proud of. After a good session I don’t feel like just some guy — I feel like a windsurfer. That feeling never gets old.
Fifteen years in and I’m still infatuated.
That’s not a hobby. That’s a life.
Why I teach
Because I’ve seen that moment happen for other people — the moment it clicks, when the board starts moving and something shifts — and I want to be the person who makes that happen.
I don’t want to give people a taster session they’ll forget by Monday. I want to start them on something real. A journey that changes how they see themselves, how they feel in their body, what they do on a windy Saturday morning for the rest of their lives.
That’s what I’m here for.
The school
H2O Windsurf School is based at Sandbanks, Poole — one of the finest places in the world to learn to windsurf. Shallow, sheltered and forgiving, with free parking close by and conditions I’ve spent fifteen years learning to read like the back of my hand.
The school was gifted to me in 2014 by my affiliate partners at H2O Sports, following several years of freelancing with them. I’m proud of that trust and I work every day to honour it.
I’ve acquired over a decade of teaching experience at Poole Harbour and I’m nearly 20 years into my personal windsurfing journey. Every session is 1-2-1 or small group, bespoke to you and built around your progression — not a fixed curriculum, not a conveyor belt.
Just proper coaching, from someone who genuinely loves this sport.