September 27: "Hearing is One Thing, Seeing is Another; Seeing is One Thing, Doing is Another" — My First Time at the Helm of a Boat

Today, I took a little break from wingfoiling to try something completely different:

A boat handling trial session!

The club I go to was offering a boat driving experience, so I signed right up.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the future and realized,

“Hey, it might actually be super useful to get my boat license down the road.”

As I keep pushing my wingfoiling journey and expanding what I do on the water, relying solely on my own gear might not always be enough.

Eventually, having access to a boat could open up a whole new world.

But before jumping straight into a licensing course, I wanted to actually get behind the wheel first.

Could I even do it?

Am I built for this?

And most importantly—

Is it actually fun?

This trial session was all about answering those questions.

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Hearing Is One Thing, Seeing Is Another. Doing It Yourself Is Another Story.

Back when I was younger and working out in the field, a mentor taught me a phrase that stuck with me ever since:

“Hearing about it is one thing, seeing it with your own eyes is another. Seeing it is one thing, actually doing it yourself is another.”

To this day, that’s a core philosophy for me.

You can never truly say you “get it” just by listening to someone talk.

When you actually step onto the field and see it for yourself, it’s often completely different from what you imagined.

And even if you look at something and think,

“Oh yeah, that looks easy enough.”

The moment you actually try to do it yourself?

Whole new ballgame.

At the end of the day, you never really know until you try it firsthand.

That’s held true for work.

For sports.

And wingfoiling is basically the poster child for this rule.

Watch a pro fly effortlessly from the shore, and it looks like a piece of cake.

Try it yourself?

Total mayhem.

So I applied the same mindset here.

Instead of endlessly Googling boat licenses online—

Let’s actually drive the damn boat first.

Then I can figure out whether I can handle it.

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Taking the Wheel in Open Water

September 27.

My usual instructor took me out on the boat.

He drove us out into open water first.

Once we reached a safe, wide-open zone, it was finally my turn to grab the wheel.

My first time ever at the helm of a boat.

“Alright, let’s see what we’re working with.”

I was feeling a little nervous as I took control.

But as soon as I got moving?

“Wait... this is surprisingly doable!”

Obviously, it’s not like driving a car.

But the basic mechanics of cruising and turning weren’t nearly as intimidating as I’d built them up to be in my head.

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Driving a Boat Is a “World of Latency”

The coolest part was how the steering felt.

It is nothing like a car.

When you turn the wheel, the boat doesn’t react instantly.

There’s a noticeable delay.

And then, slowly—

“Oh, yep. There she goes.”

The bow starts to pivot.

Naturally, when you center the wheel again, the boat’s momentum doesn’t just stop on a dime either.

In short:

It’s a control system with serious latency.

Thinking about it from an engineering perspective, that actually made total sense to me.

You input a turn.

Observe the response.

Then adjust.

Because the system response is delayed, if you only react to what’s happening right in front of you, your corrections will always be late.

You have to constantly predict the boat’s movement a few seconds ahead.

If you get impatient and think,

“Wait, why isn’t it turning?!”

and crank the wheel even farther, that delayed response eventually catches up.

Then you’ve oversteered.

So you panic and turn the wheel the other way.

But that correction is delayed too.

Before you know it, you’re chasing the response back and forth in a full-on feedback loop.

“Got it. Just account for the lag in my head.”

Once I processed that logic, controlling the boat felt surprisingly natural.

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Boats Get on Plane Too!

As I opened up the throttle, the boat went from pushing through the water to rising up and skimming across the surface.

Getting up on plane.

Now planing is a concept I know all too well!

Windsurfers get on plane.

Wingfoils take it a step further by lifting completely clear of the water and flying on the foil.

The physics and vessels are different, of course.

But that sensation of drag melting away as speed builds—making the whole ride suddenly feel lighter and smoother—has that same kind of magic to it.

Cruising across the open ocean with the wind in your face feels incredible.

Though honestly, instead of taking in the scenery today, my brain was 100% locked into:

“How is the hull tracking right now?”

“How many seconds of delay do I have on this steering input?”

Since it was my first time, I was hyper-focused on the driving itself.

But that’s totally fine.

I wasn’t there for a casual cruise.

I was there to find out if I could actually handle a boat.

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Driving Isn’t the Hard Part

After spending some time behind the wheel, I had another realization.

Boats are a lot like cars in one sense:

Just making them go forward isn’t actually the hard part once you get used to it.

In a car, cruising down a wide-open highway in an automatic is straightforward.

The real test of skill comes with parking, tight maneuvers, and squeezing into difficult spaces.

Boats are no different.

Cruising out in the wide-open sea.

Turning right.

Turning left.

I could do all of that just fine today.

Where real skill actually comes into play is:

Undocking and docking.

Safely pulling away from the pier.

Maneuvering while reading the wind and current.

Smoothly approaching the dock without slamming into it.

Boats don’t have tire grip.

They don’t have brakes.

And the wind can push you sideways whether you like it or not.

I didn’t handle all of that completely on my own today.

So I’m obviously not going to walk away saying,

“Pfft, boat driving is easy.”

Instead, my main takeaway was much simpler:

“I can definitely handle the basic driving part.”

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Just Knowing “I Can Do This” Is Huge

The goal today wasn’t to instantly become a master captain.

It was a trial.

And it served its purpose 100%.

All I wanted to figure out was:

Is this going to be an impossible wall for me?

Or—

Is this something I can master if I put in the study time and practice?

The answer was definitely the latter.

Grabbing the wheel didn’t trigger any weird anxiety.

The delayed response was actually easy to digest once I understood the mechanics.

Going fast wasn’t scary.

It just made me focus harder.

And above all...

I really wanted to do it again.

That might be the biggest win of the day.

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Time to Get My Boat License!

“Hearing is one thing, seeing is another. Doing it yourself is another story.”

Today proved that saying right all over again.

No amount of Googling about boat licenses can replicate the physical sensation of holding the wheel.

Watching a boat from the beach will never tell you how it feels to steer one yourself.

So I tried it.

And because I tried it, I walked away with the confidence of knowing:

“Yeah, I can do this.”

Of course, getting licensed means learning way more than just steering.

There’s docking and undocking.

Emergency procedures and rescue maneuvers.

Knot tying and ropework.

Navigation rules.

And written exams to pass.

But at least the core act of driving the boat doesn’t feel like a scary obstacle anymore.

So—

Onto the next step!

What started as a vague idea to expand my wingfoiling world has now turned into a solid plan thanks to today’s session.

Try everything once.

If it’s fun, take it a step further.

And with that, my next challenge is officially set:

Getting my Class 1 Small Vessel Operator’s License! 🚤💨