If you’ve always fancied having a go at extreme sports on holiday, but never really mustered up the courage to actually attempt any, read on to find out why the Isle of Wight is the perfect place for complete novices to have a go for the very first time...

Wightlink is promoting the Island as a ‘dry ski slope’ –where you can try out a new sport and gain some experience before you go the whole hog and book an overseas holiday. Beginners can have a taster session – it may be anything from a one day try out to a three day learn the basics course. You can’t really lose – you might have spent a small fortune getting out to the Canaries to try kitesurfing or windsurfing, only to find out that it’s not for you. Alternatively, you may find through the taster session that you have a real aptitude for the sport and then you book a week in the sun and can make real progress more quickly than would have been the case.

Easily accessible from the mainland, the Isle of Wight is a fantastic place to try extreme sports for the first time – with a range of organisations that cater for watersports (including kitesurfing, surfing & windsurfing), mountainbiking and paragliding – quite apart from the sailing for which it is best known. Conditions are good and just taxing enough, without being too daunting.

Wightlink’s ‘How To…’ guide gives the low down on all the activities available and points you in the right direction for contact information for the various establishments operating on the Isle of Wight.

All that’s left is to find that ‘get up and go’ within!