difference between windsurfing and surfing

Question
I am 10 years old and I am doing a project on windsurfing for school.  Please could you give me as much informtion as possible in telling me what the difference is between windsurfing and surfing.  If you could let me know this as quickly as possible as my project needs to be handed in next Friday.  Thank you for your help.

Answer
Hey Mitchell,

I'm not a surfer but I have tried it a few times and know a little about it. Surfing is a fairly difficult sport to learn. It takes good balance and lots of practice. It also requires waves which doesn't always happen. Waves are created by tides or incoming storms so the timing isn't always ideal for surfing.

Windsurfing is fairly easy to learn. With a few good lessons and some time on the water a person can be sailing out and back very quickly. With good instruction and time to sail a person can be at a high intermediate level of windsurfing within a couple of weeks.

The biggest comparison between surfing and windsurfing is;
When surfing, you spend about 95% of your time either paddling out and waiting for a wave and about 5% of your time actually surfing the waves.
When windsurfing, you spend about 5% of your time in the water getting ready to sail and about 95% of your time windsurfing. Much more time enjoying the sport of windsurfing than spending time waiting to enjoy surfing.

Hope this helps,
Windlover