WINDSURFING BEGINNER DAY 2007- A ROUSING SUCCESS!

[RickHeninger]

It was great... Lots of successful 1st tacks... Lots of smiles... It would have been nice to have a few more rigs there... I was just glad that the two groups of scouts cancelled in the last minute! This group of beginners was really determined. Awesome group!

Thanks, Sarah & Linda (brought food and drinks), Fred & Lana, Ivan, Josh, Rick M., John D., Dave & Rachel, Trip, Grant, and any others I may have forgotten (I hope none)... Especially thanks to Rick McClain who had put his Seatrend at the stop sign to point up the road to Grantsville to guide people... Somebody got a five finger discount on it! It had a blown out fin box... So if YOU stole it, call Rick M. and he'll help you fix the finbox for $500!!! Hilarious... That person deserves this board... Thanks Josh and Rick M. for bringing the kayaks for rescue. Thanks to Fred G. for walking up and down the beach afterwards, appologizing to and making great PR with all the fishermen, a couple of whose fishing we "interferred" with...

Thanks to Windance, Northwave Sails, and Dakine (stickers received today!) for major SWAG they sent to give away... Windance sent about $150 worth of Tshirts... Please thank them when you're up there from the UWA...

Also thanks to the 20+ people can now say that they have windsurfed and a couple of them can say that they are Windsurfers. John Kikkert! and the 11 or so people he brought... I couldn't keep all their names straight! Thanks John... Good luck keeping them in line! ... Then an award needs to go to Beginner Dave K. who swam across the lake and back at the end of the day!!!

One of the beginners actually said to me at the end of the day as we were talking about how we band together at times to get a good "sesh" in, "Man it seems like communication really sucks in the organization!!!" ... ha ha... Ok, that was a rookie comment... But we are working on ways to get word out even better about sailing opportunities via, possibly a voicemail phone line, mass email feature on website, etc... But I did get a kick out of the comment!

We could have used about three more rigs to make it a 2:1 ratio on beginners to rigs... And we could have used more help... Next year we'll give more heads up... Also, we're considering doing a simpler one day one session BEGINNER INTERMEDIATE day later in the summer in addition to the BEGINNER DAY. This one would be for Waterstarts, Harness, Foot Straps, Rigging, Planing, Rail riding... J/K about the old school rail riding...

Rick Heninger.