On July 7-8, 2012, North America will see it’s first National Learn To Windsurf Day. On this summer weekend, we hope to see every shop, school, windsurfing club, and yacht club in the country conducts free windsurfing lessons. It’s something many of the shops, schools, and clubs do anyways – but with a national, cohesive effort, it could be much more effective in inspiring current windsurfers to take part, promote, and participate in the effort.

The L2W Project hopes to operate on a few levels.

Educate.

Not new windsurfers, but current windsurfers on how to:

• Effectively teach windsurfing
• Pick the right gear.
• Promote their local L2W event to local media sources such as newspapers, TV, yacht clubs, schools, park rec programs, and of course, social media. (The L2W 2012 Project Media Manual)

Inspire + incentivize 

There’s a lot of solo sailors out there. One of the goals of the L2W project is to bring them back into the fold, and make them ambassadors for the sport again – especially in the places where there’s not a shop or school near by.  Your everyday windsurfer may not be the perfect teachers  – but with our help, they can definitely do a better job than NO teachers.

Execute

Enlist every shop, school, club in the country to participate, and ensure participation at each locations.

Provide marketing materials to help shops and schools promote The L2W Project (Posters, postcards – either provided hard copies, or downloadable PDF’s)

Follow Through

Give people a game plan to get into windsurfing once they finish their free learn-to-windsurf lessons.  This could include handing out free magazines, pamphlets, or hooking up them up with local windsurfing clubs or even just local windsurfers to continue learning how to windsurf.

 …Repeat!

Yes – We want to do it again in 2013.

The success of the L2W project relies on the windsurfing community at large. From windsurfing shop owners and employees, industry reps and pro riders, to your average Joe on the beach – we need you to pass on the share of windsurfing.

If you run a windsurfing shop or school, the best way for you to participate in the L2W Project is by helping to promote our July 7-8 National Learn to windsurf day – and donating gear and time to help give free windsurfing lessons. A free learn-to-windsurf day is something many shops and schools do anyways – now let’s make it happen nationwide. We’ll help you with the promotion part – then it’s up to you to make it happen locally. Recruit your local sailors, corral your shop workers, and get people on the water. If your shop already sponsors a Learn to Windsurf day, consider joining in with ours – together, we can really get noticed.

For windsurfing clubs, yacht clubs, student organizations, or community rec centers, you can join the L2W Project in the same way shops and schools can: Promote our July 7-8 National Learn to windsurf day – and donate gear and time to help give free windsurfing lessons. Again, we’ll help you with the promotion part – then it’s up to you to make it happen locally. Recruit your local sailors, engage the club officers, and get people on the water.

You – the local windsurfer – serves to be most important part of this project. If you live near a local windsurfing shop, club, or school, encourage them to participate, and volunteer your time to help them. Then when the weekend of July 7th rolls around, recruit a few friends who want to learn to windsurf, and bring ‘em on down and start giving windsurfing lessons.

But if you DON’T have a local windsurfing shop, your job is even more important. It’s you – the people who live where there isn’t access to a windsurfing shop with new gear and up-to-date instructors – who can really help us spread the stoke of windsurfing to people who have never heard it before. Start with some pointers on how to give a windsurfing lesson here, then turning to the L2W Media Manual to promote your local L2W event.

OK, you’re pumped. You’re, in words most appropriate, on board. What’s your next step?

1. Holler at us! Let us over at the L2W project project know you’re out there by sending over an email.

2. Get informed. Read the L2W How to teach Windsurfing Manual and the L2W Media Manual. The first will give you some great tips on how to pass on the stoke of windsurfing using whatever is at your disposal. The second is going to help you maximize the amount of exposure your event gets – both before, to make sure you’ve got a crowd – and after, to keep spreading the windsurfing word. Stay tuned to the L2W website for more updates and tips on how you can make your L2W event simply rock.

3.  Make it happen! Once you get people to the water, it’s not tough to get them to try windsurfing. Share the stoke, get ‘em wet, and change their lives.

This is a state-by-state list of all the shops, schools, windsurfing clubs and individuals participating in the L2W Project by offering free windsurfing lessons on July 7-8, 2012. Are you ready to add your shop, school, name or club to the list? E-mail us now!

There was the first time, the very first time. I came home from freshman year at FSU, a slightly more than casual sailboat racer, only to find all three of the boats my family owned out of commision for one reason or another, and proceeded to kludge together an old O’Brien board and sail left by my uncle in the garage. Somehow, I made it to the water, where I spent the entire afternoon falling off the board while learning to uphaul. The sum of the distance I traveled that day while on a windsurfing board was probably less than 50 feet. That wasn’t the beginning of my windsurfing addiction, although a few similar sessions followed.

Our college sailing club had some old One Designs, compliments of former Olympic hopefuls like Laura Chambers, where I refined my dodgy uphaul skills to the point where I’d tell my friends, “Yeah, I can windsurf” – even when all I could do was clumsily tack back and forth, which I’d taught myself between sailing sessions on our dinghies. Then came the day when I was out single-handing one of the dinghies in a fresh breeze, thinking I was going about as fast on that boat as anybody had ever gone before. Until a real windsurfer went smoking by me on a full plane. I jibed the boat immediately, and ran it up on the beach with the sails whipping in the wind as I panic-rigged that old One Design with my heart pounding – I wanted to get out and do that so bad. Three days later, compliments of a really nice guy on the beach named Mack Paschall, I’d learned to rig a little better, and learned to waterstart (although not very well.) The true addiction was beginning.

Then there was the time after that, where I took an afternoon to drive four hours over to Sandy Point Progressive Sports in Daytona Beach, and I walked right up the shop guy (I later learned his name was Curtis) and told him what I had – a measly $1,000 scrounged together from extra shifts at the barbecue joint – and what I wanted: a newer, widestyle board, and a big rig to put on it. I’m guessing that didn’t happen very often, and they took pity on me, because, somehow, I walked out of there with a new (used) board – a Mike Zajcek-designed ProTech, about 151 liters, and rocket fast – a 9.5 Aerotech VMG, a Powerex 490 to rig it on, and a boom. Not too shabby.

By that point, I was officially addicted – and I couldn’t even jibe.

More things fells into place.

A local windsurfer, Paul Hansard, had an early-90’s Mistral Screamer he was about to sell. He had seen me down at the beach, and thought I needed my first smaller shortboard. So he gave it to me. I struggled with it, but it quickly became my favorite board, and I lay in bed dreaming of the days I could use it.

The next summer, my college buddy and I were planning a road trip up to Massachusetts. I figured if I was driving all the way up there, I’d go to Cape Cod, and bring my windsurfing gear, and camp in my truck as long as I could. So before we left I worked double shifts for two months at the restaurant till I had a few grand in my pocket, and I loaded up my truck with a now hefty collection of windsurfing gear, and headed north. My plan was to sleep in the truck and windsurf till my money ran out.

The first day out, I broke a fin on a rock. It was traumatic. A new $75 fin was going to cost me 4 or 5 days of my trip. But, I needed it if I wanted to sail at all, so I headed to the Sailworld Cape Cod to rustle one up. After twenty minutes of chatting with the owner, Jim Ballantyne, he asked me if I wanted to hang around and teach windsurfing. I told him no, my plan was to surf till I had just enough gas money to get me back to Florida. I bought the new fin, and headed out. The next day, I had my best 5.0 session ever – and quickly realized that if I worked for Jim, I could stay there and do that all summer. I marched right back into the shop, and asked for the job. That fin wasn’t the last thing I broke that summer – I got a lot better at windsurfing.

When I got back to Florida, another local sailor, Hugh Bosely, got a hold of my number, and looped me in when he and his buddies were hitting the surf. I joined them when I wasn’t heading to local windsurfing races. Hugh – who was so addicted to windsurfing, he ditched the Florida Panhandle and moved to San Francisco, is still a sailing buddy today. It was my last year of college, and by then I’d re-worked my schedule to only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I worked mostly nights at the restaurant – although I’d pick up days shifts when it wasn’t windy.

I remember the call I got from my buddy Tom Ingram, who alerted me to the posting on windsurfingmag.com – they were looking for a new Managing Editor. I was an English major in the middle of applying to law school, but I had no idea what a Managing Editor was. What the hell, I figured. The worst they could do if I sent them a resume was ignore it.

The rest, as they say, is history.

When I look back at “how I began to windsurf”, I realized there wasn’t a moment, or person, responsible for it.

There was a lot of very lucky coincidences.

But mostly, and a lot of people that I owe – even more people that are mentioned are here. Without them, I may have never become a windsurfer. I may have never visited Oregon, Brazil, California, or Hawaii. It’s changed my life.

Check back here later for tips on how to teach windsurfing.

Ready to promote your event – this is a guide.