Welcome to our first installment of the CGWA Board Member Notes. We will be offering regular insight into the CGWA board on a variety of subjects from windsurfing, the Gorge, nonprofits, and more! Please see bellow for Volume 1: Get Someone Planing by Dave Nunn.
Everyone remembers where they were the 1st 
time they got planing on a windsurfer. The board hopped up on top of the water and took off like a dragster. You probably didn’t sleep much that night because all you could think about was windsurfing.
I remember my 1st time. Ashbridges Bay in Toronto. I was on 175 liter Mistral Malibu. I was 22.
Tom Kosmalski, CGWA board member says he was on a F2 Strato “with a retractable dagger-board. The first time I kicked that thing up and hit a full plane, I was hooked”
Tim Ortlieb, Ezzy Sails distributor, says he was at Harbor Springs, MI, on a Mistral One Design and a 7.4m2 sail. “Holy smokes, what a feeling”
Our CGWA Director, Greg Stiegel, says he was at Klamus Beach, Cape Cod, MA. He was about 13 and on his Dads Bic Electric Rock. (It was possibly the ugliest graphics yet on a windsurfer.)
Roxane McClure, CGWA board member says she was at Ruedi Reservoir in Colorado on a F2 Strato: “Never thought I would get both feet in the foot straps because they were so far back, however, once in the foot straps… zoom!”
John Heeren, CGWA board member says; “I was on an original Windsurfer and we used to take out the dagger-board to see how high the water would jet up in the air out of the centerboard cavity, I was 15”
If everyone who is still windsurfing regularly just got one new person a year planing for their 1st time, well windsurfing would be back as big as it ever was.
Spend the time and effort to do this if you can. It’s simpler than you think. Let the victim spend a little time on the long board chugging around and then throw them into a high wind day. Personally I say forget the painfully boring weeks in a pond and get them to your high wind spot sooner than later. People want instant gratification these days. Plus if it’s the youth we are talking about here, they will figure it out way faster than you think.
Give them a brief “How to water-start” lesson. Get them a helmet, life jacket, wetsuit & a big board that can take a beating (little boards are too hard to use). Then chuck them into the deep end of the pool & be prepared to go downwind and pick them up. It won’t work for everyone but for those that do get planing it will be an incredibly rewarding day. You remember yours right?
Help our sport: get someone planing this summer!
Dave Nunn – CGWA board member since 2009, Windance store owner & planing addict
