the Atlanta Boardsailing Club
windsurfing, kiteboarding and wingsurfing in the Southeast

It's that time again! The world's second longest running windsurfing race - the Fall Classic. This year is the 39th running and, like a fine wine, Sigourney Weaver and Sean Connery, it keeps improving with age. Here is the official announcement, the Notice of Race. For you non-racey types (most of us), it includes the schedule of events, and other stuff that you'd want to know. This is a great race for racers and great weekend for non-racers.

The Atlanta Boardsailing Club and Lake Lanier Sailing Club
invite you to compete in the
39th Annual Atlanta Fall Classic
October 13-15, 2017

Summer is here. In a lot of places, summer means gentle breezes or more. Bonaire is breezy in June. Same with the Mediterranean, Hawaii, the Gorge and the Atlantic coast. Here, we have hot air whose only movement is straight up in the afternoon into the stratosphere igniting a thunderstorm.

Let's be honest. Atlanta just isn't really windy. Sure, in late fall, winter and early spring we can get some good winds but unless you are absolutely a) mad, and/or b) hard-core, you may decide windsurfing on a 42 degree (Freedom Unitsahrenheit) isn't for you. If you are a) mad and/or b) hard-core, you still have to come to grips with the fact that for much of the year whitecaps just aren't a regular thing.

Before kitesurfing or kiteboarding made it big in the U.S., kiteskiing was a thing. Not skiing like they do in Norway but like Cypress Gardens, FL. In 1995, kiteskiers were invited to ESPN's Extreme Games (now X-Games).

Bill Herderich summoned up this gem of an article from the bowels of his basement, the American Kiter Fall 1995 issue with an article about the event. Unfortunately, it isn't the inspiring story of the early days but, in a tale we all recognize, how not enough wind not only kept the event from running as planned and gave them virtually no airtime but gave ESPN the excuse to underpay the competitors.

For the beginning windsurfer, there are a number of milestones along the path of improvement. None of these steps are obligatory but their accomplishment means that you can windsurf longer, easier and in a broader range of conditions. It's no fun to be on the water struggling or the beach while your buds and budettes are having a good time.

After windsurfers start to become comfortable being out in planing strength winds and getting used to the harness, they begin to learn to put their feet into the footstraps. These same straps that seemed so illogically placed at the sinky tail of the board suddenly are now appearing underfoot. They've been told that footstraps are handy (footy?) things to use but, as soon as they pick up one foot or the other to put them into the straps, bad things seem to happen: catapaults, veering upwind, falling on the sail. While more experienced sailors will swear that they abhor the idea of planing without being in the straps, the newly-minted intermediate sees it oppositely. Footstraps seems to be the cause of problems, not a cure.