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

or how I took a left turn at Albuquerque on the way to the Gorge

"Wind and water," Marek said more than once. "The Gorge is all wind and water." When he'd found out that I was planning to spend a week in the Portland/Gorge area in early June, he was kind enough to reach out to me more than a few times with invitations, advice and encouragement. Marek, being smarter than me, doesn't spend all summer whining about the wind but actually spends time in a place where 3 meter sails and 70 liter boards are not only used but used frequently. As Marek predicted, I would find plenty of wind and water on my trip.

Back last fall, a good friend from college had come to Atlanta and met me for breakfast. We began talking and before I realized it, I'd been talked into climbing a really big hill. "It'll be fun," he said. "And, at our age we won't have that many more opportunities to do something like this." This hill is near another hill he'd climbed the previous summer with another close friend of mine. Together with some other friends, they decided it was so much fun, they'd do it again and wanted me to come along.

Summer is upon us. There's a lot less wind and more idle time. It's a dangerous and expensive time.

Summer is when you will make you most optimistic purchases: the gear you use once a decade. With light winds are you looking for a 9.5 sail? Are you bringing the old Mistral One Design out from the piles of stuff in the garage and sailing around in light air? Are you studying the latest trends in light air weapons - foils and super wide boards?

Optimism isn't always a good idea.

This is something I've been struggling to write for a week - the passing of Stephan Els. I'm still stuck on the denial stage of grief and probably will be for a while. I still have his emails where we talked about some boards that he wanted to look at when he got back from South Africa - where he was when he died. In my mind, I'm still awaiting his return.

David Cummings decided after a personal tragedy to change his life, his way of thinking and live every day.