Atlanta Boardsailing Club History

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Revision as of 10:33, 30 September 2011 by Webguy (talk | contribs)

Notable events, people and developments over the years. Many of these things actually happened, the important ones, anyway. Please let us know of corrections and additions.

1970-1979

  • 1978: Club founded. First year of The Fall Classic, possibly the longest continuous running windsurfing regatta in the U.S.

1980-1989

  • Monthly meetings were held in the basement of Reggie Strickland's insurance agency.

1990-1999

Monthly meetings were held in a number of restaurants around town. The club almost became like a Grim Reaper as more than a few restaurants closed their doors while or soon after the club used their facilities. Local officials discretely encouraged the club to commune on the web in an effort to save Atlanta's struggling restaurant trade.

  • 1995: The Atlanta Boardsailing Club hops on the World Wide Web as a members page on AOL.
  • 1996: Olympics come to Georgia. Olympic contenders train in local races. ABC members Chris Voith and Dan Burch participate in the trials. Fred Dey is equipment manager on behalf of Mistral and the IMCO fleet.
  • 1997 First archive of our website on the Wayback Machine - no content really as everything was moved to our new address.
  • 1998: Club registers www.windsurfatlanta.org and finally moves to its own home.
  • 1998 Senior Nationals held in conjuction with our Fall Classic. Would continue to be held here through 2000.

2000-2009

  • 2000: Competitor www.windsurfatlanta.com falls victim to dot.com crash. Declares bankruptcy and merges with www.windsurfatlanta.org which still survives today. windsurfatlanta.com fell victim to an unsustainable business model of hosting windsurfing vacations to the Atlanta area in July and August, notorious for being the least windy months here.
  • 2002: Club enters post-modern era and ceases publication of paper newsletter. With the club's biggest expense removed, membership dues are dropped. Thirty two newsletter staffers laid off. Subsequent protests turn violent and several longboards are torched.

2010-Present

  • 2010: After many years, the faithful software powering www.windsurfatlanta.org finally fails after a server upgrade. A new version of the website springs from the ashes.
  • 2011: This wiki is started.