THE TEACHER THE TOOL AND THE METHOD
by Sam Moses, Senior Editor
I have seen the future of windsurfing, and it is bright.
In the same vision, I have solved all of the sport's problems, and therefore all the problems of the windsurfing industry (although as one guest-tester dealer told me last week, it's not really an industry, it's more like a culture with economic underpinnings).
There will be participants galore. Customers for all.
That rosy vision of the future comes from a current real one: my wife Kim, 4'11" on tippytoes, waterstarting and sailing away on her fifth day of sailing. Ever. On her 10th day, yesterday, she got into both footstraps. We just went out a bought a nice new yellow Da Kine waist harness at a local shop, on sale for $39.
In the lower corner of the vision is its reason d'etre: The Teacher. A thin-framed, long-haired, dark-tanned fellow named Stein Erik Gabrielsen. All it will take for my bold projection to become wide reality is to get the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep to make about 500 Steins and spread them around the world's windsurfing sites.
Each Stein clone will have a cloned Catboard: The Tool. Stein built the Catboard that's here at the American Windsurfer test for our beginning sailors. It's lighter and faster than a commercial Catsurfer, and therefore unequalled for fast learning with lighter effort. Stein's Catboard consists
of a coated carbon-fiber platform deck with a daggerboard and mast track connecting two F2 Xantos 285s. But almost any shortboards will work as hulls.
Stein has used the Catboard to teach 15 beginners this month at American Windsurfer's test, all women. They're sailing with no frustration on Day 1, and then coming back to the beach and applying themselves to waterstarting and learning how to manage a sailboard rig, because of their excitement.
As for The Method, the steps get juggled, depending on conditions, time and progress. But this is how it went In Kim's case.
Day 1 begins with waterstart simulation on land, to teach posture and leverage. Then Stein takes the student for a ride on the Catboard. The student sits on the platform while Stein explains what he's doing with the rig, and why. They come back to the beach, and the beginner uphauls a small sail with almost total stability and sails away alone on the Catboard, quite possibly on a plane. When it's time to turn around, the student drops the sail, uphauls again, and sails back to the beach-downwind of course, but Stein is there waiting.
They're hooked. They can repeat Day 1 for the next 10 days, if they want to, increasing the sail size as they gain confidence. Think Caribbean vacation. The world would be a happier place if every resort had a Catboard.
On Day 2 they only get wet up to their waist. They spend it in the beach-start position, learning to feel the sail and control the rig, keeping the nose of the board in one place. Or they can do this for a couple hours, then have a Catboard session.
On Day 3 they backtrack farther, and don't even get wet. They go back to waterstart simulation, as well as learning other movements such as tack and jibe on the simulator. They can also get more Catboard time, for fun.
On Day 4 they try a sailboard for the first time, a superwide board like our Starboard Go. They uphaul and sail away for no more than 100 feet, drop the rig, turn around as they uphaul again, and come back, trying to stay upwind this time.
On Day 5 they waterstart in waist-deep water, with Stein helping stabilize the rig at first (Day 2 is the key to success). They use a smaller board than the Go-Kim used a Bic Techno 283. Then they practice, practice, practice. Waterstart, sail 50 feet, drop the rig, try again in the opposite direction. The size of the board being used progressively shrinks, so control with the feet becomes part of the process. On the eighth day, Kim was perfectly comfortable using a fairly wide, very durable and highly friendly 85-liter HiFly Wave 253 (8'4") for this exercise. As the sailor's knowledge of rig positioning grows, he or she moves at their own pace to waterstarts in deeper water.
Obviously, you need some things. A Stein, of course. Then time, wind and commitment. Shallow water. A Catboard, wide board and shortboard. It's currently impossible to put these things together, unless you're here at Club Paradise. At the moment, there's only one Stein and a couple Catboards on the planet. But if there were more, the rest of the elements are within reach. There are even places in the Gorge where you could learn like this.
With a learning curve this steep, the whole windsurfing world changes. I know mine has. I can hardly get on the water myself any more, for all the babysitting duties I suddenly have.
Kim is a good athlete (her sports were volleyball and gymnastics), but she's neither a gifted nor natural one. Her coordination has gaps like anyone else's-you should see her try to hit a golf ball. The personal keys to her rapid advancement were her extraordinary desire, commitment and patience. Her real gift was that falling didn't frustrate her. But mostly she had Stein for an instructor.
Stein is a fascinating story on his own. Officially, he's Captain Stein, of a post office box in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. He's pretty much lived out of a PO box for most of his adult life. The son of a brain surgeon, he was raised in Norway and Michigan, and grew up to become a creative gypsy. He claims some 128 jobs on his resume, including: apple picker, piano player at a blues bar, owner of a Costa Rican surfing camp, Key West charterboat captain, snowboard instructor in Vail, internet instructor, pizza cook, flight crew for hot-air balloon bungee jumping, catamaran body repairman, swimming instructor at the New York Health and Racquet Club, crewman on a West Indies party barge, ice cream vendor, Rocky Mountains photographer, circus trapeze artist at Club Meds in the Caribbean, bartender, liquor store sales and delivery, BASE jumping team in Norway, crane operator in Mississippi, captain of parasailing boat in the Outer Banks, director of security and waterskiing at a camp for girls in Maine, MP in the Army in Alabama, "zookeeper" (his chosen euphemism for bouncer), stunt high diver, art school model, haybaler, switchboard operator, projectionist at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, drive-in theater manager, vacuum cleaner salesman, cross-country skiing instructor, and last but clearly not least, windsurfing instructor at about 20 different times and places.
While he's here, a member of the American Windsurfer staff for this test, he's trying to find a way to clone himself. He's talking to people about producing the Catboard. He's trying to establish a tour to teach fellow instructors his Method. He could be the best and cheapest investment a major manufacturer could make. Neil Pryde, are you listening? When the test ends next week, he'll be moving into the nicely furnished storage container next door. Call it his Hawaiian oceanfront home. Pretty cushy digs, for a gypsy.
