History of the Saskatchewan Windsurfing Club
by Ian Stewart
The original club in Saskatchewan was the "Saskatoon Windsurfing Club", which operated
throughout the 1980's. In the early '80's windsurfing was still primarily on longboards,
with only a few hearty souls who were trying out shortboards, known as "sinkers".
The Saskatoon club was quite involved with longboard racing, and would attend the
various sailing regattas across the province. As a member of the SSCA (Saskatchewan
Sailing Clubs Association), "sailboarders" would enter as one class along with Lasers,
Hobie Cats, Enterprises and the various other sailing classes.
Gord Marsh was president of the Saskatoon club for most of those years. A separate
history could be written about the Saskatoon club in the '80's, as there were so
many great events as well as all the new developments in the sport (clamp on booms,
harness's, etc).
When I moved to Saskatoon from Edmonton in 1984, I got involved with the club right
away. I tried to race my "Windsurfer" against the likes of Gord, Terry Verbeke,
Scott and Jan Cowan and Ron and Lori Keesh to name a few who were riding on Mistral
One Designs. The regattas were a blast, and some provincial and national champions
came out of that Saskatoon group, like Stefan Lidington and Steve Huszar.
In around 1990, the longboard racing scene started to drop off, while the shortboard
freestyle scene was booming. I believe it was Glen (Maui) Murdock who was the first
of our group to head down to the Gorge and come back with tales of "nuclear winds"
in about 1985.
As fewer individuals were attending the sailing regattas on longboards, the Saskatoon
club wound down its operation. It was about this time that I had moved down to Regina
and started to meet some of the local sailors.
I had a preliminary meeting at my house on Dec. 1, 1991 to see what locals thought
about establishing a Regina Windsurfing Club. On Jan. 4, 1992, the Regina Windsurfing
Club had it's one and only meeting around my ping-pong table to establish a constitution
and elect an executive, and to discuss sending a delegation to Saskatoon to meet
with them about the possibility of forming a provincial club.
Present around the ping-pong table were myself, Terry Graham, Scott Goldie, Dave
Skene, Randy Goulet, John Klein, Ron Lustig, Wendy Lustig, Jamie Janotta, Alphonso
Verdejo, Graham Parsons, Mike Murray and Gord Cuttington. I was to be president,
Scott - VP and Terry - Secretary/Treasurer.
On Jan. 18, 1992 we held the meeting at the Park Town Hotel in Saskatoon. Terry
Verbeke was president of the existing Saskatoon Windsurfing Club. He along with
Dale Denham, Murray Guy, Mark Doepker, Frank Boele and those of us from Regina agreed
to establish the Saskatchewan Windsurfing Club. The past Saskatoon club still had
a little money in the bank, and this helped kick off the new provincial club.
We originally had it that there would be two divisions; the North and the South.
The executive for the North was Dale Denham - Pres., Mark Doepker - VP, Murray Guy
- Treas., and Rob Theoret - Sec. The South executive was as noted above for the
Regina club. The overall executive was to be Dale Denham - Pres., Ian Stewart -
VP and Murray Guy - Sec/Treas., and then alternate these positions between the north
and south each year. This arrangement did not last long before we simply had one
executive for the whole club.
There was also a pretty vibrant group of windsurfers from Swift Current, including
Carl and Danette Salter, and Jim and Isabelle Wright. Along with these and many
others from Speedy Creek and other parts of the province, and the 40 plus members
from Saskatoon and 40 plus from Regina, the club at its largest was over 100 members.
The primary objectives of the SWC as laid out in the constitution are:
- Represent and promote the interests of local windsurfers in the province.
- Provide a means by which members can buy, sell or trade new and used equipment.
- Organize and promote windsurfing events, clinics and competitions.
- Affiliate itself with the Saskatchewan Sailing Clubs Association (SSCA), Canadian
Yachting Association (CYA), Windsurfing Canada, and the Canadian Masters Windsurfing
Association.
The many club members throughout the years have shared a common bond; that is the
exhilarating freedom felt when the sailor, rig and board become one with the wind
and the water. We celebrate this oneness with nature at our annual "Wind and Water
Weekend" with a wind ceremony around the campfire, complete with wind warriors,
witch doctors, fireworks and sacrifices.
One of the greatest aspects of the club throughout the years has been the events.
The events have brought like minded people together to share their experiences,
camaraderie and love of the sport.
The Ski Shop sponsored the first "Wind and Water Weekend" in 1986, and this event
has run every year since. It may well be one of the longest running windsurfing
events in history. The 20th Anniversary will be on June 16-18, 2006 and will be
sure to go down in history itself, so don't miss being there.
Some of the earlier regattas back in the '80's were held all over the province including
Mountain Madness at Blackstrap Lake, Tumbleweed Worlds on Wascana Lake, Jackfish
Lake at North Battleford, Emma Lake and Candle Lake near Prince Albert, Redberry
Lake, Lake Diefenbaker and Last Mountain Lake.
There were even sponsors back then. A regatta at Candle Lake was sponsored by Captain
Morgan's Rum (this was one of my favourites), some of the Mountain Madness events
were sponsored by CopperTone.
The strictly windsurfing regattas (we didn't really call them regattas) started
back in the late '80's with Wind and Water as previously mentioned. But there was
also the Speedy Creek Slalom at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park, which ran
on the August long weekend throughout the 1990's. I think the last one was in 2000.
Carl and Danette Salter were instrumental in making those memorable events happen.
We also had the Round Lake Roundup, headed up by Bill Plumb, which ran approximately
1993 to 1995. Sailing through rainbows was one experience there. Another event that
ran for a few years in the early '90's was the Dam Slam at Danielson Provincial
Park.
In the mid '90's we held a couple of Speed Trials. One was at the north end of Last
Mountain Lake with Bill McGilvary sporting some speed needles, and another at Dundurn.
The most famous event the SWC sponsored was the brain child of Jack Chandler (Mark's
Dad, and Murray's boss at the time). It was the Rowan's Ravine Downwinder in 1993
for $1000. cash prize. Many paragraphs can be added here for all the fun that was
had. Soccer with buoys in the big tent….
An event that was born out of that one is the Knarly Man at Gibbs Beach on Last
Mountain Lake on the May long weekend for about the past 10 years. Some of the knarliest
wind and waves I have ever sailed in have been at this event.
The club has hosted the Provincial Windsurfing Championships since 1995 on the Labour
Day Weekend at Regina Beach. This has been knows as the Schlog 'n Slam due to the
unpredictable winds. The year the Austin Powers movie came out, we called the event
the Shag 'n Slam, which got us an honourable mention in a British windsurfing magazine.
We have also hosted two National Windsurfing Championships. The first in 1994 at
Elbow on Lake Diefenbaker, with Dale Denham at the helm, was the Tutor Canadian
Windsurfing Championships, and was hugely successful. Rob Mulder from Roberts Boards
in Vancouver drove across the prairies thinking someone played a joke until he came
over the hill at Elbow to see the huge lake with miles of white caps.
The second Nationals was at Regina Beach on Last Mountain Lake ten years later in
2004, and was also recognized as one of the best ever. Steve Huszar was at the helm
for this one, and like the first one, a lot of work went into the planning and implementation
by a lot of dedicated SWC members.
Other events the SWC has been involved with have been the Waskimo winter festival
in Regina, when snow sailing was popular. Kiting has since wiped out the desire
to rig up a windsurfer sail and go out on the snow. However, in 2000 we assisted
Barney Kenney in sponsoring the World Ice and Snow Sailing Championships at Blackstrap
Lake. This was an incredible success, with competitors from across Europe, Russia,
Canada and the USA competing in snow sailing with windsurfer rigs on all kinds of
contraptions, Skimbats and the first and fastest kitesailing.
Another world class event was held next door in Manitoba at Gimli in 1994. It was
the Windsurfing Worlds with hundreds of competitors from over 50 countries. It was
the same year we held the Nationals at Elbow, so only a couple of us from Saskatchewan
were fortunate enough to attend this incredible event. Stephan Lidington competed
at a high level there, and I competed in the Masters class.
Many of our members have gone out of province to represent Saskatchewan or even
just themselves. A few of us went to the Canadian Nationals in Squamish, BC in 2003.
This story requires its own chapter. I have been fortunate enough to compete in
regattas outside the province and I know we have had a lot of other SWC members
compete in a lot of different places and at some very high levels. We will elaborate
more on this as we get the information from the likes of Stephan Lidington, Steve
Huszar, Torsten Tabel, Scott Goldie and others.
Throughout the history of the SWC, we have held many clinics and courses all around
the province to raise awareness of the sport. We have built up a fleet of training
boards and higher end equipment complete with a club trailer. Members have helped
do the training at various venues throughout the years, with Mark Chandler and Art
Hosie most involved these days.
Some of the fondest memories club members share, are the stories from the trips
they have taken either together, with their families or alone to the worlds most
awesome windsurfing locations. These include the Columbia River Gorge, Maui, Oregon
Coast, Squamish and Nitnat in BC, Keho, Stafford and Old Man Dam in Alberta, Lake
Winnipeg, the Great Lakes, Texas, Florida, and of course Cabarete DR, Margarita
Island, Baja east, Baja west, Lake Arenal in Costa Rica, Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica,
Aruba and above all, Coronach, near Big Beaver, Saskatchewan.
The glue that has held the club together throughout the years has been the club
newsletter, "Wind Addiction", which I believe Terry Graham named before there was
a retailer by the same name. Terry was the original newsletter editor and no one
has surpassed his professionalism at producing a great newsletter.
Now of course, we have the internet and finally have our own club website. We have
had exposure through the years on the SSCA site under www.sasksail.ca, plus Terry
had set up the Yahoo "windandwater" group site. Having this "brief" history digitized
will be helpful for whenever we want to elaborate on stories, add photo links, or
just plain change history.
The history of the club is rich in fond memories, especially considering a lot of
us have raised families along the way. I remember Lisa, pregnant with Caitlin trying
to sleep in the K-car with a wet smelly Kato, while it was pouring rain in the middle
of the night at Elbow. I of course was in the party tent assisting Murray with plans
for the next days activities.
Now 16 years later, Caitlin and Mitch, along with Jarred Janotta took windsurfing
lessons in April in Maui. The club past was rich, the present is awesome with kiting
complementing windsurfing to keep that oneness with the elements alive through all
seasons, and the future is going to be absolutely awesome, with new sailors and
kiters getting involved with the club, new families growing, more kids sailing,
new equipment and new trips and events. Can't wait…
Shred Hard….Nothing Else Matters