THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9407130052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E01 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: THE WATER LOG
What can you do on the water in hampton Roads? This is the fifth in
a weeklong series of firsthand accounts by staff writer Craig
Shapiro.
Friday: surfing off Camp Pendleton.
SOURCE: BY CRAIG A. SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
THE HARDEST thing about the wind-surfing lessons taught by the Chick's Beach Sailing Center is getting into the water.
On a busy, clear-blue Saturday, the beach was absolutely crawling, and Dave Allen, the center's 18-year-old, impossibly bronzed, dude-of-all-trades, was into his juggling act: getting a rig ready for a pushy know-it-all from New York, launching the catamarans, hustling back to the shop for this or that.
All of which pushed back the start of my lesson. Not a problem. At Chick's Beach, you can people-watch till the gulls come home.
The second-hardest thing about wind-surfing lessons is wind-surfing.
Without question, the sport was the most difficult of the half-dozen I tackled for this series. Getting up on the board is a skill all its own; once you do, positioning the sail, and yourself, is a new adventure. Then there's turning.
It was the most grueling. Three hours in the sun, chunks of it spent hoisting a sail full of water out of the bay, is wilting.
It was the most frustrating. Success is measured in small doses, and Virginia Beach's fickle wind holds the trump card.
That's not to say it isn't fun. It is. One reason is because Chick's Beach moves. Jet skis crisscross the water; catamarans whip past families, swimsuit models and bikers and glide onto the sand; fishing boats and cabin cruisers plow the inlet. The folks knocking back Coronas and Alligator shooters in the Duck-In gazebo get the catbird seat.
The other reason is Dave, who, even when he's really harried, relishes being at the hub of it. He's been wind-surfing since someone gave him a beat-up board nine years ago; taught himself, too. Dave has taught at the sailing center for three years, but he's thinking about moving to Puerto Rico, where the wind blows steady all the time. The guy's got an attitude. Hey, he's 18.
Dave also has the patience of Job, something that became clear the first few times I plunked off the board. All he asked when we started was that I laugh each time. I obliged, a regular laugh track.
And when he talked about sailing across the wind, or using my butt weight to counter its pull, I could apply the principles I learned in sailing class. That was cool.
Wind-surfing shares one other thing with sailing, and everything else in this series: It involves considerable trial-and-error. You get up on the board and fall off. You get up on the board, work it with your feet until it's perpendicular to the sail and fall off. You get up on the board, work it with your feet, raise the sail and fall off. You get under way and fall off.
But Dave was there at each step, shouting encouragement, trying to catch me before I went in and clearing any unsuspecting swimmer out of the way. He said there were 10 people in one class he taught. I can't imagine.
That's how it goes. And it went OK. By the end of class, I was up on the board and moving. Didn't need Dave to do it, either. I did it myself while he was off putting out one fire or the other.
Now, I never quite mastered the art of going the other way, though Dave walked me through several turns and shared a shortcut for tacking. That doesn't bother me. Friends who are way better wind-surfers say the return trip is the hard part. By my calculations, I'm halfway there. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by BILL TIERNAN
GETTING STARTED
Chick's Beach Sailing Center is at 3304 Shore Drive, Virginia
Beach. A three-hour wind-surfing lesson is $39. For more
information, call 481-3067.
by CNB