Aqua Culture: Boston Chapter — everybody’s gone surfin’
AMC Outdoors, July/August 2003
Richard Cann remembers the first time he saw it. On a visit to Cohasset, Mass., more than 20 years ago, the engineer looked out and spied “this weird person going around sailing, standing up.” Intrigued, he decided to give it a try, “and got hooked.” In 1983, he and a handful of other Boston Chapter Sailing Committee members created an offshoot: AMC’s first, and only, windsurfing committee. Today the sailing group no longer exists, but the windsurfers are going strong.
“It’s not what you would think is a natural fit for AMC,” says current Cochair Bob Metcalf. “But it’s active, it demands skill, and it’s great to have other people go along with you.” Windsurfing was invented in the late 1960s by two men, a sailor and a surfer from — surprise! — southern California. After gaining popularity in Europe during the 1970s, it began to boom in the U.S. in the early 1980s, even winning a slot at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. “Windsurfing was very popular then — much more popular than it is today,” recalls Cann, still an active leader with the group. “There were a lot of people interested, and it seemed like a good opportunity to get another AMC activity going. The Sailing Committee was mostly ‘sitting and cruising,’ which was not exactly strenuous unless you were drinking a beer.”
The chapter loaned the new band of boaters funds to buy four sailboards, and hardy pioneers struggled into wetsuits to give them a try. Not everyone was convinced that the body-guided sport would catch on: “There were pronouncements such as, ‘No rudder! Cannot be steered!’” recalls a history on the group’s Website. But its vibrant sails and spiderlike navigators soon brightened many a horizon. Today, with more than 20 leaders, a core group of devotees, and an annual flock of beginners, the AMC’s is one of the most active windsurfing groups in the region, says Jan Soma, who has served as cochair for three years. “People are definitely pleased to find out about us,” she says.
Throughout the summer, leaders hold both formal and informal trips: beginners’ clinics on a lake in Wakefield, north of Boston; day and weekend sails in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and spontaneous outings wherever gentle breezes blow. Soma reports about 125 active members — including a dedicated crew of 20 from the Worcester Chapter. “We have a chatline so we can connect with each other on good days,” she says. “It’s difficult to come by a day when there’s wind and you have time off, so it’s great to know there are people out there you can sail with.”
For those who’ve never set foot on a board, $40 gets a day of on-land and on-water instruction on borrowed equipment, followed by dinner out. “Getting going in the beginning isn’t easy,” says Barbara Gruenthal, who met her husband, Steve Cooper, on a 1986 weekend led by Cann. “But you get hooked by [wanting to get past] the frustration, and by the promise of speed.”
“I’ve learned a lot with AMC,” Cooper reflects. “There’s a real sense of camaraderie with the group. Some things have changed: the sport doesn’t feel brand new anymore, and windsurfing with a family has a different feel to it. But it’s rewarding to see our kids getting into it.” The couple is now teaching their two sons, 11 and 6, how to ride the wind.
Soma made the sport a family affair as well, convincing her husband to learn with the AMC. “He looks pretty proficient now,” she says, “and he doesn’t even call it ‘wind swimming’ anymore.”
As for love of the sport, Soma says it’s simple: “It’s mobile, it’s exciting, and it’s safe. If you fall, you fall into water. And if you fall in the middle of summer, it feels great. It’s exhilarating.”
A Few Favorite Places
- Fogland, Tiverton, R.I.: “Here’s a place that’s good in every wind direction, which isn’t the case everywhere,” Soma reports. “There are shallow parts and deep parts. And there are small stones on the beach, which is better for rigging than sand. Sand can get into the equipment and make it more difficult to put together. This is just a great place for wind and a great place to bring families.”
- Demarest Lloyd State Park, Dartmouth, Mass.: “I’m not sure what will happen this year because of the [April] oil spill, but it has been a lovely area,” says Cann. “It’s good for all ranges of skills. The water is shallow a long way out, so you can fall off and still stand up. And because of the configuration of the land, the incoming waves don’t travel the same direction as the wind, which means you can surf while you sail.”
- West Dennis Beach, Cape Cod, Mass.: “It’s just a lovely place, nice and shallow and protected,” says Gruenthal. “Now that we have the kids, we turn our windsurfing days into beach days too. We get out on the water for a while, then come back and build sand castles, have a picnic, just have a nice day out there.”
— Katharine Wroth is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors.
Aqua Culture, intro | Boston | Narragansett | New York-North Jersey
