Utah Windriders Association

So cool, thanks for posting this! Another young sailor in town!

Perfect gear to get him going, too, that's a wise choice. I started my daughter on similar stuff and it made all the difference. Now if only Richard could go sail with some other kids. There's a great program at Hood River with 1/2 day camps, run by Big Winds that kids really love. I encourage you to get up there to try it. Richard will have lots of fun and Dad can go sail meantime.

Dimitri, 100% agreement on all points! In fact, before his lesson I showed him some Gorge video of the big kids. His response "I want to go there!"

Thanks for the post and enthusiasm! I'm going to be starting my daughters as soon as I get the same kids rig in the mail. I think I'll bring a big long rope if we go to a deep water spot so I can reel them back in if needed. Maybe paddling along on another board is an option.

I used the long rope method to teach my daughter 20 years ago at DCIB. Worked great! We did, however, have one incident involving a jet skier who drove his brand new PWC across the rope; the PWC inhaled several feet of rope, which melted in the impeller chamber, stalling the engine. The very unhappy rider was unable to restart his engine, so we reeled him in, cut and retied the rope, and continued our lesson.

Jim, sounds like an excellent plan going forward for those pesty jet skis! Does it work well with boats?