Utah Windriders Association

Sara at the Deseret Morning News is interested in doing a Lindon Marina story--If any other sailors know of other areas or issues--It might be nice to site pelican bay as a success story please contact her in the next day or two--Cheers, tom

Mike, Mike and Rick--Will you please call or email Deseret Morning News about the Lindon Marina- I will stop by and take some photos--please contact Sara Israelsen
sisraelsen@desnews.com
801-836-1814---Thanks, Tom

Yeah, I'll email her some of the info I have collected... That's great that you are pushing this... Awesome!

Hey Tom, or others... The ONLY reason I am posting this letter is so that you can echo or hoping I have echoed what you guys pass on to her... Rick.

LETTER TO SARA ISRAELSEN AT DES MORN NEWS

Dear Sara,

Hi, my name is Rick Heninger, windsurfer since 1979, a member of the Utah Windriders Association, UWA. Tom Smart has asked me to write you a letter. I am by no means an expert on the Utah Lake topics. However, I am one who has been talking with Ty Hunter, the Manager of the Utah Lake State Park. He is in charge of the park that is at the end of the Provo Marina. He is a GREAT guy and has been TRULY working so hard to get some great things done for the lake. It is just difficult for him because he is fighting quite a big monster... He could fill you in on the details of that.

801-375-0731

Ty and I have spoken about how polluted Utah Lake is, from Geneva Steel to Lindon Beach where they allow people to burn couches upon pallets upon TV's. However, all around the lake there are areas where major cleanups have taken place but it is hard for us to keep up... I mean, to quote myself as I once waxed poetic/politically correct, "the nape was crimson"... You may be able to figure that one out!!! Anyway, it is amazing at how much junk they allow to be "left" on the beaches at Utah Lake... The thing that really is not good is that much of the stuff is now under water.

The Utah Windrider's Association has contributed numerous man-hours to help clean up some of the beaches, one called South Sandy Beach, which is further south by Springville. Windsurfers and Kiteboarders together have banded to clean up some of the beaches... It seems that we LITERALLY seem to be the only ones who really notice this stuff. Most of the other Utah Lake users are boaters, waverunners, or fishermen, and finally partiers or pallet burners!!! The fishermen tend to leave quite a bit of junk on the beaches, they don't swim in the Lake. The Boaters don't really seem to have as much need to care what is on the shorelines, nor do the Waverunners necessarily, being that most of them stay out in the middle more. And heck, the fisherman, well I won't speak for them, just my observations, burning pallets are warm, old TV make pretty good chairs, so do old flea infested sofas. So, we Windsurfers and Kiteboarders who actually have to trudge through the shorelines get to see, smell, and step on the junk. It is dangerous to our legs and feet, not to mention how it can pollute the water chemically.

We have emailed to Ty Hunter, webpages from the Columbia River Gorge, where the community of Windriders were able to band together to get New and Improved beaches, or even grassy areas where people could sit and actually enjoy the beauties around them. I can not believe that Utah lake doesn't have a good big public beach. It is a lake named after our STATE!!! I won't even mention the lake named after our City... Ya know!? I will include some of those links here that I sent to Ty Hunter for programs that have been enacted in Oregon on the Columbia River, with volunteers and community funding to beautify and increase function, done here, what a greater resource we could have with Utah Lake.

If you would like some official commentary and info from the UWA... Please contact Mike Rossberg, UWA President. He can also refer you to many other people who have much more to contribute to your story than me. Some who live out there and see it everyday.

The link below shows many of the possibilities that are available with our organization, if the local officials would like to beautify Utah Lake in areas... If we have the funding, the LABOR is definitely available. We could have some very nice BEACH type water fronts with a little work and money.

http://windsurf.gorge.net/cgwa/workparties.htm

Here is one where many are working together to beautify and preserve waterfront areas on the Columbia River. I wonder why we don't see more of this kind of stuff here on Utah Lake.

http://www.hoodriverwaterfront.com/

Finally, if you log onto http://www.utahwindriders.org you can register and read the recent postings on all this stuff. Look for Lindon beach, or Utah Lake sucks, or similar!

Thanks a lot,

Sincerely, Rick Heninger

Thanks Rick. Well put.

How about talking to Ty about a small ramp off one of the provo harbor jetties? It would only take about one truck load of strategically positioned smooth river rock 5 or 6 feet wide to allow launching. A rudimentary path could be established prior to dumping the rock to good effect it seems. A similar rock dump along the "beach" could also make access to the bay very interesting for beginners/intermediates and perhaps give performance sailors an alternative. Currently almost no one uses that bay at all. I sailed Provo Harbor about 3 weeks ago right out of the harbor although I had to pull off some rather rigorous tacking getting through the northwest facing mouth as it is exposed dead into the wind. (What were they thinking? That's the one direction that the harbor should be protected from it seems.) While the motorized population has been considered it would be nice to see the combustion free crowd addressed now, after all those are our fees and tax dollars too._