Winter newsletter

New Launch Point from Park Cleanup

After a mild winter, our home park, Windy Point on Lake Travis (Bob Wentz Park) could stand some brush clearing. Indefatigable president, Brian, lead the charge this year. On February 23rd, we tackled a larger launch spot near the boat ramp and away from the swimmers on the cove and point.

This area to the East of the boat ramp has ample space with a wide beach, but too many bushes. The LCRA staff helped us to identify native trees (such as oak) and butterfly bushes that we kept. All the rest got the business end of a saw!

Future plans include the park staff moving sand into this area and continuing to maintain the picnic tables and cleared brush.

It will be nice to have a choice between the two sides of the boat ramp. I for one will enjoy more room for water starts than we have immediately West of the boat ramp.

Speaking of that little area West of the ramp, the park staff cleared away more brush in the rigging area and will plant grass seed. This clearing made more space up under the trees and widened the overall available space. Take a peek next time you’re there. I bet you set up a chair in the shade for those few moments when you are not on the water.

As part of a day at the lake, we had the opportunity to spot a Great Blue Heron, up close. Just another reminder why windsurfing on Lake Travis is so great.

Big thanks to our hard-working club members for their time and energy: Brian S, Mike S, Darran R, Vanessa W, and new member Bryan. Obviously, we can’t make any of this happen without the cooperation and assistance from our park rangers, Ram and Tim. Hats off to them! –Story and photos by Vanessa


Planning Meeting for Learn to Windsurf Festival
March 19 at 7:30 pm

Our next club meeting will be at The Boathouse Grill to discuss the Learn to Windsurf Festival. The club is looking for volunteers to help with all aspects of the event: registration, coordination, water coaching, equipment, publicity, and goodie bags. The festival will take place the weekend of May 31-June 1.

Also, if you are interested in helping out with any of the open positions for committee leaders (see list below), the club would love to hear from you. So come enjoy a hamburger and great company. The Boathouse Grill is on 620 at 2222.


Grab the Spring Winds on Club Trip
Bird Island Basin, Corpus Christi

Yes, the winter winds have been amazing this year. But for those folks who like their water a bit warmer, a club trip is in the works.

Vanessa W and Chris D will be heading to the coast for a weekend of sailing at Bird Island Basin. If you haven’t had a chance to sail the “spring season” down there, you’ll get to rub shoulders with folks from around the world. The Bird is famous for its great spring winds and mild weather.

We’re hoping for a weekend in late March or early April, or both! After a day of sailing, we’ll gather for a casual group dinner on Saturday evening.

We’re watching the weather and water temperatures. So just look for an announcement to the AWC email list.

What’s in Store for AWC in 2008
President’s Thoughts

1) Start a Zero wind minimum racing program in conjunction with our friends and fellow sailors at the Austin Yacht Club. Thursday night has been mentioned as a possible/favorable day for these races and given the relative warmth of Lake Travis I'd like to see a racing season synchronize with Daylight savings time (March 8 - November 4) or at the very least Windy Point Summer time hours (May 1 - September 9).

2) Perform a large Learn to Windsurf weekend with all proceeds going to charity (our current charity -SPF- will be my continued recommendation for this event) and hopefully including Roger and Ellen from the Sailworks/Starboard "Taste of Windsurfing Tour"

3) Perform several smaller Learn to Windsurf events every month from April to October with all proceeds going to the AWC treasury. I envision a small fee of $25-30/student and smaller classes in the 10-20 student range, but more would always be great as gear and volunteers to teach become available.

4) With the funds gathered during the smaller monthly LTW events (point 3 above), entrance fees and local sponsors, I would like to hold a 2-day weekend sailing event "The Lake Travis Invitational" in which invitations of some kind (could be as simple as an email) will be sent out to local and regional participants. Ideally, trophies, T-shirts (I'm thinking Tie-Dye with the slogan "Keep Austin Weird - Windsurf!") and a party/dinner can be accomplished. It would be awesome if a local band or funds permitting "*Van Halen/The Eagles/Engelbert Humperdinck*" could perform at the party/dinner. Fall 2008 seems like the logical time to hold this event as it will provide time to gather funds and to train up our local racers with the Thursday night series.

5) It would be awesome if we could hold 2 swap meets this season (near the start of the season March/April and end of the season October/November) and to continue our refurbishment program. Old longboards with a few problems and antiquated mast foot hardware seem to be in relative abundance in and around Austin. If you have a board like this (or any other board for that matter) that you never ride and are tired of seeing collect dust in your garage, feel free to donate it to the Austin Windsurf Club. (Question for club members with Accounting Experience: As a non-profit organization can we offer donors a receipt that can be used to write off the donation on their income taxes?)

6) On windy days and weekends - "Fill the lake with sails". The more sails on the water we display, the safer we will all be. I'm not sure why, but it sure seems like the more sails/sailors that show up at our beach the more exciting things become. If you haven't sailed in a while, ask yourself "Why not?" and start making plans for what I hope will be a very exciting new year for windsurfing in Austin. –Story by Brian S.

Holiday Party Snags Some Great Door Prizes

Back in December, Lyn V hosted the annual holiday party for the club. The food was fantastic with Lyn providing Turkey, Salmon and a fantastic garlic mushroom cream sauce. The rest of the food was also fantastic with an awesome cornbread (made by Lisa H), a multi-bean salad (made by Darran), several pizzas, several salads and a variety of excellent cookies. Much Eggnog, beer and wine were also present and readily consumed by the attendees. My apologies to anyone who brought a dish I didn't name here, but I really did try to personally sample everything and it was all fantastic.

A Raffle was held and the following items were handed out to the following winners:
$50 WorldWinds Gift Certificate - Robin F
$25 Sail & Ski Gift Certificate - Erika S
$25 Sail & Ski Gift Certificate - Mike S
$25 Sail & Ski Gift Certificate - Guy M
$25 Sail & Ski Gift Certificate - Alice J
An O'Neil wetsuit top from Sail & Ski - Hayden J
Trivial Pursuit (SNL edition) - Karl T
Super Soaker Water Gun - Lisa H
Christmas Candle - Jon P
Blue Flame Sun Shade - Marlen D
House Bowling Set - Linda P

Once again, Karl T entertained us with his music as he pulled out his guitar and put on an impressive performance. While I didn't personally see any dancing this year, I'm sure things would have been different if Tim could have been in attendance (he was running the Trail of Lights 5k with his wife). –story by Brian S, photo by Jon P

Calendar/Events

March 19 7:30 – Planning meeting for Learn to Windsurf Festival

March/April – Club Trip to Corpus Christi

May 31-June 1 – Learn to Windsurf Festival, Lake Travis