A Summer to remember
by Snailer with Siobhan Nehin

July 14, 2002 was a special day at Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Over 100 kids showed up for the second annual free Kids’ Learn to Windsurf Day. The local shop, Watersports West, donated as many Windgliders as they had and we got lots of volunteer instructors bring their personal equipment. The kids got an all-too-rare chance to try our sport. But more importantly, they made a connection with the water, the wind and nature. Late in the afternoon, a dolphin surfaced right in the middle of the group of kids. It was magical! Even if they never get on a board again, they’ll never look at the Gulf of Mexico the same way again.
During the event, parents and onlookers kept asking, 'when their day was going to be'?
When we got home that night, that question kept ringing in our ears. It seemed more of the women were asking than were men so we decided to try a free "Women’s Day". In years of watching couples at the beach, there was often a pattern: men teaching their female mate most often caused friction. So we thought why not have women teach women exclusively. This idea would turn out to be a powerful magnet for the event.
Most of the people we talked to thought it was a great idea. Nothing like this had been done, and Howard Park was the perfect place to do it. It has clean, shallow water with no shore break, nice sandy beaches and no matter which way the wind is blowing, we could just move to that side of the island.
When we mentioned the idea to the Park Supervisor, he was all for it. He said he’d help us promote it through the County’s Community Access channel and the Parks Department, and help us with tents and ice and some of his staff patrolling the perimeter in kayaks for safety.
Then we sent out some press releases to the newspapers and television stations. Immediately, the local Suncoast News ran an article promoting the event and we got a call back from someone from The St. Petersburg Times. It was then that Siobhan got her best inspiration: to have a female reporter from The Times come to the park and she would teach her ahead of time so the reporter could write about it.
The reporter, like a lot of people, was very intimidated by the idea. Many people who have tried windsurfing in past years have been turned off by the daunting challenge of it all. Tippy, heavy boards, hard to lift rigs and unfriendly launches all conspired to give beginning windsurfing a bad reputation. But Siobhan had an answer for every objection the reporter could come up with; there were new wide floaty boards, light rigs and she finally agreed to do it. The lesson went well. Ten days before the event the article ran in The Times county-wide, along with Siobhan’s phone number and e-mail address. Apparently thousands of women read the article and could identify with the reporter’s trepidation and how she overcame her fears.
For the next 9 days Siobhan’s phone rang night and day. Her e-mail was inundated. "Is this the windsurfing lady"?, they’d ask. "What do I bring? Can I get it the first class? How much does it cost? Can I bring my teenage daughter?", and most importantly, "WHAT TO WEAR"? So many calls were coming in, we started to worry that we would be overwhelmed.
We realized the event needed all the women power we could muster, so we decided to call Beth Powell-Winkler from the Banana River Resort. She is an internationally renowned master instructor who just happened to live 3 hours across the state in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It was a long shot but we convinced her to come over and be the featured instructor. Along with 14 other women who agreed to instruct, we had a solid volunteer staff in place.
Now all we needed was for the weather to cooperate. The event date was August 24th, just one week before the unofficial start of the hurricane season. Summer weather patterns were predictable for the first year in recent memory, so we were pretty confident. Just in case, we had the next day scheduled as the rain date.
During one of the newspaper interviews, I mentioned that men were not "welcome" during the event. My intuition was that some of the women would be intimidated by the glare of the onlooking males, and I KNEW that some of the men wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from gawking. So I mentioned that I would be having a "weenie roast" at a park across the bay.
Some of the males' reactions ranged from ANGER that they weren't allowed to be there to DISGRUNTLED that the women were trying to take over "their" turf. It was a real eye-opener, but more about that later.
The morning of the event, the park staff arrived at 6:30 sharp to get the beach groomed and set up the tents. By 8:00 a.m., the beach was pristine and ready. The weather was PERFECT. Watersports West again sent a truckload of gear with their beach rep. and a team rider to help setup the gear. The Winklers from Banana River showed up with a trailer and pickup piled high with gear, and several other (male) volunteers pitched in to help rig. By 8:30 we were SET! And it was a good thing, too. There were about 75 to 100 women there already and more streaming in by the dozen.
Siobhan had also arranged for a female Yoga Instructor and a Masseuse to be there to give the women something to do while they were waiting their turn on the boards.
At 9:00 Beth climbed on her simulator and, surrounded by what seemed like a thousand women, she did an orientation while the boards and rigs were being lined up all down the beach. Hoards of women lined up at the sign-up tent to schedule their lesson. The Yoga instructor beckoned women to the first stretching session. It was pandemonium!
The day was divided into Eight 45-minute sessions with 15 women per session and 1/2 hour for lunch. A collection was taken for pizza and salads for lunch at $5 apiece. This would be enough so all the instructors at least got their lunch free—after all this was a totally free event.
When the first round of women lined up for their lesson, it was apparent there was a mix up. There were 17 women and only 15 instructors. As Siobhan scrambled to accommodate the extra two women, one of them took her chair and left. We felt badly about that, but as anyone who has tried windsurfing knows; you need more than a little determination to succeed. Perhaps she lacked that attribute.
Siobhan found an instructor and board for the other woman and we were off. The beach was abuzz with activity. The water was filled with what looked like a flock of giant butterflies. The Yoga turned out to be the perfect thing to loosen the tense muscles and calm the nerves of the awaiting first-timer windsurfers.
We had a full-blown success on our hands.
The press showed up. We had two professional video cameramen roaming around recording the action so we could make a video. And up under the trees at a respectful distance were all the men who weren’t supposed to be there.
As for how the men handled themselves, there were two defining moments: about 3/4 of the way through it, one testosterone-laden-control-freak male couldn't stand it anymore and ran out in the middle of the women and started screaming at some of them, "YOU'RE DOING IT ALL WRONG! After some of the women complained, he had to be restrained by the park supervisor.
The other moment was equally as interesting. A small group of us "banished boys" decided to dress up as "girlies" and sail through the women.
So we got these goofy outfits complete with balloon boobs and grass skirts and wigs and sailed around from the other side of the island on our longboards. Most of the women were amused, but later, when one of the guys was standing there at the end of the day, a woman said to him, "can you believe those a@#holes that dressed up as women? Don't they know this was for women only"? Earlier, he was one of the dressed up "girlies" and he said, "yeah...uh-huh".
Of course most of the men were all for it.
Over 150 women showed up for the event. 128 were scheduled and the rest got their chance at the end of the day for some unscheduled sessions. After 10 hours in the hot Florida summer sun all of the volunteers were exhausted, but there was definitely a glow about the park—one that will last for a long, long time.
Many of the women said they never would have tried windsurfing without the newspaper article and the event. Many said they would definitely do it again

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