| South Coast sailboarding:
Catch an afternoon wind By Oleh Lysiak, Staff Writer for the Coos Bay World Those reliable northwest, Pacific, afternoon breezes launched a business for a local windsurfing fanatic. Every day that the summer wind blows at Floras Lake, Will Brady puts on a wetsuit and rides a personal watercraft around his office. Floras Lake, surrounded on three sides by tall evergreens, enjoys populations of osprey, Canadian geese, blue heron, egrets, and a variety of ducks. It is a short walk from the beach and surf. Brady runs Floras Lake Windsurfing, a few minutes south of Langlois, west of U.S. Highway 101, bordering Boice-Cope County Park. There were a handful of people windsurfing the lake last week. Some cut precise lines with spectacular wakes and jibed with impunity. Others endured dunking after dunking. Brady teaches windsurfing on land and in the water, rescues beginners
on his personal watercraft and maintains the facilities and business.
He and his wife, Liz, also run the Floras Lake House, a bed and breakfast.
They do the bookings and caretakers Bruce and Pat Stannard take care of
"Floras Lake is an excellent place to both learn and practice
windsurfing," Brady said. "It's on Cape Blanco and it sticks out
into the Pacific. There are no obstructions to block the wind off the
ocean, so it's fairly clean, consistent wind. The water is spring fed,
relatively shallow, warm, about
If you need to work on something, if you need to learn how to jibe, or how to get into foot straps and get water starts going, this is the place, he said. Brady starts rank beginners on a simulator on land to get the feel of what sailboarding is about. He puts a sail on the simulator and it's like an on-land sailboard. Brady and the student go over all the moves, correct positions for the rig. "Once we're done on the simulator," he said, "I put the students in the water and follow them around. I sail with them and teach them how to sail up and down wind, tack and jibe. The boards I have are wide and stable. The sails are really lightweight. Anybody can pick them up. Most people are up and going within a half hour." The toughest part of teaching is staying warm after being in and out of the water all day, said Brady. "You get the ocean wind in the upper 50s, which makes for a lot of wind chill, especially if I'm doing a lot or rescues buzzing around at 40 mph. We can put a lot of beginners as well as advanced people out on the lake in windy conditions and they can still do it." The age-range of windsurfers who seek Brady's teaching skills out is from 4 to 80 years old. "The 80-year-olds do it really well," he said. "Four- to six-year-olds can get the rig up and off they go. We stock rentals especially for the kids." In order to get started in sailboarding, a person needs a good wetsuit, a 10-foot sailboard, a sail, mast and boom. A complete rig runs between $600-$1,000. Brady has rentals to completely outfit more than 30 people. The next thing that's coming on strong is kiting, which has a bigger potential than windsurfing, by far, said Brady. Kiting requires a large kite, two long control lines, a control bar and a knee-board. "It takes less equipment," said Brady. "Basically, you need what they call a tractor kite, which is inflatable. They're big, big, powerful kites. Then all you need is line and a small wake board. They go on sand, snow, everywhere. You don't need as much water or wind. The kite does all the work. You steer it with a bar. It's really fun." Brady began windsurfing 22 years ago in Southern California. He went to the University of Oregon, studying marine biology facility in Charleston. "That got me started sailing in Coos Bay, " he said. "I did a lot of sailing in Empire. And then we'd come to Floras Lake and sail in the winter because ocean conditions were too wild at that time of year." After he graduated from Oregon in 1989, Brady's friend, Norm Bulldock, called and said there was land for sale at Floras Lake and suggested Brady open a school and bed and breakfast. He opened in 1991. "We've been building the school up," said Brady. "It's getting more and more popular. We do a lot of windsurfing lessons and rentals, kite lessons and rentals, kayaks, lodging. It's a full package deal." Floras Lake is a halfway stop for wind surfers traveling from California to the Columbia River Gorge, Brady said. "We get people from all over the country here. People come here to tune up in the flat water before they hit the big stuff. This is a really great place to learn. "Occasionally, we go right across the dunes and surf the ocean," said Brady. "Our season extends from June to October but there are hard-core locals who windsurf here all winter. The temperatures are relatively mild and with a good wetsuit, you're fine. If you get cold, you can pop in the sauna and warm up."
"The bed and breakfast can accommodate about 15 people," Brady said. "There are four rooms. A lot of windsurfers come here. We book out early. People book a year in advance and we usually get return clientele. Fortunately, we have a campground next door." Brady teaches what he loves and has made a good living at it for his family. He also makes a lot of other people happy with his environmentally-sound, enthusiastic, rewarding approach to the business of the afternoon wind. For more information on windsurfing on the South Coast, contact Brady at (541) 348-9912. From the Coos Bay World (C) 2001 Reprinted by permission |
