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First, my apologies if you receive this through more than one venue. Just trying to get the word out...
I’ve had the pleasure of talking to, and swapping e-mails, with several local sailors in the Detroit
It seems there are a few groups around, probably with several folks being part of more than one. There is a set of Cass Lake regulars, a Stoney Creek bunch, sounds like an east side gang doing Metro Beach or Huron, Nat’s Grosse Pointe group, the Maumee Bay clan, and I’m guessing a Lansing area crowd as well.
Certainly the efforts of the Lansing
But, the lack of “attendance” at those locations and events should not prevent us from sharing knowledge or experiences. For example, I would love to hear about the best places to go in the Caribbean , Florida Texas
At a minimum, the Web and e-mail offer an opportunity.
Watching Ebay and IWindsurf.com for used equipment gets frustrating because there is rarely anything from this area. Having taught for two summers and with no local shop anymore, it is hard to help beginners get outfitted with used gear, or new. I’m sure there are folks out there with old items (with little real monetary value) that they would donate to a beginner, knowing it was getting used and possibly help grow the sport. I’m sure there are even more with good used gear they would like to get some money out of.
It seems the east side guys use a Yahoo bulletin board effectively (there are 2 or 3 covering SE Michigan and Ohio
I would like to suggest we focus on two methods to communicate with everyone. The following URL gets you to the MI Windsurfing board on Yahoo. It looks like it was formed in 2002 and currently has 54 members according to the list. It cost nothing to join. http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/MiWindsurf/
Anything from informative chat, to shared experiences, to swap sale announcements could be done there. As an example, I got turned on to a company selling a product that seems to work very well for patching tears or reinforcing creases in monofilm - see the attachment with this mail.
The other suggestion is to use IWindsurf.com and start posting items for sale there. The more we get listed, I think the more it will get used by people in this area. Plus, it will give us a place to send newbies wanting to get into the sport without a pile of money. It seems to function well and gets us away from trying to administer a local database of equipment for sale. If you did not know that site, here it is.
http://www.iwindsurf.com/buysell/classifieds.pl
If people would forward this to the sailors they know, and potential sailors, it would help to lend some sense of community with minimal “housekeeping”.
If there was a genuine desire to become more organized, I would be willing to accumulate that feedback and see what ideas people have. You can email me at rmschoen@....
Thanks for your feedback, and see you at the lake. Bob
P.S. if you did not hear, the second annual Cass Lake
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