With legs splayed over a board and ankles dangling in the water, a windsurfer stares across the expanse at a looming storm.
His eager wait is similar to a surfer anticipating the lofty crest of an immense wave.
“I look down at the lake and it’s long and gray, then it turns dark with white caps everywhere,” said Jim Southwick, a retired doctor who lives in Charleston, Utah. “It’s exciting.”
Southwick is an old windsurfing veteran. He’s been doing it since 1979. Now he rides the wind at Deer Creek on a weekly basis.
“I like seeing and interacting with nature,” he said. “It’s fun being out in the wind and Deer Creek is a pretty place to sail.”
When the gusts reach Southwick while bobbing on Deer Creek, he stands on his board, hoists a sail then slices through the water. He revels in the new equipment he rides and credits it for his endurance in the sport. The challenge is part of what drives him, but the old boards and sails would have put too much of a toll on his body.
“Amazingly enough, I keep getting better. It’s not as if I’m trying elaborate tricks, but I’m getting better and the equipment is getting better,” Southwick said.
He is improving partly because the new stuff is easier to use.
“It doesn’t get boring somehow,” he continued, “because you’re never quite as good as you want to be.”
Southwick is somewhat of a relic of a time when windsurfing’s popularity peaked in the late ’70’s and early ’80s. Since then, its numbers have declined.
“The windsurfers are a graying bunch,” he said. “People debate what’s going on, but there’s no question it’s declining. It looked like it was just exploding and then it slowed down and is tailing off now.”
Joshua Shirley is one of the rare young windsurfers in Utah. He just turned 30 and was exposed to the sport six years ago. Now he’s the vice president of the Utah Windriders Association, a non-profit organization that is trying to build windsurfing numbers and provide a social venue for all windriders.
“It’s really fun to get out on the water,” Shirley said. “It’s a super fun activity and is very challenging. Its takes a lot to master and to really get good takes a lot of effort.”
Windsurfers hunt for wind and pay close attention to weather predictions.
“It’s part of the enjoyment,” Shirley said. “It’s like powder skiing. You can go up and ski everyday and go on the groomers, but when you have a good storm up there you can ski waist-deep powder and there are skiers that hunt just for that.
“As you progress and get better at the sport, just figuring out the wind is fun. You get to the point where you want to get up on a plane where the board is breaking on the water and you’re cruising at 20 miles an hour. Then you get good turns and jump on a wave.”
Shirley said there’s a bond among windriders.
“What really got me is the association and friendship among the members,” Shirley said. “I went out to the lake and instantly made 10 to13 friends that helped me out.”
Shirley said there used to be “quite a few windsurfers” in Utah through the early ’90s. Rush Lake out in Tooele had fierce winds and was a windsurfing melting pot. But since, due to irrigation and other factors, it’s been dry and has forced windsurfers to look elsewhere.
“The really good fanatics have moved to other places,” Shirley said. “It’s been tough because the really good location is dried up.”
Shirley said Rush Lake is shallow in the spring – too shallow for windsurfers, but another kind of windrider has taken advantage.
“Rush Lake is good for kiters because they only need a few inches of water,” Shirley said.
Kite boarding is a growing sport among Utah. That may be partly why windsurfing numbers are dropping.
“Kite boarding has siphoned off a lot of people that were windsurfing,” Southwick said. “It’s compared sometimes to skiing versus snowboarding. They want to do something their granddad or dad can’t. It seems like some of the young kids are starting to get into it.”
Longtime windsurfer, Jon Manwaring of Park City, is prime example. He converted to kite boarding a few years ago and never looked back.
“I’ve been weaned off wind surfing. It’s more exciting,” Manwaring said. “It’s newer, it’s more thrilling, it’s faster and we can jump. Small jumps are 10 feet and high jumps are 30 feet. Big air is what it’s all about.”
Kite boarding is similar to wake boarding, he said. The board is comparable except, instead of a boat, a parachute provides the power.
“It’s like wake boarding on steroids,” Manwaring said. “We go out when it gets too rough for wake boarders. Picture what they do but being done 20-30 feet off the ground.”
Manwaring, who is good friends with Southwick, said there’s a friendly rivalry between windsurfers and kite boarders.
“We tease each other,” Manwaring said. “About half the kiters are guys that have crossed over. We call ourselves the darksiders and we call them pole boarders. The windsurfers are probably slowing down and we are growing.
Manwaring learned to kite board in 2000 and at the time, he said there were two other people in the state doing it.
“Now on a good day, there will be 30-60 people in Utah someplace doing it on a good day,” he said.
There is more potential for danger with kite boarding, Manwaring said, and doesn’t advise anyone to do it without proper instruction. He calls kite boarding accidents “Kitemares.”
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can get hurt,” he said. What we are having a problem with is people buying (kite boarding gear) on eBay and they are getting hurt pretty seriously. I sell kites and boards but I won’t sell them to beginners. You don’t realize how powerful the wind is.”
Windsurfers and kite boarders, though, share the same love, a love for nature and the power of wind.
“You get to be an amateur meteorologist with wind sports,” Manwaring said. “You understand lakes better, the topography of the mountains and the direction of the wind. Gravity sports and nature sports, we are all using nature and the outdoors absolutely.”
There are no windsurfing shops in Utah. For information on windsurfing and learning how, visit www.utahwindriders.com and post a message for instruction. The Utah Wind Riders Web site also contains wind forecasts and windsurfing and kite boarding events. For more information on kite boarding, visit www.mtkites.com or call Jon Manwaring at 901-1420 for rentals and instruction.
Popular windsurfing and kite boarding spots. Each lake may have different strengths depending on the season. Some are good for south winds and others are good for north, west or east winds.
There are more lakes windriders can try, but these are the ones most likely to get wind:
*Deer Creek – can be excellent in the spring and fall. The wind here is known to turn on at noon and turn off at 4 p.m.
*Jordanelle Reservoir – a good location for Parkites. It has the same patterns as Deer Creek but the wind doesn’t usually arrive until about 3 p.m. Lake can be deep and cold.
*Utah Lake – can have powerful winds from each direction. It’s known for some of the best north winds in the state. Large swells of six feet can develop from the south and four feet from the north.
*Sulfur Lake – just south of Evanston, Wyo., this lake is becoming more and more popular among Utahns. It’s sometimes the only place that has wind in midsummer.
*Rush Lake – south winds can be powerful but is often too shallow for windsurfers. This is mostly a kite boarding playground near Tooele.