Windsurfing Magazine

kristin
2006-10-12 08:16:47 | 182 views | 1 Comments

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The US Windsurfing Board of Directors takes this opportunity to name Kevin Gratton the 2006 Windsurfer of the Year. At the same time we thank him for many years of dedicated teaching and promotion of windsurfing in the U.S.
      Kevin was influential in the initial years of US Windsurfing and served on its board. He was also instrumental in the formation of MOWIND. (Midwest Organization of Windsurfers) In the early years of MOWIND, Kevin and many of his friends took the idea for MOWIND and made it grow, running the organization, formulating the early guidelines, and organizing most of the events. Today, MOWIND promotes and help coordinate the annual Midwest windsurfing events. They help schedule regattas so as to avoid conflicts, provide a newsletter, insurance information, and a standardized set of rules and scoring methods. MOWIND has grown through the years with the addition of new members each year. Lately it is growing because of the efforts of a few new enthusiasts, namely, Jeff Koeberl who ran the Bradford Beach Jam this year, Arden Anderson who started a MOWIND Yahoo Group for windsurfers to talk to each other, and Dr. Jack Wiley who improved the MOWIND scoring program making it a model for all-event scoring. The new program has made regatta scoring extremely fast and effortless and has encouraged some new events in the Midwest.
       Kevin credits his younger brother, Andy, for getting him into windsurfing. In the fall of 1982, Kevin, a sailor and avid water-skier, saw Andy windsurfing on a Wayler on Lake Winnebago in white cap conditions. He instantly saw the excitement of waterskiing and his love of sailing in the new sport. Kevin asked to use Andy's board and that was the beginning of his love affair with windsurfing. By 1989 he held the Mistral World Championship in his class.
       By 1986 Kevin had his own windsurfing business, Wind Power Windsurfing on Lake Winnebago in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He continues to teach and has become an icon in the windsurfing business. One of Kevin's favorite talking points is about the great feeling a windsurfing instructor gets when he watches new students improve. He met Melissa Spoerke when she won the Sport Fleet at his Walleye Weekend National Regatta. Eventually, he coached her Olympic Campaign finishing with third place at the Olympic Trials, Savannah Georgia in 1996.
       As a youth Kevin was a sailor in the Fond du Lac Yacht Club youth program. Now he sails his I-20 scow and teaches youth sailing lessons at the Fond du Lac Yacht Club. He is in charge of the youth program and introduced a second level for advanced Laser sailors. Additionally, he has introduced windsurfing to these youthful sailors following in his footsteps. Kevin runs low-cost windsurfing clinics for children and has recently started a new “women's windsurfing night” in Fond du Lac. He calls it the “wives revenge team” as most of them used to sit on the beach watching their spouses compete. Soon they will be in competition against their husbands and Kevin will enjoy every minute of the competition.
       Additionally, Kevin takes groups of windsurfers to Hatteras twice a year. In the spring he has a two week clinic for intermediate windsurfers and in the fall he invites the more advanced windsurfers. Many fly into Norfolk and then drive a rental car to Hatteras. Kevin brings the equipment. More info at the website: www.windpowerwindsurfing.com.
        Kevin continues to teach/compete and will be a driving force in the windsurfing community in the years to come. We congratulate him and wish him continued success.
 

- Renee Linskens, US Windsurfing Communications Chair