Craig Bergh
2009 Windsurfer of the Year

Windsurfing has always been about speed.  Racing is always about speed, although far more than speed is involved.  We all drag race our friends for beer and bragging rights.  Over the past decade many people have been tinkering around trying to calculate the speed of sailors and their windsurfing feats of daring do!   Recent development of global position system (GPS) devices have made accurate tracking of speed possible, and speed contest efforts took a major step forward this year through the efforts of Craig Bergh of Worthington, Minnesota.

Over the past four years Craig has endeavored to build the sport of speed sailing and make it accessible to all sailors.  U.S. Windsurfing thinks he has done precisely that!  Each summer for the past 4 years Craig has offered his time and expertise, inviting sailors from far and wide.  To increase the attractiveness of this effort, all sailors receive free use of state of the art GPS systems and state of the art speed sailing gear. 

High Wind alerts are usually sent out 24-48 hours in advance and sailors arrive to try their hand in the gusty winds of Worthington.  Craig has created an event that accommodates all categories-- Youth, Women, Formula, Hybrid, and Longboard.  The event is open to sailors from April 15th to Oct. 15th, and was a major attraction at this year’s Nationals in Worthington.  In true Worthington fashion, local citizens, businesses and many windsurfing manufacturers have contributed to this event to allow prizes to be awarded, and the Mid-West Speed Quest has the largest cash prize in the U.S.  

United States Windsurfing salutes Craig Bergh for his contribution to the world of windsurfing and speed sailing!

Carolyn Boersma
2009 Charles Ivey Junior Development Award Winner

This year US Windsurfing initiated a new award to recognize and encourage people who had gotten juniors involved in windsurfing.  For a while there, windsurfing mostly involved folks who started in their twenties or thirties, and because it was hard to master, we didn’t always involved our own children or other people’s kids much.  In doing so, we lost the better part of a generation. 

More recently, a number of people have gotten involved in encouraging the growth of the sport, including Nevin Seyre with his successful efforts to get Bic Techno 293’s into the junior programs of yacht clubs and community sailing centers.  Last year he was joined by Britt Viehman, who began organizing juniors to race in Florida, and Bruce Peterson who has worked with juniors in the Gorge.  This year, a windsurfing task force was formed within US Sailing, with Bryan McDonald, Dan Weiss, Britt, and Susan Epstein, and the St. Francis Yacht Club added windsurfing to its juniors program.  It is clear that these efforts are working.  Mark Boersma dominated the junior’s fleet for years, and now is training with professionals in Hawaii.  This year junior Todd Selby won in the junior fleet, but also finished ninth in the overall fleet at the Nationals. 

When it came time to name the award, and decide on the initial recipient, two names immediately emerged:  Charles Ivey and Carolyn Boersma.  Charles started working with juniors in 2001, showing them how to windsurf if they would show him a good report card.  In 2002 Carolyn, as the head of US Windsurfing’s  Junior Program, created Team USA with Charles as her first coach.  Juniors competed at the U. S.  Open in Corpus Christi in 2002, and at the Nationals in Worthington in 2003.  By this time they were seeking more difficult competition, and juniors went to Portugal for the European Championship in 2003, to Thailand and Belgium in 2004.  I first saw the results at the Nationals in San Francisco in 2004 when the team of Junior sailors stayed on the water racing in winds to 30 miles an hour.  Again in 2005 junior’s competed in the nationals and the FE Worlds in the Gorge, with Bob Willis winning a third in the world. 

As a result of their efforts, the United States established a credible team that could race in international competition.  Over 40 young people have traveled to Texas to train with Charles, and a number have gone on to success in racing.  We hope to continue their efforts and make the United States competitive in international racing, particularly in the Olympics.  But in taking stock of where we are in this Olympic year, it is most fitting to establish the Charles Ivey Junior Development Award as a perpetual trophy for US Windsurfing, and to name Carolyn Boersma the initial recipient.  We appreciate your vision and hard work in establishing a true National Team for our youth.