Windsurfing Program at Cal Sailing Club

The Cal Sailing Club is a non-profit cooperative based in the San Francisco Bay at the Berkeley Marina's South Basin. The club is dedicated to teaching windsurfing and sailing, and to providing an inexpensive way for people in the community to enjoy these sports.

Beginning Windsurfing Lessons

Beginning Windsurfing Lessons are given every Saturday morning at 10:30am during windsurfing season, March through September. Lessons are also given on most Saturdays during the winter. For more information or to make sure that a lesson is being given during the winter, email the windsurfing teaching chair at teach_windsurfing@cal-sailing.org. To see if a lesson is scheduled, check the windsurfing teacher's calendar .

Non-members are welcome at a lesson, but must join before using club equipment. Novice windsurfers can practice on their own anytime the Club is open, after completion of a simple written test and a self-rescue exercise. Wetsuits are highly recommended. The club has some but bring your own if you have one.

CSC Hint! Be proactive: ask a windsurfer to schedule a lesson with you. Most members are happy to give lessons on the spot, or even schedule to meet members at some arranged time for a lesson. Members use the cal-windsurfing Yahoo! Group to request lessons, ask questions, chat, and stay in touch.

Windsurfing Fast Tracks, Challenges and Clinics

To help you advance to Junior and Junior Plus level, clinics are held regularly during the season. The exact form of these clinics depends on the person leading them. For example we have had Windsurfing Fast Tracks focused on the Junior written test and the rigging test, as well as Junior Windsurfing Challenges focused on the on-the-water Junior windsurfing test. Water Starting Clinics at Ashby Beach and Field Trips to Sherman Island are aimed at learning skills to take you to the Junior Plus level.

In the Windsurfing Fast Track your are expected to have read the CSC Handbook for Windsurfing first. During the Fast Track you learn about the club, safety, rules of sailing and rigging sails, in order to pass the rigging and written tests. Advanced Novices who can already sail upwind, tack and jibe (it doesn't have to be pretty) and return to the dock under their own power, can also take the Junior Windsurfing Practical Test. If you pass the rigging, written and practical tests, and you have already done two hours of volunteer work for the quarter and two extra hours for promotion to Junior, you will be a Junior by the end of the day!

The Junior Windsurfing Challenge assumes that you have already passed the Junior written test and done your four hours of volunteer work. The focus is on the rigging and sailing tests. The sailing test is quite thorough so that if you pass, you will have the confidence of being ready for the bigger winds and waves of the Junior area.

The keys to more advanced windsurfing are harness use, planing, and water starts. Most of this learning comes from watching instructional videos, watching more advanced windsurfers and talking with them. Club members are generous with their time and advice. If they know you are working on something, they will sometimes even stop on the water and give you helpful tips. There are Water Start Clinics a few times during the season, usually at Ashby Beach. There are also field trips to more distant spots like Sherman Island, where conditions are good for working on beach starts and water starts as well as other more advanced skills.

Club Events

There are several places to look for club events. For windsurfing events and lessons, CSC members should visit the cal-windsurfing Yahoo Group Calendar (you need to join the cal-windsurfing Yahoo Group to access this calendar). Anyone can access the CSC Calendar of Events for a listings of sailing and windsurfing events. See the cal-sailing Yahoo Group Calendar for sailing events and lessons.

Where is the Cal Sailing Club?

The Club is located at the Berkeley Marina. As you enter the marina turn left into the parking lot at the small Cal Sailing Club sign. The clubhouse is at the far corner of the parking lot. Would you like to see a map ?

If you need to send mail to the club, the address is
Cal Sailing Club
124 University Ave.
Berkeley , CA 94710

When is the Club open?

Noon until sunset on weekdays, and 9:00am until sunset on weekends. Keep in mind that Novice, Junior and Junior Plus sailors and windsurfers may not be able to sail during low tide conditions. Check the Tides/Hours page for more information. The club is open 365 days per year, with rare exceptions when no dayleader is available, which will be noted on the Dayleader Schedule.

How much does the membership cost?

Membership is $60 ($55 for students and seniors) for thee months of sailing and windsurfing -- lessons and equipment included! No extra charges. Amazing, no? Annual memberships are $200. The club takes Visa, Mastercard, cash or checks. See About the Cal Sailing Club for more details.

Storage Lockers for Your Own Gear

The Cal Sailing Club provides storage lockers that accommodate windsurfing and kayaking gear. Each locker is approximately about 18' long, 18" wide, and 31" tall. Our lease period runs from May 1 through April 30 of each year and the rent is $280/year. This includes an associate membership in the CSC with all membership rights except the use of the club's windsurfing and sailing equipment. Currently, the lockers are all rented. Please contact lockers@cal-sailing.org to be added to the waiting list.

How do I sign up?

Membership sign-ups are handled our at clubhouse during our normal club operating hours. Come on down in the morning, bring credit card, cash or a check, prepare for a full day (yes, if you have them, you should bring wetsuit, booties, strap for your (sun)glasses, etc.), tour the club and see where the boards sails and universals are kept, sign up for a membership, take the Open Book Novice Written Test described in the next paragraph, take the Self-Rescue Test, and get out on the water! Saturday morning is best because you can take the 10:30 am beginning windsurfing lesson, but every day is OK.

Windsurfer Rating System

The Novice Windsurfer Rating allows members to sail CSC's fleet of beginner sailboards in a small practice area. The beginner boards--wide, floaty, and abuse resistant (thus heavy)--are marked with an "N" for Novice. Novice Windsurfers can practice pretty much any time on their own, provided there's a rescue boat in the water and the Dayleader isn't restricting sailing (which can happen if it's really, really windy). The area for Novices is generally sheltered, but can be gusty, and usually offers a corner where the wind is stronger and allows practicing for the next level.

Two steps are required to get the Novice Windsurfer rating: a simple open book written test and a self-rescue (paddling) test. There is no work requirement at this level, other than the normal two hour quarterly work requirement. The written test questions include club rules and procedures, basic windsurfing concepts, and names of common sailboard parts (all covered in the CSC Handbook for Windsurfing ).

The Junior Windsurfer Rating allows members to sail CSC's fleet of intermediate (marked "J") or beginner sailboards in a larger area. The J boards are smaller and faster, and most lack centerboards. The Jr. area includes a wide expanse of shallow water that usually gets the full force of winds coming off the bay. 

The Jr. Windsurfer rating requires two hours' additional work and three tests:  written, rigging, and sailing.  The written test covers more ground than the Novice test, and is closed book. The rigging test demonstrates ability to rig a windsurf sail properly (downhaul tension, boom installation, etc.). The sailing test demonstrates ability to sail upwind in strong wind and chop, even if overpowered, and to properly handle the gear. Two hours of work, in addition to the normal two hours per quarter requirement for all members, are needed before the sailing test.

The Junior Plus Windsurfer rating provides use of even smaller, lighter, and faster J+ boards, and requires another two hours work and demonstration of consistent ability to waterstart, since the boards are too small for easy uphauling.  The sailing area is still the Jr. area.

The Senior Windsurfer rating allows use of the club's Sr. fleet of boards, primarily as a reward for exceptional levels of teaching, fixing, and doing stuff for the club, as well as ability to properly sail, handle, and care for the equipment. The Sr. boards are fast, light, fragile, and usually newer than the other club boards. The Sr. area extends out to some of the best wind on the bay. 

The Sr. rating requires a written test in addition to demonstration of ability and completion of a project that usually involves teaching or repair projects and requires at least 10 hours.

Reference Library and Web Links

CSC Handbook for Windsurfing    4.9M

This introductory handbook is provided to all new members interested in windsurfing and provides all the information a person needs to learn everything from sailing terminology, to rigging your sail, to doing your first jibes. It includes Bill Prinzmetal's popular "How to Windsurf in 10 Steps. This is the book for the Novice Open Book Test.

Water Starts
Once you're a Junior Windsurfer, you'll want to learn how to water start and forget about uphauling in all those waves.

Check out these windsurfing and sailing sites by CSC members and others.

The CSC Wiki has some useful information on windsurfing and is available for CSC members who wish to augment it.

Photo Gallery

Check out the Photo Gallery for a few photos of club activities.

The CSC windsurfer fleet

The CSC Windsurfer fleet includes boards and rigs for all levels of windsurfing ability. Boards range from the super-floaty and stable beginner boards to low-volume, high-wind advanced boards to Formula racing boards. The club is actively adding to the windsurfer fleet through purchases and donations.

Gear donations

Note that the Windsurfing fleet is often updated through donations. Please consider donating your excess equipment. The club is a non-profit so that donations are tax deductible.

The Windsurfing Yahoo! Group

The cal-windsurfing group at Yahoo! Groups is a free, easy-to-use email list server with messaging, archiving, chat, and calendar service. It is open to all CSC members. When you send a message to "cal-windsurfing@yahoogroups.com" your message is automatically mailed to EVERY member currently subscribed to the list. Please keep that in mind. The list is, in general, very low traffic. There are periods of lively debate that may generate 5 or more messages a day, but this is unusual.

To learn more about the cal-windsurfing group, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cal-windsurfing . To join, you will need to sign up for a Yahoo! ID if you don't already have one, but it is free and easy. Then follow the instructions to join the group. To send messages to members of this group, simply send email to cal-windsurfing@yahoogroups.com.

There are the two CSC Yahoo Groups, cal-windsurfing and cal-sailing. We suggest that you sign up for both, since the cal-sailing group often has postings of general interest to both windsurfers and sailors. The cal-sailing group also has lots of humor and off topic emails so you need to be facile with the delete button. To see and modify all of your groups, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups.

For a more detailed description of the use of the CSC List Servers see http://www.cal-sailing.org/listserv/list-rules.html, but when reading it, substitute “cal-windsurfing” for “cal-sailing” everywhere. You can also visit http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-19.html for Yahoo's general information about groups.

Cal Sailing Club Officers and Committee Chairs

Cal Sailing Club officers run the cooperative, each taking responsibility for one aspect of the club's operations. Each is a voting member of the executive committee, or Ex-Com. They are elected by the membership every six months. The Club has a number of committees (usually of one) that take care of activities that require more involvement or expertise than the ExCom members. The committee chairs are designated by the Commodore.

The Ex-Com member directly responsible for maintaining the club's fleet of windsurfing equipment is the Second Vice Commodore. For a current list of Club Officers and Committee Chairs, click Cal Sailing Club officers.

A History of the Cal Sailing Club

This interesting history clarifies the U.C. Berkeley origin of the club, it's evolution to an independent non-profit cooperative, and its relationship with Cal Adventures next door.