Spreading the stoke: Mike Burns opens a new windsurfing school on the Outer Banks!
Mike Burns has opened a new windsurfing school on the Outer Banks, and the demand has been amazing all season. If you see people driving back from the Outer Banks with messy hairdos and a big stupid smile on their face, stop wondering! They got a taste of OBX Windsurfing. We asked Mike to tell us how this new adventure began.
By Mike Burns
I gave my first paid windsurf lesson when I was 19 years old living in NY. Teaching new skills to windsurfers at all levels is something that I have now enjoyed for nearly 30 years. It’s simply incredible to see someone experience that direct, hands-on connection of using the windsurf sail to power their board for the very first time. The feeling of harnessing the wind is indescribable and outside of any other experience a human being can have. Teaching a beginner windsurf lesson and watching my student sail off is like watching a bird take flight for the very first time.
We’ve been watching windsurfing gain more and more momentum in the past 6 or 7 years. The biggest challenge for most people that want to get into it is still finding a place to learn. After the OBX-WIND windsurfing event last fall, it became very clear that the demand for people wanting to get into windsurfing and learn new skills has reached a new level. The Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras offer up the perfect conditions to learn. Working closely with the Severne and Starboard Windsurfing brands gave me the opportunity to move forward with opening OBX Windsurfing on the Outer Banks of NC. In our first season, demand was even more than I had anticipated. Every week throughout the entire 2024 season that started at the end of March, we’ve had eager students looking to hit the water. Beginner groups, private lessons, jibe lessons, footstrap lessons and even a few aerial freestyle and loop lessons have been going off this year!
When people ask how old they need to be to windsurf, my answer is simple. “You need to be young at heart.” I regularly teach kids from 8 years old on up and a few students this year have been in their 70s. Anybody can do it! We have simply had an incredible season so far with new windsurfing lesson requests popping up in my inbox as I’m writing this.
There are way too many good times to recall, but here are a few great memories and some of our students’ feedback from this season.
“Mike Burns at OBX Windsurfing is the real deal, y’all. He’s so good at breaking things down and making them make sense that it only took him an hour to get my nine year old daughter cruising on a windsurfer, and having the time of her life. He also managed to simultaneously get me and my older kid up and running with more advanced maneuvering on bigger sails, and we absolutely loved it.” (Erica Beall)
Joe joined us for a class one day and liked it so much he came back the next day.
“Mike is a great instructor, his only goal is to get you up on your board and to learn how to have the most fun on the water.”
Aria from NYC took three days worth of private lessons in the spring. She is 18 years old and went from the beginner gear to getting into the harness, footstraps and was fully planing on day 3. She had the time of her life.
“Snowboarding used to be my favorite sport, but for sure now it’s windsurfing!”
In the end, windsurfing is a sport unlike any other. One can talk about it and tell someone about a great day on the water, but it is simply impossible to describe this feeling until a person steps on the board and experiences it first hand. OBX Windsurfing is here to offer that very first experience and to help guide progressing windsurfers through any challenges they encounter learning new skills along the way from beginner to pro.
Website: www.obxwindsurf.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OBXWindsurfing
Cheers to windsurfing! Try something new!
