25 YEARS AND COUNTING

John Carter tracked down Harry Nass who has been running world class windsurfing centres in Dahab, Egypt since 1999, and more recently Hurghada, to find out how it all started, what makes his centres so special and how he stays passionate after 25 years in the game.

- Harry Nass & Mark Kasprowicz

BACKGROUND

I am from the city of Dortmund in Germany and started windsurfing in the Netherlands on a small island called Texel when I was fifteen. I was addicted straightaway and had many problems in school as I mostly read German SURF Magazine all day. After school I worked as a banker for three years and then “escaped” to Italy where I started my first year at Michi Bouwmeester Centre at Lake Garda and spent three seasons.

SAILING HISTORY

While working at Lake Garda I learned a great deal from seasoned racers such as Ralf Bachschuster and Cesare Cantagalli, the man who invented the cheese roll. So, shortly afterwards I started competing on the German Tour called the “Euro Funboard Cup”, in 1986. During the off season we would spend our winters training in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, and in 1995 I bumped into the British Funboard Cup, who were there with about 50 sailors to hold their competitions in Racing, Slalom and Waves. At the time, I lived in my bus in Famara, and they held their wave competition right next to where I was parked, which gave me the opportunity to join in and compete against some of the now, ‘old’ local heroes, such as Mark Woods and Duncan Coombs. I was stoked as I even made it to the quarterfinals!

WINDSURF LICENSE

In 1983 I did my VDWS Instructor Course and started to teach one year later in Lake Garda.

FIRST CENTRES

It all happened without planning. First of all I was only addicted to windsurfing, and once I became an instructor I met plenty of other racers at Lake Garda and also naturally progressed into racing. When I hit 30, I thought to myself I can’t continue racing forever, so I decided to open my own centre. So in 1990, together with a local partner we opened a centre in Lanzarote. Unfortunately, partnerships aren’t always successful and eventually I had no choice but to leave.