Although most outsiders would assume that cricket is the national sport of Anguilla, residents know that sailing and boat races draw the most crowds and unify the people. In its efforts to continue Anguilla’s tradition of sailing, the Anguilla Youth Sailing Club, for the past two years, has been teaching young people to navigate the waters that surround Anguilla. This past Saturday, October 6, the AYSC held an Open House at Sandy Ground. Many students and community members came to the clubhouse on the beach to sign up and learn more about the programme.

Ryan Kuja and Alex Orchard with some of the students

Many of the board members of the Anguilla Sailing Association as well as the Director of the AYSC, Ryan Kuja, agreed that this was the best turn out they had ever experienced since inception. Mr. Kuja felt that the good attendance was a direct result of the many visits he made to the various schools to promote awareness of the sailing club and its activities. Inside the clubhouse were pamphlets, registration forms, refreshments and t-shirts. Moreover, a recent video that was produced and directed by Travis Television was shown on a television during the function. The video of the programme, which speaks more intimately of its vision, goals and accolades, can be found on www.youtube.com under the title “Anguilla Sailing Association 2007.”

Mr. Kuja has been in Anguilla for a short while but has already made an enormous impact. Peter Parles, President of the Anguilla Sailing Association, spoke highly of the club’s director and was quite pleased with his performance. Mr. Parles highlighted the fact that Mr. Kuja has a great deal of education in this field as he received a degree in sports recreation and management. The AYSC Director was available to speak with The Anguillian during the Open House. He mentioned that it was his first Open House as he has only been here since April of this year. He was quite surprised to see people already arriving before the scheduled time. At the moment, there are twenty to twenty five children enrolled in the programme and he and his staff hope to reach fifty eventually. He urged people to sign up quickly as he suspects, with the turn out they had, that the goal will be reached quite soon.

Students sign up to learn about sailing

Mr. Kuja gave more detail about the actual classes. He mentioned that sessions begin at 3:45 pm and go until 6 pm. Each class begins with a “chalk talk” in which they speak about specific skills in sailing. Shortly thereafter, the participants are permitted swim time so that they can simply have fun. After going over the various skills and putting them to practice in the water, there is a de-briefing session where the day’s acquired skills are reviewed to promote retention of knowledge. Mr. Kuja said, “We want every kid in Anguilla to know about this programme. We want to give them something constructive to do after school.” For more information, please call Mr. Kuja at 584-SAIL or write an e-mail to director@sailanguilla.com.

-Jason Allen

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