In case some of you are unfamiliar with Steve, he's a multiple US Windsurfing National Champion and a top ranked US sailor on the Formula Windsurfing World Tour. He is also raising awareness for clean water through a site called "Friends of the Water". When its not windy, Steve attempts to perform amazing feats of architectural design and visualization through
sbdesign! (from Steve's blog).
Why am I bringing up Steve? Because he's a
"Michigan" sailor! He grew up in Toledo and learned to race dinghies at the
Jolly Rogers sailing club on the Ottawa river. Rod Clevenger (owner of Sailboard Alley) was a big
influence on getting Steve into windsurfing, and Steve made a bet with his parents (at age 12) that he wouldn't watch TV for a year in exchange for his first windsurfer. After a few summers of working in Rod's shop and racing locally, Steve was hooked. In 1996, he competed in his first Olympic trials (in Savannah, GA) and got really into Olympic class windsurfing after that. In three Olympics trials, he made it as close as 3rd on the US Sailing Team, but realized his full-time passion wasn't paying the bills.
While doing all this, Steve was studying architecture at the University of Detroit (UDM) where he earned a degree in architecture in 1998. While at UDM, he resurrected the sailing team and competed in the collegiate circuit for three years. Around 2000, he moved to San Francisco, where the formula racing scene was just beginning to take-off, and where he could hold down a full-time job
and windsurf almost everyday!
Three
Olympic trials and multiple world, national and regional championships later, he's still stoked! Steve says "It's really too much fun to stop. I couldn't imagine doing anything else."
Follow the USA 4 windsurfing campaign, and check out the great stuff Steve is doing:
www.stevebodner.blogspot.com/www.stevebodner.comhttp://www.stevebodner.com/friendsofthewater.html
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