The 2007 Season will see 6 active team15 clubs in Scotland, that are regularly taking part in training and racing activities, both at club level, and at Interclub level the East Kilbride Eagles (EKE), the Clyde Barracudas (CB), the Monikie Maniacs, the Loch Insh Monsters (LIM), the Sportscotland Superstars (SS) and the Tiree Extremes (TE). One other club in development is the Strathclyde Mutineers (SM).

We ran 3 official Interclub events in 2006, which took place at Castle Semple, James Hamilton Heritage Park and Monikie Country Park, with the overall winners being the Clyde Barracudas. An unstoppable performance from the CB took them to the T15 Champions cup at Rutland water on the 8th and 9th of October. The kids performed well and are looking forward to the challenge of 2007.

In addition to the official events for 2006 a large section of the Scottish Windsurfing Festival held at Troon on the 9th and 10th of September was dedicated to the T15 kids. Loch insh held an open T15 weekend involving racing and freestyle activities for the kids in September. Tiree offered us the opportunity to take the T15 road show to a new location. The wave classic Team invited all the T15 kids over for a one day event during the October holidays. The Participation Development Group funded a tour bus to go over with the help of parents and the classic team we managed to get all of the teams competing in interclub events over, these included 24 kids from CB,EKE,LIM,MM and of course the TE, clubs.

The Interclub events consisted of a series of fun races, which got progressively harder each time. The children that took part were all under 15 and were supported by their team coaches Alan Brennan, Alan Jackson, Andrew Kerr, Will Wright and Jonny Freshwater along with the help of volunteers who helped at the Interclub events.

Future Plans

2007 will see the further development of all of the clubs. A T15 Freestyle coachs course is planned for 2007 with a view to introducing it into the T15 events. We are looking to have 4 official T15 events throughout the season all aiming towards the T15 Champions Cup. The Scottish Windsurfing Festival will again host a large T15 element in early September. We will also seek to strengthen the link with the Tiree Wave Classic event in October.

A further 8 events are planned for the 2007 season with a view to expanding the windsurfing calendar to all.

We will support the current clubs, and will actively promote the development of more clubs.

Other windsurfing schools are discussing the possibility of developing a team15 club, and we will set up a meeting to provide opportunities for discussing this development. However, all of this is insignificant without the necessary coaches to run the activities. Funding is available to help with the running of a team15 Coaches course early in the 2007 season, and we have identified the need to train the volunteers involved with the activities, in areas such as powerboat handling, first aid and child protection.

Further information

If you are interested in finding out more on this initiative, pleaseemail Robin Nicol, RYA Scotland Windsurfing Co-ordinator, or contact him on 0131 317 7388.