Postby dannybarnette » Sun Aug 31, 2014 4:59 pm
Ripshade04,
Hey man, my name is Danny Barnette, and I've been instructing kitesurfing for two years now. During the summers I teach at OceanAir Sports, one of the top premier kiteboarding school and watersports center on the east coast, stationed in Avon, Cape Hatteras NC. During the winters I teach in the caribbean, this past winter was at Goodwinds in Puerto Rico, for Phil and Karla.
Phil and Karla are good people, and Goodwinds is one of the top water sports centers in the Caribbean! Safety was always the top priority for our students, and followed closely behind was a fun, positive, and successful experience! Safety was always stressed... For one example, I remember an instance when one of our certain instructors stayed out on the water with his student during a rain squall and storm. Phil had to ride out onto the water on a jet ski to tell him to get in to shore and to safety. Once on land, Phil took this certain instructor aside and gave him a stern talking to about safety and not putting him and especially his students in that sort of situation again! The instructor learned from his mistake, took the correction, and didn't make that mistake again.
As to the living situation. I came to PR under a false pretense that the housing situation was better than it was. Arriving to the house, it wasn't very clean and we had a few problems with the fridge, washer, dryer, appliances etc. but after a few days of cleaning we got it back up to par. I wasn't stoked about the house or anything when I arrived, but it seemed that Phil was un aware of the poor condition that the house had fallen into. Losing running water would have been the last straw to break my back too, BUT, I probably would have contacted the water company/Phil or done something to fix the problem. Not sure what your circumstances were RIPSHADE04, and I'm not really interested in knowing them honestly.. And I don't mean that in a arrogant way, I just really hate drama.
From Andy Hurdman, a pioneer and legend in the kiteboarding community, to Phil, the boss and owner of GoodWinds, to the local boys, Freddy and Gabo, to myself, all the way from Hatteras, NC... All of the kitesurfing instructors at GoodWinds last winter really took pride in how we taught this amazing sport.. From the fundamentals, to the safety, to the fun and positive experience we always tried to give our students, I felt that GoodWinds had some good guys who knew how to teach kitesurfing well and proficiently.
And the conditions... Yewww!!! Around Christmas the wind will start blowing about every day for a couple months! Yeah you'll have your occasional Caribbean rain shower, but the wind will be right up minutes after. Waves... Did I say waves??? YES!!! Killer waves for kitesurfing and if there's no wind, go surfing!
I'm pretty sure I'll be in PR this winter working at Goodwinds! Will you? : )
Cheers,
Danny Barnette