Clay Feeter brings Wind Tracks back
                                             as Standup surf & sail Journal!

Clay with soulmate Joyce Bilodeau. Clay's daughters Kira and Anna sandwiching nephew Kale; joined on right by Stephanie and Kurt Feeter.

"Passionately following the wind and waves, writing about this special lifestyle, the culture, adventure and lifelong friendships we share."

Clay Feeter, a windsurfer since 1980, was the associate editor of Wind Surf magazine in California in the early 1980s under editor John Severson, founder of Surfer magazine and later under editor Drew Kampion, a noted surf journalist. Feeter also founded and ran the $100,000 DHL Cocos Windsurfing Cup on Guam, the highest purse one design windsurf regatta in history. In 1984, while still with Wind Surf mag Feeter was the first in the world to race on a cambered sail.

Below: A wild bunch exploring an untamed zip code during the Russell's Ranch, Cape Mendocino, Northen Calif. sojourn for Drew Kampion and Wind Surf mag, 1985, the year Wind Tracks was born. Maui's Mike Waltze showed up with a Barry Spanier Maui Sails RAF "Not Normal" sail. Next to Mike is Berkeley high performance man Kevin Mitchell sporting designer Bill Hansen's Windwing full batten sails, Chris "The Codger" Klopf, the trip photographer, Shaun O'Neill (wetsuit mogul Jack O'Neill's daughter, lying down). Farther right is Dave Nash, Steve West and Clay Feeter.

Clay left Wind Surf in 1985 to start his own magazine, California Boardsailor, which became Wind Tracks Journal, the most spirited, soulful North American windsurfing publication. He sold Wind Tracks to American Windsurfer in 2000 and now is back with Standup surf & sail Journal, a new era, photo-heavy action and lifestyle magazine that also embraces our glorious heritage, pioneering and exploration days.

The Team: A Legacy of Behind-the-Booms, Hands-on-the-Paddle, 'Round the Campfire, Standup surf & sail Journalism...

Fringed by semi innocent bystanders, buddies Will Brady, owner of Oregon's Floras Lake House windsurfing bed and breakfast (sitting on left) and Kevin Trejo (standing far right), owner of Solo Sports Adventures, Baja are core Standup surf & sail Journalistas (standing) Tom Byrnes, Glenn Dubock, Clark Merritt, Steve West and (sitting) Clay and Kurt Feeter.

Glenn Dubock – Santa Barbara, California
His voicemail message at Santa Barbara's Cottage Hospital says Dubock is the media services coordinator, but that's just his day job. He is one of the preeminent windsurf photographers on the scene today. Growing up in the West Coast surf culture and getting in on the ground floor of the windsurf boom days, Dubock's impactful coverage began even before he extensively photographed the '84 Olympic Games. Glenn's images depict a deep knowledge of the sport. In 1985 he shot the first cover for California Boardsailor, the mag that would eventually become Wind Tracks. "Dub" just celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary with Kathy who is very thankful Standup surf & sail Journal will run regular "Glory Days" features that will allow half the Dubock garage to be cleared of Glenn's old but still fresh feeling slides!

Tom Byrnes – Portland & The Gorge, Oregon
After climbing onto a stock Windsurfer on a placid French lake 25 years ago TB remains demonically possessed by the sport. He lives in Portland and sails the Gorge more days than should be acceptable by anyone with a spouse or a mortgage (Note: wife Lee is also a driven windsurfer when she's not at her desk as managing editor of Tin House, one of the top US literary magazines). A longtime regular contributor to Wind Tracks, Tom's work has also appeared in a number of other, lesser publications such as Outside, The L.A. Times Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and Tin House. Ever the trendsetter, he has already bought a burial plot at Punta San Carlos.

Clark Merritt – Punta San Carlos, Baja, Mexico
Surfing and windsurfing are safe havens for characters. We guess that's why Clark Merritt, AKA, "WildHare," loves not only those tribal lifestyles but the characters that make them interesting and through his eyes, sometimes bizarre. For years, Clark graced the pages of California Boardsailor and Wind Tracks with Hunter S. Thompson-like short stories and features that amazingly enough were based on his real life Malibu and Huntington Beach windsurf buds; untamable windsurfing miscreants such as Rich Myers and Bob Bourget. Merritt has been toe-tagged as a writer of fictionalized non-fiction and a photographer with a glass eye, he'll be the first to remind you that a 600mm lens is still mightier than the pen. Merritt has more recently taken refuge in what he calls Nunca Nunca Land and we still know as Punta San Carlos, Baja where he hosts the Standup surf & sail Journal Club House and press room. Something you don't know about Clark: Growing up as a zit-faced teenager in Washington, DC his rock and roll band was paid to play for Hubert Humphrey's election night festivities. Clark showed up–late!–still dripping wet from the afternoon surf sesh!

Kurt Feeter – Rio Vista, California
The original Feeter family windsurfer Kurt first grabbed a boom the summer of '79 when he and twin bro Clay left their San Francisco area homes to work construction at Park City, Utah. Kurt and windsurfing wife Stephanie (with her custom "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" board) moved to the breezy Sacramento River Delta town of Rio Vista in '85. Kurt was a valuable sounding board as Wind Tracks mag grew throughout the '80's and '90's and today. In fact just the other day he reminded us not to forget the Glory Days; that "the older we get the better we were." He is still catching the best Delta air on a regular basis! Kurt's day job (until it hits 15 knots) is running Feeter Construction Co. It may be safely said he's remodeled a quarter of the homes in Rio Vista.

Steve West – Santa Cruz, California
Waddell Creek pioneer and still at it on a daily basis since 1981, Steve West has spent more time in and on saltwater than some of the great whites that frequent his favorite break. While other kids were playin army, Steve rode waves on a surf mat. In the early 1970's his teenage prowess on a homemade kneeboard earned him fame at Steamer Lane. Hundreds of surfboards, then stock Windsurfers and Rocket 99's followed. Though his 30 knot hair has thinned a bit, his bottom turn is still enviable. With his keen eye for detail and the memory of an elephant, we're stoked his words will be gracing our pages again. S. West was the longest running columnist among all the writers who worked for the good old Wind Tracks mag. West's Andy Rooneyish banterings yielded a near cult following of his "West Side" stories for 15 years. And best of all his tales come so naturally because they really happened! By day S. West is a "drywall engineer," so he tends to have a lot of white drywall mud on his face, hair and clothes. As he ditches work to blaze up to sail Waddell Creek West is too often asked about all the white splotches on his clothes. He convincingly replies, "I'm a pigeon trainer."

Dana Miller – Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
Dana is our "Shaman of Shred." His life does not include the wind it IS the wind! Cutting his teeth on Chesapeake Bay winds near his then Washington, DC area home Miller, a finish carpenter and quality, custom cabinetmaker, has let his search for wind and the windsurfing lifestyle dictate his sojourns—in all directions: geographically and spiritually. Miller's love for Cape Hatteras lands him there much of the year; often cross country tripping to the West Coast and the Gorge in the summer. But you can always be sure he'll be back to the Outer Banks by the second half of hurricane/early fall storm season with the windsurf gear, photographic and writing tools in his satchel! Like so many of us, Dana didn't discover wavesailing until his mid twenties. Since then it has been all about making up for lost time. Sailing a couple hundred days a year seems to help–and while seventy or so days of that are fairly intense skateboard sailing, he counts it. When not sailing or thinking about sailing, or tweaking the gear, or working to support the sail training, or coaching and taking photographs and writing about sailing, he hopes to find time to make DVDs, contribute far more to the mags and perhaps even get over to Cabo Verde to do a piece for Standup surf & sail Journal.

Guy Le Roux – Corpus Christi, Texas
Guy Le Roux is our team historian and theorist. Known as "Two Two Le Roux" for taking second place to accolites like Ken Winner and Nevin Sayre so many times, he grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. In his Windsurfer Class days he weighed 145. Now he weighs 190. "I always wanted to be a man of substance, but I didn't mean it this way!" Childhood asthma led him to the sea and sailing. Out there on his Sunfish sailboat there was, "No mold, pollen or parents!" His obsession with windsurfing ("Simpler than a Sunfish, at least back then") led to a stint as Associate Editor at Wind Surf magazine under the tutelage of Drew Kampion. Watching the sport evolve to require more wind than the average day led him to design the ISB sailboard - a 13' 6" "lightwind speedboard" that planes in 5 knots. As a resident of Corpus Christi since 1988, Le Roux has morphed into being a sailor/songwriter. He now sails mostly at night to avoid UV.

Kay Robberson – Cape Cod, Massachusetts
The editor of New England Sailboard Journal during the 1980s, Kay has switched back and forth from words to numbers during her career, and now runs an accounting business on Cape Cod. First exposed to windsurfing nearly three decades ago by the sport's east coast pioneers (Henry DuPont, Tom Gunn, John Harris), Kay's got lots of windsurfing stories, travel adventures and good friends from those windy years. She joins us as a writer but also as our "reality checker" in the accounting dept. Ms. Robberson also knows how to have fun, and while her nose is mostly to the grindstone these days windsurfing over the years has made her "an expert at the technique of blowing off work," which she says she has done "probably a thousand times (so far) to go sailing."

Kerry Struble – Effingham, New Hampshire
Rounding out Team WJ is purveyor of the pixels, Kerry Struble. Although never having actually set foot on a windsurfer (yet...we'll keep you updated!), Kerry's love of all things outdoors, photography and great artistic design have his creative juices flowing for the new magazine. Kerry and his wife Taylor run Birch Blaze Studios, where Kerry handles the creative design work and both Taylor and Kerry are photographers. Kerry's first task as WJ's graphics guru was designing and building the very website you now find yourself cruising. "I'm incredibly excited about being a part of the Windsurf Journal gang! The website was a blast and I can't wait to sink my creative teeth into laying out the first issue," says Kerry. "I've really enjoyed getting into the swing of things with Clay, and having all these amazing photographs from the crew to work with both inspires and allows me to really spread my wings creatively. Thanks guys!" When not jammin' on Photoshop, Kerry may be found hiking, biking or playing with his redhot band, Casual Labor. Playing guitar and writing songs is another creative outlet for "K-Diddy." A couple of his songs have actually been heard on MTV. Oh, and no jokes about "Effingham."

The rest of "The Team" is You!
The success of our Wind Tracks days and the continued "life in the wind" thrill and feel of Standup surf & sail Journal will grow and flourish with your photographic and writing contributions. We pay for your creative contributions! Go to Contribute to learn more.

Contact Info:
Standup Journal
PO Box 360 (UPS/FedEx: 16 Ridge Rd.)
Center Barnstead, NH, USA  03225
(603) 209-4343 •