SAILING NEWS ITEM

Not Your Ordinary Teen Adventure

SATURDAY, 30 JUNE 2007

Just how hard and exciting can sailing get?

A group of teenagers ages 13-16 year old were given the opportunity to experience the most buoyant sport of all, sailing that is. Most of them find the sport a frightening one since they didn’t know sailing was that hard. "I was scared the first day I saw manatees,” 15-year old Asia Roser said. "I said please take me back to shore."

Alicia Faye Jones, the founder of Brothers and Sisters Doing the Right Thing, was the woman behind the idea of bringing the sailing sport closer to the youth by letting them experience that. Jones collaborated with Sarasota Sailing Squadron’s Sarasota Youth Sailing Program in offering the youth this Newton-based summer program.

Sailing "was different, it was something our kids are unfamiliar with," said Jones. "I have taken them out of their comfort zone and introduced them to a whole, entirely new sport. Some like it, some adjusted to it."

The group of 12 teenagers spent almost two weeks learning the parts of a boat, as well as some of the important sailing terms. They’d also tried on raising and lowering their sails, likewise launching and steering their boats, too. Some of them experienced flipping over, which immediately scared them. "You're out in the deep ocean, you flip over, you don't know what to do," said 16-year-old Bobby Davis. "You freak out." According to the group’s coach, Holly Ashton, the teenagers did well in the training although some of them were really afraid in the water. "It's been rewarding to see the progress they made," said Ashton

For more information, read the full news story at www.heraldtribune.com.

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