Young kids learn to sail at Lake Thurmond

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Updated: 11:24 AM Jul 10, 2009 Young kids learn to sail at Lake Thurmond About 20 kids are at Lake Thurmond this week for Sailing Camp. And it's not just about the fun on the water, it's a learning experience too. Posted: 5:27 PM Jul 9, 2009 Reporter: Shalah Sasse Email Address: shalah.sasse@wrdw.com

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News 12 First at Five, July 9, 2009

AUGUSTA, Ga.--- It's a peaceful and relaxing sport. And these kids love every minute of it.

"Well I like sailing very much because it's out on the water and it's sort of like flying except on the water," Alexander Kirov said.

Alexander Kirov has been at sailing camp for the past five weeks. The instructors with the Augusta Sailing Club teach them how to sail by themselves, sail close to the wind, they learn about water safety, and they teach them how to capsize their boat and turn it back over.

"It's great to see these kids learn something that they didn't think that they could do," Head Instructor, Jim Holder said.

"You put them in a boat all by themselves, they get to sail from Georgia to South Carolina within three days. That's fun, I mean that's empowering," Instructor, Kim Hines said.

They take kids, ages 8 to 14 who have never been sailing before, and by the end of the week you have a true sailor on board.

"It's kind of amazing how some of the kids are doing it because they're really young and it's kind of hard," Caitlin Mcdargh said.

Bailey Hammett has been coming to sailing camp for the last three years.

"It was like really exciting because you're like, I'm actually on the water, I'm actually doing this. But you're also scared because what if I flip," Bailey Hammett said.

And they do flip. In fact, they practice the Emergency Disaster Drill. So if there's lightning or uncontrollable wind, all boats are capsized on purpose, the kids climb up on top, and then the instructors come by in the boat and pick them up in less than one minute. It's a fun learning experience for these sailors, and people like Bailey say they plan to come back year after year.

"It's amazing. It's like nothing else. You're doing nothing but zooming across the water the entire day. And who wouldn't like that," Hammett said.

Sailing camp is all filled up for the rest of the summer, but if you're interested in signing up for next summer just go to http://augustasailingclub.com/

The sailing camp has been going on for more than 20 years. It costs $175 for the camp.

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