Fight your way against the temptation of staying at home on a windy day and head toward Micro Beach if you want to see real action. The place is a popular windsurfing spot and even became a venue for windsurfers from six countries during a three-day competition in 1972.
Standing at the shore one morning a few months back gave me the chance to watch a windsurfing tournament in progress. The participants were all tourists and it was amazing to see them struggle to lead the huge, colorful windsurf to the water and start fighting with the gusts before finally catching up the wind to take them to the sea. A slight drizzle drove me to seek shelter inside their tent to protect my camera and there I felt their enthusiasm for sport that I never had the chance to try.
Interest in windsurfing, which boomed in the 1980s and recognized as an Olympic sport in 1984 declined toward the mid-1990s, thanks to licensing battles, but has been revived again as equipment became more accessible.
Windsurfers from Japan, Korea, and other countries spend hundreds of dollars to come here and enjoy Saipan’s waters.
If you haven’t tried windsurfing yet, or haven’t the guts to try, it would excite you to watch the windsurfers push their physical limits, tilting the rig and carving the board to perform downwind turns and racing through the waters around the Saipan lagoon, some of them even going near Managaha.
Just try spending an hour or two at Micro Beach and watch windsurfers in their race with the wind and the next thing you know, you may already be one of those windsurf enthusiasts and enjoy Saipan’s clear blue waters anytime you want to.
