Picture a sports venue so perfect that people regularly drive four hours on a Friday night and then again four hours on Sunday night just to enjoy it for a weekend; that if you mention it amongst other enthusiasts as far away as Europe, they know of it and just how great it is.

The sport is windsurfing, and the venue is Lake Isabella, more specifically the Auxiliary Dam and the Old Isabella Road recreational areas of Lake Isabella. There are few places on the planet where the conditions are as excellent for windsurfing. As early as the early 1980s, when windsurfing was in its infancy, people came from far and wide. When I first started to windsurf in 1991, I made the pilgrimage from Ventura at least 10 times a year. We used to amiably camp along the shore in tents (and learned to tether these to our cars so they would not blow over during the night). We used to share the water with a few water skiers and fishermen, but those would go away when the wind came up in earnest, so a most excellent time was had by all. Then jet skis started to crowd in – on a typical summer weekend these past years, windsurfing is like playing Russian roulette, the number of major collisions and injuries increases every year, and I for one do not care to take my chances any more.

Quite a few others feel likewise, and the number of windsurfers coming to Isabella has diminished considerably. Such a pity, since not only is our sport quiet and non-polluting, but we are by and large good fellow campers and good stewards of our environment, besides. Early mornings (while waiting for wind), you can see us picking up glass and rusted nails. Our Garbage Team has participated in the Kern Valley Pride Day cleanup for 10 years or so, and we have come in 4th these past two years, edging out large local teams, in spite of being made up mostly of out-of-town windsurfers. As if the threat from jet skis was not severe enough, now the Forest Service wants to deal the death blow to us: without the ability to drive close to the water’s edge, most windsurfers will stay away from Isabella – our gear is just too cumbersome to lug great distances. What a dreadful loss that would be, to the participants, as well as to the community of Lake Isabella!

If instead of barring our access, we were allowed to continue to drive up to the edge of this magnificent venue, and – dare I express my dream? – if we were given a small area where we could sail without the threat of jet skis, then Lake Isabella would surely experience a great revival of windsurfing, and with it a considerable influx of leisure dollars into its economy.

Let us keep Lake Isabella accessible!

Eva Hollmann

Lake Isabella