Madloop Windsurfing

Mad loop operates on the sheltered (well mostly) waters of Lake Pupuke. Al has taught four of my family — cousins– to windsurf over a holiday break and I can highly recommend his team to get the kids motivated and up and sailing.
The gear is good especially the wetsuits which are pretty essential.
If windsurfing is not your thing Al has branched out into Hobie cats as well for a more leisurely and probably drier experience

Oh the memories…
When I first finished high school, I spent the better part of a summer leaning to windsurf at Madloop. I was off to Summer Camp that year to be a windsurfing instructor so thought it best I learnt what I was doing.
Madloop are based at Lake Pupuke, near the Slyvan Park entrance — look out for the brightly coloured trailer and van at the lake’s edge. They have a whole heap of rigs and are able to cater from beginner to advanced (for rentals), children to adults. They also have wetsuits so just turn up in your bathers and your good to go.
Al, who runs the school is awesome. He has years of experience and is great with kids and adults alike. He normally has about 3 – 4 staff helping him out, who in my experience are pretty awesome too. But what’s great about learning to windsurf at Madloop is you always feel safe — the staff are great at judging the conditions and after all, you are in a lake so there’s no risk of being washed out to sea.
Learning to windsurf is not cheap ($ 45/​hours) but they do have a summer deal at the moment where you can get six lessons for the price of five. To book, get in touch via the website. It’s heaps of fun. trust me!

Madloop Windsurfing is great if you want to learn to windsurf, sail or basically do any sort of lake based sport. They have a few kites as well, but dont specialise in kite surfing (alan is more old school and loves his windsurfing).
A great group working down at lake pupuke, can get you from having never sailed to be up sailing or standing on a board.
Alan is fantastic, funny guy who has been there and done everything, very comedic and easy to get along with. His boys working with him make you feel very at ease.
Definately give these guys a go if you want to learn