For the year and a half I have been on Jeju, I had been searching for a place to wakeboard. In that time, I had been frustratingly unsuccessful in locating a place to do it – until recently.
Stage Jeju
Hikers on Olle 1 in Jeju’s east may have seen a small shop along the Jongdal coast, within eyeshot of Seongsan Sunrise Peak. When I stopped in, I discovered that not only was Stage Jeju the answer I had been looking for, but there was much more available to me than just wakeboarding.
Stage Jeju opened in July and is owned by Park Sung Jea, who migrated from Seoul after running a similar business in the nation’s capital for six years previously.
His appropriately named shop contains three stages of business. Stage 1 offers motor-powered sports, such as banana boat rides, jet-skiing, and wakeboarding, amongst others. Stage 2 offers wind-powered sports, like kiteboarding and windsurfing. And Stage 3 is a guesthouse for patrons after a long day on the water. Stage Jeju also sells clothing and hard-to-find equipment, making it the perfect place to gear up and get out on the water.
Park says that Stage’s most popular sport is kiteboarding, a Hawaiian-bred specialty that blends elements of wakeboarding, windsurfing, and, umm, flying a kite. Riders can surf the sea while relying on the wind in their hand-controlled kite to propel them along the water, rather than a boat, or the unpredictable waves.
“Jeju is the perfect place to kiteboard because of the wind,” said Park. “And Jongdal-ri is a very safe area to do it.”
Many enthusiasts and veteran riders, both foreigners and Koreans alike, regularly visit Park’s shop to get their riding fix.
Location: Jongdal-ri 611, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City
Tel: 010 9169 2464
Web: cafe.daum.net/stagejeju
Enjoy Kiteboarding School
Attracting new people to the sport is often tough. Thankfully for Park, one of the most effective recruitment resources also operates locally, the Enjoy Kiteboarding School.
Students come from Seoul, Busan, and other locales to learn the kiteboarding craft from instructers Luna and Sung Hun, who opened the school in 2012. The duo, certified by the International Kiteboarding Organization, operates on the island from May to September, and then commutes to the Philippines to teach a new set of students.
Luna, who is also a licensed nurse, got hooked on the sport while watching riders at a kiteboarding school outside her former home in Busan. Kiteboarding spoke to her so deeply that she chose to walk away from her nursing practice to travel throughout Southeast Asia as an instructor.
It has taken a lot of effort to grow the sport around the world, but exposure on TV, in magazines and from international competitions are helping Luna’s school, and the sport she loves, blossom amongst a backdrop of many other board sports.
While kiteboarding can appear intimidating to some, the school’s teaching methods ensure a safe and enjoyable experience. Their instructional method is very thorough, and takes multiple sessions to complete.
“It is scary, but when we instruct, we teach safety first,” Luna said. “Step by step, we get students confident in their safety, and then they do it. A scared person doesn’t try.”
For class availability, please contact Luna and Sung Hun.
Location: Gujwa-eup coast
Tel: 010 6889 1079
Web:facebook.com/enjoykitekorea
Dave Cunning is a freelance writer from Canada. Read his blog: davecunning.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter: @davecunning
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