SHELTER
Building a Future for Distributors and Dealers of Building Products

Volume 44,  Issue 3                                        April 2005

     Avocations
        ULTIMATE HOBBIES

THE SURF IS UP
 IT Manager Enjoys Soaring High Above Water
by Samantha Carpenter

Imagine soaring 30 feet above water, and you’ve found John Pereira. Pereira, who is the information technology manager at Cleary Millwork of Rocky Hill, Conn., has been participating in the extreme sport kitesurfing for about four years.

He started flying kites and found out that if you attach a kite to a board that it can pull you on the water. The idea of being able to jump really high appealed to him, so he tried it and was hooked. Pereira says that he has never gotten injured kitesurfing.

Pereira usually kitesurfs on the Long Island Sound, but he sometimes travels to Cape Hatteras, N.C., and has even kitsurfed as far away as Santa Barbara, Calif. 

“Anywhere you go, it is a matter of how  windy it is and what the water surface is like. It’s actually a lot of fun on flat water. That’s not to say waves aren’t fun, but they are a little more difficult, and it’s a different style of surfing,” Pereira said. “I’ve been in bigger waves and it’s kind of intimidating.  The flat water in Cape Hatteras, for example, is a good spot. It has really clean wind and the land is so flat that it creates these areas of really smooth water, but it’s really windy, so it’s really fun.”

Pereira owns two Air Rush kiteboards, and he even owns a board with big wheels on it, which he can ride off-road with the kite on it. 

No stranger to sports, Pereira was a state champion wrestler in high school, and enjoys a lot of outdoor sports like mountain biking. He and his friends don’t even let winter weather keep them indoors. In the winter when they can’t kitesurf, he and some friends often take skies and snowboards to the snow and frozen lakes.

Pereira believes that kitesurfing has taught him lessons that he can use in both life and business. He says if you keep at something, you can always accomplish it. 

“If you practice and practice, you can always perfect something. It’s been nice to be able to do that,” he said.

Pereira has done a little bit of teaching with a friend in the tri-state area. His friend started a website about kitesurfing: www.kitewise.com. 

Samantha Carpenter is editor of SHELTER magazine.

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