Anniversary: Always the first – 50 years of the Stickl Sports Camp on Lake Garda
Jörg Müller-Dünow
· 02.10.2026
“Could you please get a Seascape 24 ready? It’s due to set sail at two o’clock.” Saturdays are usually relatively quiet in Val di Sogno, the bay on the southern edge of Malcesine. It’s the day when the weekly courses change. But two regular customers have just made a last-minute enquiry, and Heinz Stickl relays the change of plan by radio from the neighbouring “Beach Hotel Rosa” to the sailing instructors at the centre. There, with temperatures over 30 degrees in the shade, they are busy tidying up and carrying out repairs. Between Corpus Christi and the start of the summer holidays, there’s still a little time left for the final preparations for the peak season rush.
Windsurfing instead of Olympic sailing
For 50 years now, the Stickl Sports Camp has been the go-to place for surfing and sailing lessons on Lake Garda. Whilst sailing pupils now make up the majority, it all began on a very small scale in 1976 as a surfing school: one man, four boards. The son of a sailing instructor from Lake Tegernsee was on the road to success from an early age as European champion in the ‘Korsar’ boat class. He started at the age of 13, as one of four children at the sailing school, which remains a family-run business to this day. The plan was to compete at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, when the windsurfing boom took off shortly beforehand. Stickl learnt to handle the board at his father’s school, where he was already teaching, and promptly became world windsurfing champion in the heavyweight class in the Bahamas in 1976 (in the lightweight class, a certain Robby Naish took the title). He’d caught the surfing bug. From his father and from his own regattas, he was familiar with the reliable wind patterns on Lake Garda. After his final race in a sailing boat, he’d looked around the lake, found the spot in the sheltered bay that is now the school, and then approached a water sports retailer. “He was, of course, delighted to have someone opening a school and buying boards.” Through his introduction, talks followed with the manager of the Hotel Val di Sogno, and after a few glasses of grappa, the deal was sealed: Heinz Stickl moved into the hotel with four boards and began offering windsurfing lessons there. A bed in the staff accommodation, with meals included. For the hotelier, it was a gamble on this completely new water sport. And it paid off faster than expected.
“In 1976, I had actually planned to compete in the sailing event at the Olympics, when the windsurfing boom took off just before the Games.”
“I put everything I earned in that first year straight into advertising. There were already windsurfing retailers back then, and I wrote to every single one of them. So, all of a sudden, everyone knew there was a centre on Lake Garda.” In just three years, the school grew to 100 boards and ten instructors. “The whole bay was a sea of sails.” After five years, one of the sisters moved there and joined the business. The bay south of Malcesine is ideal for running a school. “Back then, there were no harnesses yet. People needed a place to take refuge, and that was the bay when the wind was from the north. You’d head round the corner and ride a leg out until the strength in your arms gave out, then tack and come back in,” says Stickl, describing the location’s advantage, which remains relevant to this day despite all the developments in the sport of windsurfing. “People haven’t got any fitter,” he says with a grin. “You don’t need a force 4 wind to learn. Until you start gliding, this is the perfect training spot, with plenty of hours in the day to practise.”
Stickl’s secret to success: spotting trends
To begin with – though he hadn’t realised this at the time – the bay was a paradise for water-skiers, who were also regular guests at the hotel. Things did get a bit crowded on the water at times. “But the boss always stood by us.” The motorboats went, and the surfers came. “People thought this was my hotel because only surfers were staying there,” recalls Stickl. By the mid-1980s, the rapid growth of surfing had come to an end. “The boom was over; many companies had closed down, so we went back to our roots and added sailing to the programme.” Spotting trends early and reacting quickly and appropriately is one of Stickl’s secrets to success. Today, he estimates that the proportion of surfing lessons stands at 20 per cent, compared to the peak in the early 1980s. Stickl initially added catamarans and keelboats to the fleet. Training for young sailors in Optimists was added, the fleet grew and the diversification paid off. “Sailing is now our main sport, traditionally on monohull boats.” As the sports changed, so did the infrastructure: the partner hotel was refurbished. “They didn’t want the hustle and bustle of the surfers any more.” For the past five years, Stickl has been co-owner of the “Beach Hotel Rosa”, which is situated right next to the centre and features a swimming pool and restaurant. Of course, that’s not enough. “The good accommodation providers benefit from us because our members book there,” he explains.
The camp’s logistics centre is situated slightly higher up on the hillside in the garden of the ‘Olivi’ hotel. Stickl has leased 2,000 square metres here and built a training room, showers, an office, and a storeroom for 700 wetsuits and other equipment. This is also where the reception desk for course registration is located. There is a guesthouse for the instructors a little further south. Stickl himself lives with his partner high up on the hillside, with a perfect view across the bay. However, the action on the water has been taking place in the same spot for 50 years: The trainers’ boats, dinghies, Seascapes and a few catamarans are moored at the buoys in front of the hotel. Fifty metres away lies the heart of the camp: boards, catamarans, Wasps and Optimists are lined up on the shore. Ready to glide into the lake via the short slipway. “Sailing has grown steadily,” he says. “We’ve got an incredible number of catamarans; last week we were out on the water with 20 Hobies. All people who’ve been coming to us for many years, but we’re lacking a bit of the next generation.” The fleet is further proof of Stickl’s decisiveness: his fleet of ‘Seascape’ models consists of hull numbers one to four.
Stickl was also the first in foiling
A few years ago, he invested heavily in the foiling trend – both in wing foiling and in foiling sailing boats. Under the motto ‘Anything that floats can fly’, various boats fitted with foils were added from 2016 onwards: “That was absolutely brilliant. Back then, people came to us from all over the world: even from Australia and the San Francisco Yacht Club. We were, quite simply, the only centre of its kind, and everything that started with foiling back then had already been here.” Stickl was once again the first. In board sports, foiling remains very much in vogue. Kitesurfing and kitefoiling, foil windsurfing and wingfoiling are all part of the regular programme.
Stickl’s day begins before seven o’clock with a glance from the balcony; he assesses the weather and formulates his own wind forecast in his head, aided by the webcams around the lake. He then plans the ideal time slot for each course and sends the times to the instructors and pupils via a mobile website. He also works as an instructor himself. Even today, the founder is still out in the instructor’s boat every day – for catamaran courses, windsurfing lessons or monohull training. During the season, up to 23 staff members are on duty: His partner Brigitte handles the bookings, whilst three female colleagues manage the reception and day-to-day operations. The majority are out on the water. At the start of the season, in late March, he begins with around eight people who set up the boats at the base and prepare the site for the Easter weeks. Most of the instructors are long-standing, loyal customers of the school – students who have known Stickl and his ways since they were children. Whitsun is a short peak season, after which there’s time to catch their breath again until the summer holidays. After that, things get really busy. “That’s twelve or thirteen weeks of peak season, when things really get going and we have to earn our keep,” says Stickl, who then has to look after up to 170 pupils a week. The school uses a tiered teaching system. Course participants work their way through various levels to become experienced sailors or surfers. This requires a lot of staff, some of whom have to share the courses during the busiest weeks. “You need every man on deck.” With around 2,000 students per season, the boss himself has very little time to spend on the water. Sometimes he lets the students use his boat and switches over to another one, but he’s just as delighted when course days go well and the guests he’s looking after make great progress.
At Stickl, pupils enjoy personalised support: although the instructors and trainers are in the support boat, every course participant is given a personal radio receiver through which they can hear their coach. “It’s like private tuition; we’ve been doing this for over 30 years and not many others follow our example because it’s quite labour-intensive. We have 100 of these radio devices,” he explains. Of course, the whole class listens in and can put into practice straight away whatever was said to a particular pupil. “That way, you can get people up to a high standard incredibly quickly.” It also saves on lengthy theoretical briefings, which rarely stick in people’s minds anyway. Another advantage is that the trainers, in turn, receive direct instructions from the boss via radio – for example, if there are good wind conditions at a particular spot on the lake lasting into the evening, whilst elsewhere the wind is already dying down. “Normally we’d send a group out there and bring them back in the evening, but this way we often gain an extra hour on the water.”
Pioneering work on all fronts
Once the Bavarian school holidays are over, things quieten down at the lake, and from 10 October Stickl starts winding down the sports camp: from wetsuits to boats and sails right down to the last rubber mat, everything is taken down, checked, prepared for repair and put into storage. The boss locks up and heads back to Munich. “Then I’ll go skiing.” Over the winter, the website is updated and the first bookings start coming in. These often come from companies booking water sports incentives, which Stickl consistently schedules for the early and late seasons. School operations take priority in the summer.
“Being the first to do something means you’re doing pioneering work that doesn’t pay off at first, but it has given us a good reputation.”
After 50 years, Heinz Stickl looks back with satisfaction on the decisions he has made. “For one thing, we always got started on new things at the right time.” Windsurfing, of course, kitesurfing, wing surfing, foiling. “It’s better to be the first. You’re doing pioneering work that doesn’t pay off at first, but it’s always given us a good reputation.” But there were challenges too: “We’ve naturally had our share of battles with the authorities, where we didn’t know whether we’d be allowed to carry on.” The only thing Stickl regrets is the attempt to establish a second base on Lanzarote: “That was a really bad idea.” But Gram isn’t his thing: “Otherwise, I’ve had no regrets. I live in the here and now. Always.”
After 50 years and at the ripe old age of 74, Stickl is currently thinking about the future once again. “At some point, of course, I’ll have to call it a day.” He reckons he can only keep running the current programme for a few more years. “Now I need to find someone to take over.” There have already been concrete discussions with one prospective candidate, “but it’s difficult because no one can invest a lot of money as a sailing instructor.” So he’s carrying on for the time being – and keeping his eyes open for the next trend, where Stickl’s sports camp will then be happy to do the pioneering work once again.
Official website: stickl.com