Having grown up on Lake Tegernsee and been infected by water sports at his parents' sailing school, Heinz is actually only known from Lake Garda. In the Val di Sogno bay behind Malcesine, the multiple world champion has been running an innovative water sports camp since 1976, where he has been supported by his partner Brigitte for 20 years. In addition to windsurfing and sailing, the team of more than 20 people is also dedicated to everything that takes off on a foil. Whether windsurfer, wing, kite catamaran or moth.
At first it was just sailing for you, wasn't it?
Sure, if you grow up in a sailing school. I didn't know anything about windsurfing when I was a child.
What got you into windsurfing?
When we took part in the FD DM in 1974 (the editor: Sailboat class) on Berlin's Wannsee was setting the spinnaker at the windward mark when a windsurfer shot past. That electrified me. I then got in touch with the fast windsurfer, who was Prof Dr Heinrich Schoop, who later became president of the German Windsurfing Class Association. I then got myself some windsurfers to integrate the sport into our sailing school on Lake Tegernsee.
Certainly not welcome in this sailing area back then, right?
Not at all, it should be banned immediately! We then invited the district administrator of Miesbach at the time, Edmund Stoiber, to a demonstration. My brother Niko and I got on the board, still in our clothes, and showed that a windsurfing board is very manoeuvrable - and that this sport can be practised without any problems.
Unlike your even more successful brother Niko, you soon retired from racing. Were the world championship titles enough for you?
Absolutely, a friend advised me to make something of it.
In the early summer of 1976, you were on Lake Garda in the world's very first surfboard test as part of the Windsurfing Magazine test crew. Did you immediately recognise the wind potential?
Even beforehand. Everyone was extremely euphoric about the new sport - but also about the wind on Lake Garda. I had already opened Italy's first windsurfing school in Malcesine in May.
Opening a surf school back then in Italy wasn't easy. Were there any problems?
In March 1976, I spent a week travelling around Lake Garda to find the right spot. I found it in Val di Sogno - in the morning, sheltered from the wind in the bay, outside with plenty of wind. I was able to convince the hotelier Heinzi Bonell of my idea and get started. I bought four windsurfers from the Italian importer Giovanni Bertamini and got started in May. I invested the profit I made in 1976 in a 16-page flyer with a large print run and distributed it in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From 1977 to 1985, it was all uphill from there.
When were other sports added? And why?
Windsurfing got a bit of a kink in 1985, so I took up catamaran sailing with Hobie Cats.
After surfing, sailing, kiting and SUP, you were the first on the lake to discover foiling in all its variations. Are you a trendsetter?
Well, whatever you call it. I quickly sensed whether people liked a new development. In 2001, I started with kitesurfing lessons right from the boat. I later added SUP for the families. In 2016, sailing boats started to fly - and we launched the first foiling camp with Waszp, the Quant 23 and a foiling cat IFLY 15, plus windsurf foiling with Starboard. We still exclusively offer the complete foil programme today. Anything that floats can also fly: that could be our motto.
Wingfoilers are now also conquering Lake Garda. Are windsurfers and kiters now disappearing?
No, some people will switch. But there will also be new people who haven't done any water sports before. But wingsurfing and foiling have a great future.
I hear that you teach with radio at the Lago. Does that offer any advantages?
Absolutely, I've been using this system for 35 years. You can reach all the pupils, you don't have to shout and you can correct each one individually. In the beginning we worked with headphones, but that wasn't very practical. Now the announcement comes from a tiny loudspeaker on the lifejacket.
In between, at the end of the seventies, Niko and you developed a board, the Kneissl Regatta S, for the world-famous and very successful ski manufacturer Kneissl. Not entirely free of charge. That caused a row.
And how! We were to lose our amateur status because we had advertised the brand in words and pictures. This clashed with the IOC's advertising guidelines, as the national sailing association DSV had not given us an exemption. As Kneissl also infringed Hoyle Schweitzer's windsurfer patent and went bankrupt soon afterwards, our career as a board developer quickly came to an end.
A long time ago, you joined the ranks of hoteliers. Why?
From bed to board, that's what many windsurfers appreciate. We have been running the La Vela guesthouse and restaurant on the beach since 1993, a two-star Garni Hotel in 2004 and then moved to the Hotel Olivi as our base in 2014. Since 2022, we have been running the beach hotel and Restaurant Rosa in partnership with a restaurateur from Malcesine.
Can you still get on the board yourself?
Not for many years, as I mainly work as an entrepreneur and organiser, but also as an instructor for cat and foiling courses. That leaves little time for private water sports.
The season is already over at Lago in mid-October. Are you spending the winter in the Caribbean? Or on the sofa?
I used to travel the world a lot in winter, mainly in the Caribbean. Now I go skiing a bit more in winter and organise the next season with my partner Brigitte and my sister.
What does the future look like for you at Lago in the coming years?
I'm still fully fit at the moment. But I'm starting to think about finding a partner or a team to take over the sports camp in the next few years.
Facts about Karlheinz Stickl
- Age:70 years, 27.8.1952
- Place of residence:Malcesine/Italy
- Profession:Entrepreneur in water sports (sailing and surfing instructor)
- Size/weight:183 cm/92 kg
- Sails since: 1958
- Surfing since: 1974
- Sailing regatta debut:1965 on the FD at the club championship
- Windsurfing regatta debut: 1975 on the windsurfer
- Sailing successes:twice 1st place at DM and EM on the Korsar, on the FD in the top squad of the DSV
- Windsurfing successes:German Vice-Champion Windsurfer 1975 Berlin, World Champion Windsurfer Heavy 1976 Bahamas, 7th place Windsurfer European Championship Heavy Sweden 1977, 3rd place Windsurfer World Championship Heavy 1977 Sardinia, German Champion Windsurfer Heavy 1978 Lake Constance, World Champion Windglider Heavy 1978 Martinique
- Favourite spots:Lake Garda, British Virgin Islands
- Hobbies: Skiing, foil sailing
- Internet: www.stickl.com
