"A place to create memories."

De Kaag Watersport Academy & group accommodation is the water sports center in the Randstad. Located on Kaag Island and surrounded by the beautiful Kagerplassen, this location is a household name in the Netherlands. For many people a second home and our slogan is for nothing "a place to create memories"!

Who are we?

Since 1952 "De Kaag" has welcomed many visitors from all over the world. We can proudly say that we have served three generations. From our location many guests have learned about water sports, experienced their first camp or school week, met other people and made friends.
During the school vacations we offer camps for children as young as 6 years old, but we are also happy to host schools, groups and companies. The Watersport Academy offers much more than just sailing, at De Kaag you can also go windsurfing, waterskiing, wakeboarding and flyboarding. The various water sports programs can also be extended with a delicious lunch or BBQ.

How did it all begin?

In 1952 Lex van Rijn founds sailing school De Kaag . At that time he was 22 years old. Sailing lessons are given with a number of Kiel boats (16m2) at that time. The students and instructors stay in tents and other places on Kaag Island.

In 1960 in addition to lessons in the Kiel boats (16m2), lessons are also given in water skiing from the Boesch ski boat. The name then changed to Sailing and Ski School De Kaag. Not much later Windsurfing was added.

In 1962, Lex Lex married Hetti. Together they have a son and a daughter. Hetti later takes charge of cooking and housekeeping and carries it out for many years.

Around 1970 the camp tents were exchanged for a beautiful building. In this building we still receive our guests every season with great pleasure. Lex van Rijn is a great ski fanatic and has close ties with Kitzbühel, Austria. Lex was trained there as a Staatlich ski instructor. In winter lessons are given in the mountains, in summer on the water. Now you probably also understand the Austrian furnishing of the dining room :). Still there are close ties with Kitzbühel.

In 2002 Lex van Rijn transferred his duties to his son Guido. He is now responsible for the ins and outs of De Kaag Watersport Academy & Group accommodation. In 2022 we will celebrate our 70th anniversary. Something we are proud of! We also hope to welcome you at our beautiful special place.

Guido aan het roer euhm.. woord;

My first sailboat was called the Bam-Bam and I got it from my cousin Renee. It was a little wooden pirate with milk strings you had to pull when you tacked to get the gaff to the other side. I still remember the first time I went sailing. There was quite a bit of wind and my father sailed behind me in the Boesch boat. I had to sit right on the edge and steer with the tiller extension. I think I was about five years old and whether I really liked it I doubt.

But I also sometimes joined my father on the Botter back then, and I loved watching the waves bounce against the bow at the front of the punt as we sailed on the ijselmeer. One time we were competing and there was a big leak. Screaming people with knee-deep water all doing their best with buckets to get the water back out of the boat. And yet I didn't find that scary because my father was with me and he made me feel like that wasn't necessary either.

The first time I went waterskiing I also remember well. With a life jacket and wings and the yellow skis we still have, I was launched into the water and with feet of an instructor under my armpits I was balanced as was customary in those days. Impressive to me was the sound of the engine and the high stern waves. Of this first experience I am sure I did not like it. In an old photo you can still see this by the tears on my cheeks. 

What I did like right away was windsurfing. I started doing that when I was 6. The father of my hero (Geordy Bloem) taught me the basics. At that time we still had diving suits with such a flap between your legs. My first surfboard was a yellow shark and I got it for my 7th birthday. A wetsuit for my first communion.

So that's pretty much how it started, and of course when you grow up at a sailing school it's a great privilege. Still, I must honestly confess that I was not always out on the water. Actually maybe much less than you would expect when you have all those opportunities. Because you feel you can always do it, the urge to use it as much as possible is perhaps less. Once when my father came into my room late at night he told me that he had bought 6 optimists and I was allowed to pick 1. It became the yellow No. 2

But all in all, of course you pick up a few things growing up here. But I think I learned the most by watching, asking and just trying. But the fact that I became fascinated by wind and waves and how you can make use of them is what made me love the water so much. I would often join the water ski lessons to throw the trapeze. And see what students could do differently to get out of the water within 3 attempts (then the max). Seeing that so often gave me the idea that, by giving people certain pointers, I could help them. Later I came up with all kinds of ways to give as many people as possible this cool experience of success.

My father was a teacher but outside of acrobatics and skiing, he didn't teach me very often. However, I did learn a lot from him. In any case, he showed me how wonderful it can be to help others progress in skills.

Windsurfing was a big sport in the 70s and 80s in the Netherlands and a lot of older youth here on the island also did windsurfing. At night they often played a movie downstairs in the sailing school when I heard it I would run downstairs in my pajamas to watch the movie Take off by Mistral with Robin Nash. This is probably also why I was motivated to learn this as best I could. One disadvantage of windsurfing is that as you get better you need more and more wind. The fact that you can't choose the moment you want to play tennis, but have to use the moment the wind blows, contributes to the need to do it as much as possible when you can and you even have to set things aside for it. One time I actually had to actually study for a test and knew that if I didn't do well I might not pass. An obsession may sound like an exaggeration, but it is a passion. After planing quickly across the water I took a rest next to the reeds. There is something magical about being in the water and floating in your wetsuit. Tricks you would like to do (again) make you dependent on the wind. Sometimes the wind can help you when you are off balance, but more often it seems like the wind is working against you because of a gust you don't need or the disappearance of wind when you do need it. I remember sometimes being so grateful to the wind for the pleasure it gave me that I thanked it. But I also cursed the wind at times. Of course immediately followed by excuses because I didn't want it to unfavor me. You began to see it as something with a character and moods and that in history, people worshipped natural phenomena as gods I understand much better because of this.

For water skiing, I really started to like it after my first time. In my elementary school days (when I was about 10 years old) the sailing school gave lessons from the riser at the compass. When I would bike home after school in the summer, I would pass by there. Everyone thought it was fine if I then went for a lap in between and the great thing was that I could then land 'dry' on the riser and so could just make a lap in my shorts and t-shirt. In the end, water skiing is still 1 of the sports I think is the coolest. Later I sometimes asked the instructor (Stephan Bereiter) if I could join him when he had a group and the deal was that I had to give a little show at the end and 'spray' everyone wet. When I was about 16 we started barefoot water skiing with Rolin van Lakerveld.

Sailing I've always done with it. I got a laser when I was 10 but also because I often attended theory sessions with friends I made at the sailing school I learned quite a lot. I liked it but especially because I never doubted that I would succeed my father made me join the instructor training program when I was 15. Jurgen Kramer taught me a lot in the optimist as well as in the 16 m2. Also names like Hans Freulich, Hans Plomp, Annelou van Egmond, Obbo de jong, Joep Steegmans and Joost van Overbeeke come to mind when I think back to everyone who all inspired me. It was gratifying to greet them on the 70th anniversary. From Just Jongeleen I not only learned about sailing. When I was about 10 he gave me a poster with a naked lady on it, which my mother didn't really like when she saw it hanging in my room. I liked the teaching more than the sailing itself but when my trainer (Louis de Ruiter) asked me to sail races with him my love for sailing really got a boost. We sailed in the FD against the best sailors. That went on all winter and sometimes it was grueling. But I really wouldn't have wanted to miss the speed and the game of racing. Besides that, my trips across the Atlantic Ocean are among the best adventures I can look back on. 

And that speed is what finally grabbed me completely by coming into contact with ice sailing with Rolin van Lakerveld. After 1 round on the Kagerplassen I landed at high speed with 1 skate in a wak and the ice boat was completely broken. Nevertheless, ice sailing later became one of my favorite sports.

Unfortunately you can't do this sport often in Holland so I went to Sweden for the first time with friends in 2000. Back from Sweden I found it extra unfortunate that you can't do this fast wind-driven sport very often. We went to watch beach sailors in IJmuiden. Half an hour later we had bought our first class 3 in which 14 years later I competed in the world championships in Nevada USA.

Fast boats like hydrofoils have fascinated me from the beginning. Just as wingfoiling and wingfoiling. Unfortunately, I now manage to practice this less often than I would like but there is also a lot to choose from. 

Mijn moto is altijd geweest: variaty is the spice of life, en dat is precies wat ik met de watersport Academy heb proberen te creëren. Maar voor de liefde die ik heb gekregen voor het varen met onze Botter BU 112 uit 1886 ben ik mijn vader Lex van Rijn het meeste dankbaar.