Team Member of the Month » March 2009

Name : Calu Nascimento Fortes
Born : 1970
Team member since : 2001
Prior Club Mistral Destinations :

For March 2009 we have chosen Calu from Cape Verde as our team member of the month. A long time ago in 2002 we chose him as a team member of the month, but the text did not make it to our website, and as Calu is a very special person we have decided to choose him again! Calu was one of the very first Cape Verdeans to discover windsurfing and since then he has been living for and with it. Calu knows Sal like the back of his hand and he has had a wealth of experience as a windsurf instructor.

Calu has an incredible knowledge of the local weather; a guy who could predict, years before wind guru or Internet was on the island, that a serious swell would be coming, when, what direction, what size, and which spots would be working best – a good colleague to have when planning your day off!

He has a real talent for languages and speaks 6 of them perfectly: Cape Verdian Creole, Portuguese, French, English, Spanish and Italian, plus some German. Not bad considering he never received any formal school education except for the school of life, windsurfing and sharing his passions!

Calu is a great windsurfer and it is fantastic to watch him riding the big waves with his light weight. He’s a light guy but has a heart that weighs a ton! He has an incredible physical strength too: not many people can carry a 25HP motorboat engine in their arms across 300 meters of sandy beach with a smile on their face, but Calu does it. Luckily he’s still too light for us to teach him kitesurfing, which is good as we want to keep him.

He is remarkable in his sincerity, his constant kindness and the cheerfulness he radiates all day long, in every situation. All of our guests really like Calu as he creates a special and very nice atmosphere at the center and makes everybody feel very comfortable and welcome.

Calu’s official nickname is Muffin. He is the heart and soul of the centre and it is great fun to work with him. The nickname Muffin is actually not very cool and he doesn’t like it! What about Maitre Calu?

Calu has 2 children and you can see one of his daughters in the picture below, she’s really sweet.

Calu is very committed to the local church, and uses his free time to offer counseling for teenagers with social or drug problems, organize charity events, children’s choirs at the church, beach cleaning missions, and more. He has a talent and a hobby of his own painting on fabrics & textiles, whether it is T-shirts or beach hats, he gives them a unique artistic touch (to the envy of many).

Calu, thank you very much for your commitment. We are really happy to have you in our Club Mistral team and hope you will be there many many years more.

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