Team Member of the Month » October 2007

Name : Jair Marques Ferreira
Born : 1985
Team member since : 2007
Prior Club Mistral Destinations :

Normally the team member of the month is awarded to someone who has been working for us for some time. This month we have decided to change that, and would like to announce Jair, who has been working at the centre in Preá since its opening as our team member of the month October 2007.
Jair, a native Brazilian, grew up in the fishing village of Preá with his 9 older siblings.
Ever since he first came into contact with kite surfing his dream has been to become an instructor in an international operation, where it would be possible to work in other destinations around the globe during the low season.  It took a lot of work to realise this dream!
During the day he worked at the Vila Preá Hotel so he could earn the money for an English course and to get his IKO license. On top of which he spent his evenings at school learning English – he is one of few in Preá who can speak English, one of only three in fact! Good English is of course vital in order to get on board at an international company like Club Mistral. Apart from Portuguese, his mother tongue he is also fluent in Spanish, another skill he acquired himself. Meanwhile Jair is a level 1 IKO instructor, and will be doing the level 2 exams soon. Since opening the centre he has untiringly been teaching and passing on his knowledge.
He is extremely popular with the guests, partly because of his friendly nature and his fantastic didactic abilities. The conditions at Preá are not always the easiest, but Jair understands how to alleviate the student’s fears and bringing them closer to kiting. Only recently Jair taught a 30-year-old Brazilian woman, who had only just learnt to swim and had never swam in the sea before. The feedback was more than positive, she was not only thrilled by the lessons, but also lost all fear she had had as well as learning to kite really well.
In the last few months there were a lot of guests at the centre taking private lessons with Jair. His sunny outlook and friendly nature make him everybody’s favourite.
 To quote Mark the Centre Manager:
If you give a pupil an instructor like Jair, then they will have had so much fun by the end of a weeks kiting that they will prolong their holiday and be kiting really well after two weeks, having lost all fear of the sport!

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