Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Rojas.
Hi Alexander , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m Alexander Rojas, a Venezuela immigrant that came to USA in June 2023. I started sailing in 2011 with my University’s student windsurf club, I spent years learning and coaching others and eventually became the club’s president before leaving my country at the end of 2017,
After finally making it to the states I had to spend some time jobless waiting for my work permit to arrive, during that time I started studying in Central Texas College to become an air conditioning technician. After getting my work permit I was able to get a job as an assistant manager in a family entertainment center called Area 254, The experience with Area 254 was wonderful and it led me to be in a place where I was able to fulfil one of my dreams: to have my own windsurf school.
The opportunity came in May 2025, I decided to treat myself and reconnect with the wind and the water, I found that there actually was a lesson and rental option with Austin Windsurf School and decided to make a reservation for a lesson, I was nervous in the beginning because it has been years since the last time I sailed, but once I hit the water everything came back to me, I was able to sail back and forth and had a wonderful time seeing how my body easily remembered all the movements, I talked with the instructors and I was let in in a WhatsApp group made for those who want to continue sailing with the school.
A few weeks after, Daniel the owner of the school announces that he’s selling all the school’s gear away, it shocked everyone. I thought it was a shame to let everything he had built just disappear and I don’t mean just the school itself but also the community that he had built, after a short call on the phone we agreed on me buying the school and I have been running it since then,
I believe that once we find a good storage place that is close to water we will be able to share the experience of sailing to a lot more people, and that’s the mission of the school, to get as many people as possible to try the sport, I want to share the wonderful experience of sailing.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Currently the biggest challenge for the school is that we don’t have a place next to the water where to store all the sails and the boards, I have had to move the gear around for every lesson so far which is very time consuming.
The beginner boards are very bulky and difficult to transport, that’s why it’s better to have a place right next to the water with all the windsurf gear ready to use. Not having this also limits the amount of people that we can teach at the same time, most days I can give a lesson to up to 4 people, if more people make a reservation then I need to rent a truck which eats away the profit from the lessons, paradoxically making it more viable to have small groups lessons.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My school is all about having people try out sailing, have the opportunity to connect with nature through a fun activity that is accessible to almost everyone, we have taught from Boy Scouts groups to a 82 years old sailor that wanted to try out a different way of sailing. I want to have as many people as possible to try out the sport on the chance of them having some the wonderful experiences that I have that while practicing this sport, This sport has given me moments of self realization through overcoming challenges, it has connected me with a lot of amazing people that I am still friends with over a decade later, it has given me moments of Zen like peace when I find myself aligning my body correctly to catch scary amounts of speed in the water. I want more people to experience some or all of that, the reviews that we have been getting on our google profile are very encouraging and make me think we are well in our way to make that happen
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Find somebody that makes you think “I wanna be like him” and try to spend time with them.
Pricing:
- $100 + fees and taxes for 3 hour lessons all gear included
Contact Info:
- Website: https://austinwindsurfschool.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austinwindsurfschool/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austinwindsurfschool
