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ELBOW, SASK. — When most people picture Saskatchewan, they imagine endless canola fields glowing yellow beneath an impossibly wide sky. Grain bins. Cattle. Gravel roads stretching toward the horizon.
What they probably don’t imagine is a marina full of sailboats. But descend the steep wooden staircase toward the Elbow Harbor Marina at Lake Diefenbaker, and that’s exactly what you’ll find.
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The staircase leading to Elbow Harbor Marina at Lake Diefenbaker overlooks a unique scene in Saskatchewan: a body of water full of sailboats. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
Masts sway gently against the prairie skyline. White sails catch the wind. Pelicans drift overhead. It’s the kind of view you’d expect to find on an ocean inlet, not on a man-made reservoir surrounded by wheat fields. But for decades, sailors have known what the rest of the province is only beginning to discover: one of the best places in the world to learn to sail is right here in Saskatchewan.
“They’re usually looking for schools in B.C. and stuff, and, ‘Oh, there’s one in Saskatchewan!’ That’s what they’re surprised with,” laughed David Larwood, owner of Living Sky Sailing School.
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Instructor Evan King remembers his first visit vividly.
“At the top of those stairs there, I looked down into this coulee and saw all these sailboats here and thought, ‘Holy cow! Who knew this was going to be in Saskatchewan?'”
That decision to take a sailing lesson has taken King far beyond the prairies. Since learning to sail at Lake Diefenbaker five years ago, King has crewed boats throughout the Caribbean, sailed through the Panama Canal, crossed the Atlantic, explored the Mediterranean and logged somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 nautical miles.
It all started right here in Saskatchewan.
Living Sky Sailing School instructor Evan King has found his sailing experience to be a huge asset when it comes to escaping Saskatchewan’s brutal winters. “If I’m bored and I want to go someplace warm, I go crew on a boat for some rich guy in the Caribbean,” he said with a laugh. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
A better classroom than calm water
You might expect the best place to learn to sail would have calm water and predictable winds, but Lake Diefenbaker offers neither. According to Larwood, that’s exactly what makes it so remarkable.
“You have to be paying attention,” he explained. “The winds are changing a little bit. There’s gusts. You could get some thunderstorms, so you actually get to practice. It’s providing all the different opportunities to learn.”
David Larwood is the owner of Living Sky Sailing School. He picked up sailing after retiring from his career as a teacher. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
He compared learning to sail to learning to drive.
“If you learn to drive on a flat, straight road, that’s what you’re doing in a lot of the big bodies of water. But out here you are on a kind of a mountain, crooked gravel road,” he explained.
“It constantly changes, so you get to experience all those different conditions that you have to adapt to.”
Tricky conditions build confident sailors. And whether you eventually dream of the Caribbean, Croatia or the Pacific Northwest, the fundamentals don’t change.
“Everywhere you sail on the planet, you’re going to sail similar,” Larwood said. “You’re going to go into the wind, with the wind, you’re going to tack, you’re going to jive.”
Today’s sailboats are filled with cutting-edge navigation and weather tech, but one classic tool still earns its place on board: the trusty compass. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
Breaking the yacht club myth
For many people, sailing still feels like a sport reserved for millionaires, but Larwood wants to change that perception.
“Yacht clubs have a reputation of the rich and the famous,” he said with a grin.
“But this is Saskatchewan.”
He says just like any other pastime, sailing can be as affordable — or as extravagant — as you want to make it.
“It’s like an RV tent trailer. Do you want to go camping in an RV tent trailer? Do you want a fifth wheel? Do you want a full motor coach?”
There are boats for almost every budget. And unlike powerboats, the fuel is free.
If not for the fields on the horizon, you’d be forgiven for thinking this photo was taken somewhere far less landlocked than Saskatchewan. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
From curious to captivated
Every summer, Living Sky Sailing School introduces dozens of newcomers to sailing. Around 30 to 35 new students sign up for lessons each season, while another 50 to 60 people come out for an introductory three-hour sail.
Corinne Bueckert began taking lessons with the school last summer as a complete novice. Today, she considers herself a full-fledged sailor.
“I’m absolutely hooked and can’t wait to get out on the water each day,” she said. “I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me. And who knew it could start in backyard Saskatchewan?”
Corinne Bueckert set sail for the first time last summer. Now, she is looking for crewing opportunities abroad to expand her sailing resume. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
For Larwood, the most rewarding part isn’t teaching knots or sail trim. It’s watching confidence appear.
“Taking those people that didn’t know that you could sail or how easy it was, 15 minutes out there and you just see this smile or this excitement,” he reflected.
“When you come to the dock and I shake your hand, you are already in the top 15 per cent of the sailing world, because you’re doing something about it. The rest of them are still watching YouTube or reading books or watching movies, thinking ‘That would be cool.'”
And that’s how it starts. Not with a voyage across an ocean, but with a single afternoon on Lake Diefenbaker.
More than sailing
Ask Larwood where the best sailing in the world is, and he’ll give a surprisingly nuanced answer.
If you want culture, he says, head to Croatia or the Mediterranean. If you want whales and marine life, choose the Pacific Northwest. But if your goal is simply to become a competent, safe sailor?
“If you just want to sail, come to Diefenbaker,” he insisted. “I will stand up in front of a crowd and say that it’s the best place to learn. It’s safe, comfortable, controlled and you’re going to get all the experiences.”
David Larwood insists that Lake Diefenbaker is one of the best places is the world to learn to sail. Saskatchewan’s notoriously unpredictable weather means sailors can practice many different techniques and skills in a short time. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
There are plenty of beautiful places to sail. Few, Larwood says, offer the kind of community that rural Saskatchewan provides.
“People help first and question after the issue,” he noted. “If you come back and there’s six beer on the seat of your boat in your cockpit, somebody has taken and borrowed something or used something, and you don’t know what it is yet, but that’s payment.”
Maybe that’s the real secret of sailing in Saskatchewan.
Yes, there are the winds. The huge skies. The challenging conditions that make better sailors. But there is also the community. And the feeling that, in a province famous for growing crops, you can still discover something entirely unexpected.
Sometimes all it takes is walking down a flight of stairs toward a marina and realizing that Saskatchewan’s horizon isn’t just full of fields.
It’s full of sails.
Think Saskatchewan is just canola fields and grain bins? Think again. Living Sky Sailing School is showing people that adventure doesn’t always begin at the coast. Evan King, David Larwood and Corinne Bueckert are all sailors who first set sail on Lake Diefenbaker. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)
