Justin Ahearn
Justin is our Sailing Director who also coaches our Windsurf Foil Team and made our youth program what it is today. Justin started sailing 'late' as a high school sophomore through CCSC's summer camp and immediately was hooked. He joined the Clearwater Yacht Club laser team because CCSC did not have a youth racing program at the time. He raced lasers through the end of high school before attending USF and joining the sailing team. College sailing helped him evolve as a sailor and allowed him to attend regattas across the country and learn from the best sailors of his age group. Midway through college Justin started racing windsurfers. He started with the Kona One Design and eventually went on to compete in 4 Kona world championships, finishing 8th in 2016 and 7th in 2019. He then moved on to the high-performance Formula windsurf class and competed in a world championship, North American Championship, and 5 National Championships. Around 2017 he bought his first windsurf foil, which sparked his love for racing. He competed in the open foil class until 2020 when the Olympic Windsurf equipment was changed to the IQ Foil one design class. Since then, he has been heavily involved with the class as both a sailor and a coach. His proudest coaching accomplishment is building the CCSC youth program into the large group of active, passionate sailors that it is today. And that took years of persistence and hard work. His favorite part of coaching is creating lifelong sailors and when CCSC junior sailing alumni achieve in adult sailing, he says "it fills me with pride."