FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sailing Challenge Now Available in the Apple Store and Google Play

American Sailing Association Taps Atari Founder to Develop Exciting and Instructive Sailing Game



LOS ANGELES – July 25, 2016 – The American Sailing Association (ASA), America’s sail education authority, continues to establish the leading edge in sailing education with a cutting-edge, new mobile gaming app called Sailing Challenge. Originally designed as a teaching aid for ASA instructors to help illustrate the principles of sailing in a rich interactive and entertaining format, the app has quickly turned into a fun game to play regardless of the user’s level of sailing experience.

“The American Sailing Association has been responsible for almost one million ‘aha moments’ on the water,” said Lenny Shabes, ASA’s Chairman of the Board. “We now hope to introduce another million people to that ‘aha moment’, this time aboard their personal mobile devices.”

For help, ASA turned to longtime sailing enthusiast, visionary and founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell’s new educational software development company, Brainrush, worked with ASA to develop this breakthrough educational video sailing game, using a teaching technique Bushnell refers to as “gamefication”. He says, “ASA’s Sailing Challenge combines video gaming technology and educational software, incorporating real brain science in a way that will fundamentally change how people learn how to sail.”

A year in development, ASA’s Sailing Challenge is being introduced with six fun, easy-to-use modules that unlock the mysteries of sailing. According to Shabes, “Learn Points of Sail, Apparent Wind, Sail Trim, Tacking and Jibing, Rules of the Road and Docking. Then, put it all together when you race the clock in the “Sailing module”.

Sailing Challenge combines the most innovative thinking in the digital education field with ASA’s experience in teaching sailing to create a game that allows players to climb aboard, take control of the tiller in one hand and the mainsheet in the other, and sail off on a virtual sea of fun. “When the ASA says the fun starts here, we really mean it!” Shabes concluded.

Sailing Challenge is available now in the Apple store and Google play via asa.com/sailing-challenge-app/

About the American Sailing Association

Driven by a clear need for uniform teaching standards and increased access to sailing activities, the American Sailing Association (ASA) has been the leader in U.S. sail education for more than three decades. The association has grown to include an international network of approximately 300 professionally accredited sailing schools. Nearly one million certifications have been awarded to almost half a million people who have been introduced to sailing through ASA schools and clubs since 1983. The ASA has strategic partnerships with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and was instrumental in establishing national education standards through its work on the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators’ Education Committee. The ASA has also consulted with the Department of Transportation and the National Parks Service. For more information, visit www.asa.com.

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Media Contact:

Jill Hoffman

323.719.7111

jillh@clivehoffmanassociates.com