Rebecca and I spent last week up in Oregon to test out some '09 gear and have some fun on the river and at the coast. We had a blast of a week - and got very lucky with the conditions. Here is a bit about our trip...
Friday, August 8 - fly to Portland from SFO and drive 1 1/2 hrs to Hood River, OR
We drove straight to Pacific Boardsports (north american distributors for Naish) to meet up with Charlie, Nick and MJ. The crew was unloading a container of '09 goodies, but had time to stoke us out with windsurf and kite gear, and got us on our way to get a session on the river.
Rebecca and I dropped by Big Winds to say hi and get the scoop on the forecast. They pointed us slightly east for the best wind, so we hit Doug's Beach and they were spot on! The wind was pretty gusty and in the high 20s, but it was a perfect warm up session for sailing in the gorge. I was on a 75 ltr Naish Pro Wave and 4.2 Force and Rebecca was on a 65 ltr Naish Pro Wave and 3.7 Session. The gear was sweet and we got it dialed in for the weekend.
Saturday Aug 9 - get up and go sailing!
Saturday the forecast dictated we hit the road for Roosevelt (the delta of the gorge - 1 1/2 hrs drive east of Hood River). The drive along the Columbia River was gorgeous. As we got further east, we saw the wind continue to build. By the time we got there, it was gusting into the low 40s and we were wondering if we were going to be able to hang on to our 4.2/3.7 sails. We rigged up, hit the water, and lasted about 45 minutes. It was too windy and super gusty. That day got chalked up to a nice drive along the river. Here is a video clip of the conditions (notice the inside is light so winds were NW and GUSTY at Roosevelt). The little 4 year old had no trouble with his fast tack!!
Sunday, Aug 10, get up late and go sailing!
We slept in Sunday and had a big breakfast in our awesome Skamania Lodge room. We once again hit the road and headed to our new gorge favorite spot, Doug's Beach. Although the launch can be a bit of work (you have to drop your gear at an opening/crossing in the rail tracks, carry it down a hill, walk back up and then go move your car). The sailing spot is sweet and worth the effort with great wind, nice ramps for jumping, and some of the smoothest swell around.
Once we dropped off and walked down our gear, we went back to move the car and change into our wetsuits. The string of parked cars went back about 20 cars, so we pulled in and gave ourselves several car lengths of space so we could get half naked and change into our suits without being right next to our parked neighbor (who was also changing). While I was half exposed and in the process of pulling on my wetsuit, I started to hear a train approaching behind us (we were in between the road and the rail tracks). With the train approaching and the tracks just adjacent to my half naked state, I was about to be exposed to the driver. I screamed to Rebecca to quickly pass me a towel. I avoided a full flash, but the driver could not resist blowing the horn "whuuuuhhhh wooooooo". I did not know train horns could do that. Ah, the efforts and adventures we go through to windsurf!
Here is Rebecca enjoying our favorite session of the trip - 3 hours of solid sailing on Sunday afternoon in 28mph winds that were relatively steady.
Monday, Aug 11, get a quick ride on the '09 Naish Cult, then head to the coast
Monday the forecast was for light winds, so we decided to test out the '09 Naish Cult and then head to the Coast for our Starboard dealer meeting. We went to the Event Site and rigged up a 10.5m and a 12m. Kiting at the Gorge is a bit intimidating, especially with the crowds and the normally gusty high winds. The Event Site proved to be quite welcoming and friendly, and due to the light winds, we managed to enjoy a nice session before heading out. The new kites turned super fast and are even easier to water relaunch, so we know the "Cult" will continue to be an easy kite to love.
We picked up Kipps, one of our windsurfing instructors, at the Portland airport Monday evening, and headed west of Portland 1 1/2 hrs. to the little town of Netart's Bay. After a gorgeous drive, we arrived in time to catch sunset and dinner at the local Schooner Restaurant.
Tuesday, Aug 12 thur Friday Aug 15 Staboard Dealer Meeting and Product Demos
The rest of the week was made up product meetings and demos. The crew at Trident Sports hosted a top notch week of fun and our hosts included Declan and Tracy (organizers extrodornaire), Scott Mckercher (2004 World Wavesailing Champion), Svein Rasmussen (owner of Starboard),
Ekolu Kalama (3x champion of Molokai to Oahu SUP race), and Jim Drake (inventor of windsurfing). We all stayed in a cozy little cabins and condos at the Edgewater Inn, complete with a wood burning fireplaces and views of the breathtakingly beautiful Oregon coast. We didn't have to get in the car all week so we got much needed respite from the trappings of city life. The most exciting stuff we heard at the meetings was about Stand Up Paddle boarding's new explosive growth around the world. The SUP growth is bringing many of our memories back to the early days of windsurfing... when everyone was getting into it and you could see it everywhere (1 in 3 Europeans owned a windsurfer in the 80s). The promise of this new craze is to bring lots of newbies into a very easy to access sport. SUP has many cool features including a built-in awesome core workout, super easy for anyone to learn, tons of fun to cruise/tour on flat water/lakes/bays/open ocean, and easier to catch waves than regular surfing as you have that nice big paddle to help out.
The new '09 12'6" Starboard SUP ("The Cruiser and fastest, nicest one to take out with a windsurf sail) features an optional retractable centerboard - so we can help beginner windsurfers easily make the crossover....as well as easliy get SUP entrants into windsurfing. Netart's Bay was a perfect setting for for testing all the Starboard SUPs. I woke up early one morning, and caught a nice paddle all through the bay, complete with views of bright orange starfish and sensational bird watching (oh golly, I am getting old!). The best part of our coastal stint was catching up with other schools and shops around the country and sharing ideas for promoting windsurfing and SUP. We had a lot of fun hanging with Mark from "East of Maui" in Annapolis, MD, Mark & Steve from Big Winds, Captain Kirk from LA and Baja, Jim Ballantyne from Sailworld Cape Cod, Randy & Angela from Worldwinds Corpus Christi, TX, Simon from Toronto, Wardog from Santa Barbara/surfingsports, Pete DeKay from Windport Mag....and many others!
Thanks to Naish and Starboard for such an awesome week! We'll be back next year :) Jane
