Gorge Windsurfing Thread

[Admin]

We are having an epic start to summer.  Plenty of great days already but today will be remembered as a standout. 

Sean Aiken tosses the sail and surfs one.



Whit Poor shows what a 40 mph gust will do to a 3.0 backloop landing.



Yup.



JP Bowles carving smooth lines in a whipped up Gorge.



Foam disappearance.



Sean going sideways over churned up waters.



"The longer I hold on the shorter I swim"



He's chuckling to himself in this one.



Dale Cook spots his landing.



Missile.



Yup.



Some Soaring shots.







Spotting Salmon



Mitch Gingritch Air tack

[covesurfer]

I don't want to take too much credit but the conditions you guys are getting are the direct result of me moving away from the Gorge after 27 years. It's ok, you don't have to thank me.

Maybe Maui will get windy again if we ever move back. In the meantime, I'll sit here drooling over the conditions you guys are getting. Enjoy, it looks Fantastic!

[pdxmike]

I don't want to take too much credit but the conditions you guys are getting are the direct result of me moving away from the Gorge after 27 years. It's ok, you don't have to thank me.

Maybe Maui will get windy again if we ever move back. In the meantime, I'll sit here drooling over the conditions you guys are getting. Enjoy, it looks Fantastic!

Sorry, Covesurfer, you made an assumption there.  Those photos Admin posted were of the Willamette today.  Gorge obviously would have been triple that.

[LaPerouseBay]

Wow, those are some good photos Admin. 

Those waves are smokin.   

[PonoBill]

I think it has a lot to do with me standing around on the riverbank, crying like a girl.  Sometimes its hard to believe that this thing is just a river. It looked alive today, and it wasn't friendly.

[supuk]

I think it has a lot to do with me standing around on the riverbank, crying like a girl.  Sometimes its hard to believe that this thing is just a river. It looked alive today, and it wasn't friendly.

Thats looks amazing! whats the best time of year there for down winding and sailing? im thinking i may have to do a trip there sometime!

[Admin]

whats the best time of year there for down winding and sailing? im thinking i may have to do a trip there sometime!

June, July, August are a very sure bets for wind but there is great wind through October. 

I don't want to take too much credit but the conditions you guys are getting are the direct result of me moving away from the Gorge after 27 years. It's ok, you don't have to thank me.

Maybe Maui will get windy again if we ever move back. In the meantime, I'll sit here drooling over the conditions you guys are getting. Enjoy, it looks Fantastic!

When Chan and I came to the Gorge for the first time in our early 20's we read in a local mag that we had arrived at "quintessential center of the universe".  On our first visit to Maui we read in a local mag that we had arrived at "quintessential center of the universe".  It was clear to us that the QCOTU was foreseeing our moves and getting there first.

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

I wrote an article for "Windsurfing" mag when it was still alive about river windsurfing. I interviewed a windsurfer from the Gorge about. Sometimes those winds get fierce!


www.peekskillpaddler.blogspot.com

[Admin]

June has been 10 for 10 windy with some huge days in the forecast.  An awesome start to summer. 

Here are some vids:

[Dwight (DW)]

Terrific video Admin. When we retire, I'm coming to see you 

[Admin]

Terrific video Admin. When we retire, I'm coming to see you 

Sounds great but please make it soon.  I am getting signals that there is an expiration date on joints.

[supdiscobay]

Its been 22 years since I last visited the Gorge.  Nice to see it hasn't changed a bit.  Is the water super crowded still?  Seems like the number of people sailing has dropped.  I had a couple of days at Dougs Beach, where the crowd was too much.  Very dangerous.  The river gets pretty narrow there. Thanks for the video. Great memories.

[Admin]

Its been 22 years since I last visited the Gorge.  Nice to see it hasn't changed a bit.  Is the water super crowded still?  Seems like the number of people sailing has dropped.  I had a couple of days at Dougs Beach, where the crowd was too much.  Very dangerous.  The river gets pretty narrow there. Thanks for the video. Great memories.

The numbers dropped off for a long period, seemed to stabilize and now there are a bunch of old faces (my own included) that have the full stoke back.  The name spots have plenty of activity in full season right at the launches but there is a lot of river to spread out on.  There are new faces as well, many younger which is awesome to see. 

There are a lot of windsurfers around.  Not the Gorge but this is pretty wild to see 1,000 racers last month all charging at the same time:

[PonoBill]

Doug's has always been a little dangerous, even with just ten or so sailors. It's the tack angle, you can't see who is in your six when you gybe on the Oregon side. I gunned a guy down--I think it was in 1988--who was trying to turn inside me. I didn't see him until my board hit his. A little shoving match on the beach determined who was at fault. I would have shoved harder but I knew it was pretty much me. We both had Schuler boards. I told him to get the rail slice fixed and have Lanny charge me. Lanny refused my money, said the guy was a dink and he didn't want me paying for him. Good marketing--I ordered two surfboards instead.

I shuttled Rod Parmenter, Art Aquino and Shep Nelson yesterday--lent Shep my Starboard boof-meister. All three of them were just flying. I planned to just go ride my bike, but I stopped at Michell Point and was surprised to see them go by just as I got there. So I shot a little video, went on to the lookout over split Rock--and there they were again! Flying. So I drove to the Hook and they were already behind Wells Island. Shot a little more video, blasted down to the event center and by the time I got the truck stopped and hopped out Rod and Art were inside the jetty at Nichols and Shep was a hundred yards behind. Good run for all three. Shep is a Maui guy, it was his first Viento run, and I suspect he was pretty amazed. I had to run off to have lunch with Diane and make my PT appointment, so I had to just toss the board on my truck and go--couldn't talk much, but the big grins said it all.

The gorge has changed a lot, and not at all. Used to be pretty spartan, now it's over the top NOT. The facilities are much better, it's pretty much unmatched in terms of equipment shops, breweries, wineries, quality restaurants, spectacular local food, and other amenities. But the wind still roars, and the swells still swell.

[covesurfer]

Wow, great to hear that Southbay (Shep) is getting some good wind! PB, post up that video you shot! Can't wait to hear what he thinks of the Gorge.

One thing that is really cool is that a Viento shuttle is pretty darn quick. Unlike a Maliko run, which can take 40 minutes of driving to run up the coast 10 or 12 miles, the shuttle from the finish to the top of the Viento run is about 10 minutes, straight down I84. Pretty user-friendly.

Yesterday, LPB, Kathy and I took our boats down Maliko. It was my first big water downwinder in my oc 1. Kathy's too. It was a cloudy day and the wind was 10 to 20, with some pretty clean, long-fetch windswell the whole way. We had pretty decent wind too, until just outside the harbor when it backed down to around 10. I had an absolute blast and I'm pretty sure Kathy did too. Awful nice of LPB to go with us and make sure we were ok. None of us fell out of our boats and the water reading that you learn from standup downwind translates directly to surfing an oc or a ski, so we got our boats going downhill pretty well. What a blast! I'd love to get an oc1 out there in the Gorge! There are only a couple of guys doing it there, so far. Don't worry, I'm not going over to the darkside, it's just fun to mix it up.

My experiences in the Gorge seem to always include busy sailing conditions at popular sites. Maybe it's the fog of memory but it does seem that in the far long ago, like pre-1992 or so, you knew a lot of the people on the water that were regulars and there was a little more respect given. I really don't get it but at some spots, there is this aggro sailing ethos, guys pinching you upwind, even when you're on starboard tack, coming really close.  And it isn't just the young kids doing it, more often, it's some geezer that is having there own personal AWT in their mind.

Not sure what that's about but it really turned me off as far as sailing. My reactions as an older guy just aren't as good as 10 or 20 years ago and while I can handle what the river and wind are throwing at me, you add in a few kooks and dickheads that have to demonstrate their douchey-ness and the fun balance tilts too much. I'd rather downwind with friends on my SUP.

Nowadays, you have people that may have learned a lot in a short time, thanks to better equipment and teaching, and on top of the boardsailors, you're mixing in kites. Kites can change direction with little telegraphing of intention. Two summers ago, heading towards the White Salmon Bridge in 3/4 mast high swell, I looked, started to jibe and slide down a big smooth face when the kiter that had been in front of me suddenly changed directions, went straight in front of me across the middle of the swell. I very nearly ran right into him. Shook me up pretty badly and ended my session.

You're right PB, the gorge has changed a lot and not at all. Because I was fortunate enough to live there, every once in a while I'd score an epic session with few people on the water. On those days, there was really nothing better anywhere. Sorry for the rant.