Author Topic: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?  (Read 17643 times)

Pierre

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #30 on: September 21, 2014, 11:30:58 PM »
Difficult to define the 5 best runs imho. Looking weather charts, there are few places in the world where wind blows strong at a high consistency. NE moonsoons in E China sea ( Taiwan), SW monsoon in Oman Arabian sea or bay of Bengal, most trade winds, etc, etc... A good project is to follow a sailboat in open ocean. This is one of my wishes: a long couse downwind, launch boards in water and follow the boat for dozen(s) of miles. should be a large enough to accommodate a good sailors and paddler's crew.
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headmount

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #31 on: September 22, 2014, 09:42:19 PM »
Difficult to define the 5 best runs imho. Looking weather charts, there are few places in the world where wind blows strong at a high consistency. NE moonsoons in E China sea ( Taiwan), SW monsoon in Oman Arabian sea or bay of Bengal, most trade winds, etc, etc... A good project is to follow a sailboat in open ocean. This is one of my wishes: a long couse downwind, launch boards in water and follow the boat for dozen(s) of miles. should be a large enough to accommodate a good sailors and paddler's crew.

Have you been to Hawaii?

Blue crab

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #32 on: September 22, 2014, 11:21:17 PM »
Our Puget Sound runs are not top 5 in the world.  For this I bet most people would list consistent winds, shuttle service, and maybe even warm water as key criteria.  Much of our local stoke consists of a bunch of middle aged dudes trying to get out of work early and avoid parenting responsibilities just to get a couple of hours in 45 degree water in the middle of the winter.  On weekends, we are basically flipping a coin between fresh snow in the mountains and wind at home.  While we get lots of windy days, the weather reports are fickle and the best wind can occur anytime of day.

That being said, an epic day anywhere between Federal Way and Edmonds rivals a great day in the Gorge. Particularly at low tide, the swells can be large and well lined up.  Moreover, due to several point breaks, the runs are sectional with portions that have steep peaks and other more groomed sections with prolonged knee high rollers.   If Rainier or the Olympic mountains are out, the scenery is world class.  On stormy days, there is a complete lack of color, just mist shrouded silhouettes of pine trees. It is sublime.

This talk of depth, fetch and wind is fascinating.  Puget sound has a couple of interesting features. Our runs typically are usually northerly in the summer, southerly the rest of the year and sometimes westerly. Each has a different character. The northerlies are rarely >20 mph but the fetch is 100s of miles with late afternoon winds circulating from the ocean through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and then south from the San Juan Islands. On these days, the swells can be nice sized but there is a slow motion feel to them. The glides are controlled and easy to catch but fairly difficult to connect. The shallower sections are almost always the best.  Even when it gets to 25 mph, the deeper water sections are not that great. The sunshine and Rainier are highlights. These are perfect beginner runs and are doable at all tide levels.

Southerlies and westerlies are associated with big fall / winter storms and often occur before or after rain. Water depth seems to have much less of an effect on quality of swells. In fact, we usually shoot for the channel where the depth is 400-600 feet.  Winds are gusty and temperamental, in contrast to the more consistent northerlies. We hit 40 mph a bunch of times, and 50 at least once last winter.  On big days like this, the major challenge to connecting tens of glides is simply staying on the board.   For most of our southerly runs, the fetch is 10-20 miles which seems to be sufficient only for days with >20 mph wind (in contrast to the northerlies which are great with ~15 mph or even less).  Tide is a major consideration.  Low tide is universally awesome.  Moderate can be equally fun, but is technical with both on and off shore swell. High tide is to be avoided both because of massive floating logs and a complete loss of wave patterns in the water.  During big storms, it is a total pain in the ass getting boards on and off the car: by far the most stressful part of the whole operation.

The Sound gets extremely deep, really quickly.   The drop off to >100 feet deep occurs within a few dozen yards of shore.  It is actually pretty spooky. The best westerly run is no more than 100 yards off of shore but the water is once again extremely deep.  In reviewing our local depth charts, I was surprised at how deep the water is, even at the several points in our runs where the waves can stack up nicely (200-300 feet).

headmount

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #33 on: September 22, 2014, 11:41:05 PM »
" During big storms, it is a total pain in the ass getting boards on and off the car: by far the most stressful part of the whole operation."

Blue crab... exactly how it is with us.  A good paddling partner is one who hangs onto your board tightly on the on-offload.

covesurfer

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #34 on: September 23, 2014, 12:33:12 AM »
" During big storms, it is a total pain in the ass getting boards on and off the car: by far the most stressful part of the whole operation."

Blue crab... exactly how it is with us.  A good paddling partner is one who hangs onto your board tightly on the on-offload.

HM is methodical and practiced in the load/unload process. I've learned to be the same way from paddling and shuttling with him. Saving a few seconds just isn't worth it when the consequences are bashing an expensive board, perhaps ruining a run, or worse, getting injured. Having a partner or partners that know how to help handle boards takes a lot of stress out of downwinding.

With our crew, it is a valuable skill to be able to distract Pono Bill and keep him away from your board when doing the load/unload.

Off-Shore

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?th
« Reply #35 on: September 23, 2014, 05:14:40 AM »
" During big storms, it is a total pain in the ass getting boards on and off the car: by far the most stressful part of the whole

We have the same issues and having a well drilled team is te key to off and on load. Since we often unload from the cars and then onload onto a boat, motor to the start offload and then on load back onto the boat at sea to cross a shipping channel, offload again and the on load to get back we have many chances to ding boards. Over 2 years we have applied paddling to all sharp edges on the boats we use, carry spare yoga mats and other straps and pads to stop things chafing and dinging especially when going back upwind. Still we manage to damage boards but the frequency is getting less. There is a real skill to get a boat facing upwind in the swell, and bring 2 or 3 boards onboard without damaging them or ourselves.

I had an extra outer layer of thin glass applied to the SIC Maui F16 for the very reason I knew that I'd be doing a lot of boat trips but this has not stopped the big dings caused by the board banging around on upwind journeys. I carry a roll of waterproof marine tape which works a treat for any serious leaking dings.
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Blue crab

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #36 on: September 23, 2014, 08:18:09 AM »
Wow Off-Shore. Your dedication is commendable. Involving a boat takes it to a whole new level. We've talked about this on a very theoretical level. However, I am quite sure it will never happen. The shuttling process with a car alone is about as complex as our local brain trust can handle. 

My favorite situation is when we have to parallel park between a Lexus and a Porsche.  I am always a bit afraid that one of the boards will torpedo though a windshield during the unloading process. I guess we'd just leave a note and get on with the run.

Pierre

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #37 on: September 23, 2014, 11:25:32 AM »
Difficult to define the 5 best runs imho. Looking weather charts, there are few places in the world where wind blows strong at a high consistency. NE moonsoons in E China sea ( Taiwan), SW monsoon in Oman Arabian sea or bay of Bengal, most trade winds, etc, etc... A good project is to follow a sailboat in open ocean. This is one of my wishes: a long couse downwind, launch boards in water and follow the boat for dozen(s) of miles. should be a large enough to accommodate a good sailors and paddler's crew.

Have you been to Hawaii?

No unfortunately , but Hawaii is in the NE'ly trade wind area. like carib's, morocco, etc...
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Off-Shore

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #38 on: October 03, 2014, 08:33:47 PM »
I've been in Fiji for 6 days now and the wind has been 15-25 knots almost every day. Sadly we only had Surf Style iSUPs with us, which still were a lot of fun on downwind runs, but I have to imagine this place has some awesome runs..
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SuppaTime

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #39 on: October 17, 2014, 10:42:49 AM »
When the rest of the state is blowing 5-10, Maui is 15-25.  Trades blow 90% in the summer and 60% in the winter.  Nuf said...

Actually it is closer to 50% of the time trades blow in winter. Used to be 60+% but trades are diminishing. Interesting study done by the University of Hawaii on that:
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-documented-decrease-frequency-hawaii-northeast.html

Same thing is happening in the gorge. I have not seen a study on that, but anecdotally most windsurfers think gorge winds aren't what they used to be even 10-20 years ago. It stands to reason - it is the same NPH (North Pacific High) that drives the trades that sets up gorge winds, and global warming is  affecting the NPH by flattening it and pushing it further north.

So, get it while you can.
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Off-Shore

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #40 on: October 19, 2014, 05:46:30 AM »
Tahiti looks like it should be on the list......http://youtu.be/qg8qlaws-kU
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Off-Shore

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #41 on: November 29, 2014, 11:46:09 PM »
We had a few Surfski and OC paddlers from Tahiti enter our annual Surfski / OC and SUP races last weekend, www.thedragonrun.com.hk and their downwind conditions there for SUP are awesome. More evidence...

« Last Edit: November 30, 2014, 12:07:21 AM by Off-Shore »
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yugi

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #42 on: April 23, 2015, 04:49:58 AM »
South West, France, on the Mediterranean tucked up against the Spanish border is Leucate. Here the Tramontane.

Kai Lenny is there now (for their “Mondial du Vent”) and here is his report of DW conditions there on his FaceTube page of today:

“I had the most insane experience doing a down winder outside of Leucate, France. The swells were so good and long definitely rivaled Hawaii conditions.”

PonoBill

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #43 on: April 23, 2015, 11:02:16 AM »
I think we've only just begun to find the great places. Like surfing in the 60's, before guys like Headmount scoured the world for waves.

And as for holding boards on cars, the one thing I'm valued for is height when unloading. Watching the Menehunes like Covesurfer hopping up and down with their arms ineffectively raised trying to reach the boards is generally amusing.
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Off-Shore

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Re: Top 5 Downwinding Places In The World?
« Reply #44 on: May 04, 2015, 07:20:13 AM »
Wonder if anyone has heard of people SUP downwinding in Mauritius. They have had an open ocean Surfski event there for the last 6 years. Conditions look amazing.. fast forward to 11.16

https://youtu.be/l74D3FBPQ4k
SB 9' x 33' x 4.1" - RPC 9'8" iSUP - SB All-Star 12'6" - Blue Planet Bump Rider 14 - SB Ace 14 x 27 - RedAir 14' Elite Race - SIC Bullet 14v1 TWC - SICMaui F16v3 Custom

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/HksupaHk_SUP_and_Downwinding

 


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