Hood River Race Report

[PonoBill]

I raced in the inaugural Big Winds SUP event in Hood River. Totally fun, and a bigger challenge than I expected even though the course was very short. Great party after. I did a writeup with a few pics on Ke Nalu in the events section. http://www.kenalu.com/2009/06/20/sup-sprint-racing/

[greatdane]

Man I wish I had heard about that race earlier Bill.  My brother in law is the photographer traveling with the Naish crew but he didn't tell me they were around until they were leaving the Gorge.  I would have loved some racing where I'm not the only guy on a SUP   If you here about future races down in your neck of the woods, please post on the Zone.  Cheers!

[PonoBill]

Every Thursday for the next seven weeks. Does your brother have dark hair and kind of a square jaw--looks kind of like a thin version of Dave Kalama?

As I recall you're up in the Seattle area. There was guy and his wife that came down to race from Gig Harbor. I was surprised to hear he drove all that way for one race. Then again I drove to Dana Point for the Battle of the Paddle, so I guess I'm just as nuts.

[DMK]

Hello guys,

I'm new to the forum, but I've been lurking for awhile now. I live near seattle and I've been paddle for about a year now. I am interested in going down and hitting up a thursday race this summer, I have a friend that also lives in seattle that would more then likely be down too. Greatdane if your interested in hitting one of these up let me know.

[PonoBill]

This is posted in the Release section as well, but I' thought I'd stick it here for conveneince:




http://www.bigwinds.com/faq/sup-races

[greatdane]

Hey DMK, I might be able to make one in July or the last one in August.  I Map Quested it and it's 300 miles from my door... that's a long drive for a 2 mile race, but I've done crazier   You can send me P.M.

Bill: My brother-in-law has kinda bleached out brown hair, tall & skinny with a cute little belly, oh he's gonna kill me.  I gotta guess he was walking around with a big, fancy camera.

[PonoBill]

No, I guess I didn't see him, but there was a pretty serious photographer there.

Now that I think of it, traveling long distances for a race is pretty ordinary. We get spoiled on Maui, and I'm a little spoiled here in Portland. But I hauled my race car 4800 miles round trip to race at Watkins Glen last year, and I drove 2100 miles to do the BOP, which was a 4.5 mile race. Lots of folks flew in from Hawaii and a few from Europe.

People are just nutz.