Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - ericmichaels

Pages: [1] 2 3 4
1
Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: The Gorge
« on: July 21, 2022, 10:12:50 AM »
duplicate

2
Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: The Gorge
« on: July 21, 2022, 10:01:12 AM »
I did five upwind/downwinders one perfect day last year with my foil.


So this is with a wing? You can go all the way upwind to the viento area (several miles?)

I know little about winging. It is not a thing by me.

3
Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: The Gorge
« on: July 19, 2022, 07:45:51 AM »
It really does seem that downwind SUP is over in the Gorge. I live across from Mitchell Point, roughly half way in a Viento run, and watch the traffic in the river from my deck. There are still quite a few boats going downwind, surf skis, OC-1's and the like, but I have yet to see any SUPs this season. Look at the inventory at Big Winds; 1 or 2 raceboards or downwind boards at most, every other SUP is an inflatable! Five years ago they had 20 downwind boards for sale. However there are many more people doing upwind-downwind runs, of course all of them are on foils!

Wow!. Zero SUP the whole season? That is even worse than I thought and it makes me very sad. Didn't they just have the Downwind Champs race last weekend? I used to come during the July race week. Not a racer but I did about 10 runs over the week...it was the highlight of my year.

4
Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: The Gorge
« on: July 19, 2022, 07:34:06 AM »
There isn't a Big Winds shuttle, but there are still plenty of people doing SUP downwinders. Depending on what happens with my Atrial Fibrillation I might be back on a SUP board soon myself. I think I can manage the energy output required better than I can on a wing foil.

But if you aren't a local and are just by yourself on vacation, how do you manage the logistics of getting to Viento with your board? Last I was out there....no uber and they aren't taking boards anyway.

5
Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: The Gorge
« on: July 18, 2022, 01:17:17 PM »
I am not that active here but catching up some recently, I am sensing the Gorge has changed a bit the past couple of years.

I am a traditional SUP Downwinder....you know with just a paddle....no wings or foils. Crazy, right?

I have had my annual summer trips to the Gorge cancelled the past 2 years. Was planning to go back in August.
It seems like maybe everything there has switched to wings and foils? No Big Winds DW shuttle service. Not sure how I will get up to Viento.

Is this the case? Is old school SUP downwinding not really a thing there any longer? Is it still worth coming or should I just be planning to take foil and wing and kite lessons instead of doing Viento runs?

6
Random / Re: Travel to the Gorge this summer?
« on: April 29, 2020, 08:34:33 AM »
A simple Google search and you'll see Oregon is one of the stricter states right now, though as a result the CV threats seems to be improving:http://portlandobserver.com/news/2020/apr/20/after-month-lockdown-oregon-leads-nation/

How it will be in July no one has a crystal ball but you might want to be open to it not being like last year.

I have learned from going to a few different places that a simple google search doesn't tell you much. Lockdowns and police involvement look very different on the ground from place to place even though the official orders are similar. My city was one of the first to lock down under official order and the wording sounded strict, but it has never been strict in reality. We have unfettered movement. I have not yet spent a full day home and it doesn't feel strange. Other places, surprisingly in Red states, I have found to feel more locked down and police enforcement/encouragement....even without an official lockdown order.

7
Random / Re: Travel to the Gorge this summer?
« on: April 29, 2020, 08:29:33 AM »
A simple Google search and you'll see Oregon is one of the stricter states right now, though as a result the CV threats seems to be improving:http://portlandobserver.com/news/2020/apr/20/after-month-lockdown-oregon-leads-nation/

How it will be in July no one has a crystal ball but you might want to be open to it not being like last year.

I have learned from going to a few different places that a simple google search doesn't tell you much. Lockdowns and police involvement look very different on the ground from place to place even though the official orders are similar. My city was one of the first to lock down under official order and the wording sounded strict, but it has never been strict in reality. We have unfettered movement. I have not yet spent a full day home and it doesn't feel strange. Other places, surprisingly in Red states, I have found to feel more locked down without an official lockdown order.

8
Random / Re: Perhaps more scary and longer lasting than the Virus.
« on: April 29, 2020, 08:25:42 AM »
Being smart is not proof against becoming addicted to conspiracy theories and alternate reality. In some ways, an active imagination and high degree of creativity open the door. We are all wired for it and it takes effort and discipline to remember how little we actually know. As soon as we settle into a belief it becomes self-reinforcing with all the flavors of confirmation bias. I actively try to purge the phrase "I believe" from my vocabulary and the notion that I know enough about anything to call something a fact.


This is one of the best paragraphs ever written on a message board.

9
Random / Re: Should we really wait for "them" to figure this out?
« on: April 29, 2020, 08:23:05 AM »
Well, it is a difficult problem but there certainly were better choices that could have been made that would not have led us to 50,000 dead....and that number is probably closer to 100,000 in reality.
Poor choices in the early weeks put us in the situation where it appears we have no good options. But even so, there are things to do going forward.

What could have been done: We had the model response right in front of us in South Korea. They mobilized massive testing immediately. In 17 days they had created a test and were doing tens of thousands of tests a day. They did this before we were hit hard.
We could have simply copied that model. Used their test. But no, we are the US. We can do it better right? We don't depend on SKorea for guidance. So we decided we needed our own tests and we screwed that up royally for 6 weeks. That was deadly. As we look back on this and learn the extent of the incompetence in government, Feb 2020, for the US, will go down as the height of incompetence.
We also lost that time in ordering supplies and gearing up.

What can we do going forward to open up?
Much more serious education about exactly how to avoid getting the virus AND avoid giving the virus. So many people still do not understand how to avoid getting sick. We have learned much but there is no strong competent, reasonable  voice simply educating us. Fauci could but he is required to tiptoe and dance to not upset the king. He needs to be using the briefings to do webinars and demos on how to not get it, not wasting time trying to speculate on how long for a vaccine or correct misinformation. He should be telling people that you must wash your hands before LEAVING your home, as well as when you come home. Too much emphasis has been on how not to get it and none on how not to give it.

Avoiding getting sick does not require staying home. It requires wearing masks and washing hands and keeping distance. Not touching each other and not touching our own faces. That is doable outside the home in most places. It doesn't even require gloves although maybe they remind you not to touch your face. I hypothesize that glasses probably provide more protection than gloves. I think the virus probably easily enters our system through eyes but no one talks about that. I could be dead wrong but it seems like something to look at after they look at injecting disinfectant.

So, yes, massive testing but we have shown our govt cannot accomplish that. As soon as we learned in late Feb that asymptomatic people are contagious, the only good answer was massive testing. We still have not taken testing seriously as a government. I think it is obvious that the CDC and Fed government were a huge hindrance to our testing capabilities, not a help.

So given lack of testing, the answer is requiring masks outside the home. Creating hand washing stations in more places. Every store who wants to open should be required to hand a wipe to every person walking in. We have a few stores here which hand out gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer to every customer on the way in, Microcenter is one. Obviously this requires supplies of wipes and masks which goes back to the lack of preparation in point one but it is doable. Trying to buy masks and wipes for everyone is more doable than trying to buy a fricking ventilator for everyone.

And obviously there were other options like Sweden's approach. You know you are going to take the hit so take it and get to herd immunity. It is a gamble and maybe that was not the right approach for the US. It took a very gutsy call and we don't have the leadership for that here. But it will probably pay off for them for the next year while we all still try to avoid the virus and rack up deaths. I posted on Reddit about the idea of purposely infecting myself at the very beginning of this when the 5 cases and each case had their own floor at the hospital and everyone thought I was nuts. I kind of wish I had done it but immunity is not clear.

I do think there are options.

10
Random / Travel to the Gorge this summer?
« on: April 23, 2020, 06:50:36 PM »
I am wondering about the chances of my annual July trip. What is the level of the lock down in Oregon?

My city was one of the first to lock down but it was never REALLY locked down. Lots of movement, lots of exemptions. Relative freedom. But I know other places have been much more strict.

I am sure things will be more relaxed by then, but just trying to get a feel for how strict Oregon has been.

11
Do you ever have sales on ke nalu paddles?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk


12
Random / Re: Mad as hell
« on: October 16, 2017, 01:19:00 PM »
Politics by it's very nature is a dirty rotten scoundrel line of work.  Everyone likes to pound the old cliché "Throw the bums out" and "drain the swam", but that's meaningless if the only people who are attracted to this line of work are on the shystery side.
Yeah it's easy to be mad but throwing the bums out won't fix it.
The system we have encourages this because they need to raise money all the time. It requires politicians to sell out

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk


13
SUP General / Re: Daily Cold Showers for Health
« on: October 06, 2017, 04:37:31 AM »
Yeah, Laird is a big proponent of ice baths. He talks about it alot on his show/training method XPT on Outside channel.

He goes from 32 degree ice bath to 200 degree sauna and back.

14
Downwind and Racing / Re: first race board
« on: October 03, 2017, 06:27:11 AM »
Given your experience and previous boards I recommend the 27.
I hope you really like to swim with a 23

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk


15
Downwind and Racing / Re: Downwind vs. upwind
« on: October 03, 2017, 06:20:45 AM »
I do know that feeling. With me it only happens in a gentle breeze
 Using the term downwind is throwing these other guys.
I say consider your technique if you are feeling this regularly. I get it when I am looking down for fish while paddling. Your brain only sees the ripples in the water and not the land. Relative to the ripples coming toward you it feels faster upwind.
But looking down at the water is not great paddle technique. If you look up into the distance you will have better balance, better paddle technique and you will get the true sense of your speed.
Or forget that and keep looking down because that feeling of clipping along over the ripples is oddly satisfying.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk


Pages: [1] 2 3 4

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal