Author Topic: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report  (Read 98883 times)

covesurfer

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #165 on: March 04, 2013, 12:46:36 PM »
Takeo, no problem, wish I was a better videographer!

I'm riding my Glide 14 - it's a 2012 shape, a little flatter nose rocker than the older version. I have an old windsurfing wave fin on it which loosens the board up a little over the stock fin.

Not a fan of cold water but we sure have plenty of it up here. At least the wetsuits are pretty good these days. Even with air temp in the 40's, I got pretty hot paddling yesterday and all that rubber seems to make it harder to paddle as well - still, it was worth it!


PonoBill

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #166 on: March 04, 2013, 01:05:17 PM »
The gill nets go in a little later. There's nothing quite like hitting one in a full on glide. Your board just disappears from under you.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Takeo

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #167 on: March 04, 2013, 01:51:42 PM »
Takeo, no problem, wish I was a better videographer!

I'm riding my Glide 14 - it's a 2012 shape, a little flatter nose rocker than the older version. I have an old windsurfing wave fin on it which loosens the board up a little over the stock fin.

Not a fan of cold water but we sure have plenty of it up here. At least the wetsuits are pretty good these days. Even with air temp in the 40's, I got pretty hot paddling yesterday and all that rubber seems to make it harder to paddle as well - still, it was worth it!

I had a 2012 14' Glide and miss it a lot, it's a great board.  When we did our downwind this past weekend, one of the guys was on a 2012 Glide and he was flying.  Luckily wind was to our back the whole way.  When we get sidewinds, it's hell paddling without a rudder.  I'm spoiled with my SIC.

covesurfer

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #168 on: March 04, 2013, 02:50:06 PM »
I was lucky enough to get over to Maui for a few months Nov - Jan and Pono Bill and Headmount took me on some amazing downwinders and PB loaned my his F-16. He even let me race on it in the Season Opener. That is a great board and no doubt the rudder is pretty important. He let me use it enough that I got a little attached to it! ;D

Here in the Gorge, it's usually pretty dead downwind and the Glides work great. But I don't think it would be much fun to paddle a fixed fin Glide across the Harbor at the end of a windy Maliko run.

Oh, and Bill, there are already nets all over the place, some not very well marked. I've come close, but haven't snagged one so far.

lee

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #169 on: March 09, 2013, 12:03:57 AM »
cove,man I'm jonesing for a DW session ,See you in a couple weeks for Chocolate milk Mondays .
Livin the dream @LEE's SUP

covesurfer

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #170 on: March 09, 2013, 10:17:08 PM »
It was marginal today - 15 knots, with some nice 30 second bursts of up to 25 that came through pretty often. It was me on my Glide, Josh in his OC and Mark on his Huki ski. I was glad I went, but finished feeling like a wrung out sponge.

The nights have been in the 20's the past week and so even though the daytime air is a little warmer, almost 60 today, the river is still really really cold - in the low 40's. Unpleasant to be sure. When considering the run today, I thought about a swim of any length in my 3 mil farmer john and 1.5 mil top and decided if that happened, I'd likely die. So, I went for my surf steamer 5/4/3. Problem is, you boil in the thing from paddling. And, it's really restrictive. Next time, I'll risk a lighter suit!

After a few miles, I was really uncomfortable, even though the conditions were actually pretty nice. Lots of smaller 3' faces with a four footer once in a great while. Still, it was a lot of fun when the glides linked up. 5 miles into the almost 8 mile run, I just wished I could be out of the suit and off the river. I felt like something in a crock pot might feel like, marinating in my own juices. I finished pretty dehydrated (won't leave my camelback at home next time) and feeling like I could barely paddle.  :P Even so, our time was pretty decent at an hour and a half. Being uncomfortable just shifts the focus so that you lose some of the exhilaration of a typical downwinder.

Tried a different camera angle and shot 5 minutes of vid for an hour and a half run.
http://youtu.be/_nKC5XlxH1Q

PonoBill

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #171 on: March 09, 2013, 10:34:40 PM »
If you really want to cook in your own juices try a Patagonia with the wool lining. I wish they're do about a 1 mil that way, it would slide on like a t-shirt and keep you warm as toast. Great tech, but overdone unless you're diving under the ice.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

JP4

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Re: Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #172 on: March 10, 2013, 01:17:46 AM »
That looked like a lot of fun CS!  Wish I could have gone out flailing around with you.
That one time I paddled around Wells Island last month in my 6/5 was enough to convince me to never paddle in that thick of a suit again!  You must have been miserable.
Looks like there was some decent little swell despite the dams being pretty much shut down right now.

covesurfer

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #173 on: April 08, 2013, 09:21:05 AM »
Yesterday, a group of us went east into the desert for some big westerlies and big swell. We drove about an hour east of Hood River to Blalock, no more than an exit off of I84 out in the desert. A short hop down an unimproved but entirely passable dirt trail/road and there is a little spot to park and a slough that runs parallel to the Columbia. You launch right into this little slough, which is very protected from the wind, paddle a short distance, take a 90 degree left and go out a tunnel into the main river. Very cool. When you hit the river, you are initially protected by a jetty that is just upwind of the tunnel opening. You have to paddle out quite a ways into the river to get around Blalock Point, about a mile downwind of the launch. The river is wide here and the swell is large and beautifully lined up.

The winds were 25 to 45 mph with sustained, large gusts. Swell was about four to seven feet with occasional sets of perfectly lined up rollers that were very clean. This was almost better than open ocean downwinding as the swell was so large and rolled so nicely with little surface cross chop.

The run is about 8 miles and I tracked it with my Garmin. My fastest glide was 16 mph. I don't think that was a spike either. I had other glides that were all around 12 mph, this riding a Glide 14. The last several miles saw the wind really start to build with a lot of sustained gusts in the 35 to 40 mph range. This made getting into the big rollers a lot easier.

The take out at the small town of Arlington is a bit like coming into Kahului Harbor entrance. You are getting a lot of push from the swell and the wind as you approach the rock jetty from upwind. Instead of going hard left like you do in the harbor, you have to come in close to the end of the jetty and turn hard right, using the surge to your advantage to help get out of the current. Once you're in, you have the protection of the jetty which is probably 15 or 20 feet high. Spray from breaking waves hitting the upwind side of the rocks was flying over to the lee side, very cool!

Arlington is right across from Roosevelt Park in Washington, a popular windsurfing site. Yesterday's conditions looked epic - there were many sailors out, mostly on 3.0's to 3.7's from what I could tell. Anyway, it looked fantastic.

The last part of the paddle is on the inlet into the town park in Arlington. There's not much current and the wind pushes you the right direction. It was so strong that at times I just used my paddle to steer. You land at a large sandy beach that leads to a grassy lawn - almost completely sheltered from the strong winds. This is where we left the shuttle vehicles. Nice big parking area and great place to take out. All in all, this is so far beyond any other run I've ever done in the Gorge. Just amazing. Highly recommend this when the conditions are going off. Shot a little video to showcase the conditions. As usual, the camera does not begin to do the swell justice.




 

PonoBill

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #174 on: April 08, 2013, 10:08:59 AM »
Wow, that's da Kine. Rod and I have talked about runs near Arlington incessantly, but we've only done little head fakes up at Biggs. I thought that long, straight, wide stretch around Arlington would be the best, there's big swell there every time I drive by. Looking forward to rocking that. We'll be back about the first week in May.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

headmount

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #175 on: April 08, 2013, 10:19:06 AM »
Fantastic write up and video.  Could easily extrapolate how good it was even with the distortion.  I want to go! What was the miles for the run?

Dig it that you went exploring.  Love the feeling.

covesurfer

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #176 on: April 08, 2013, 10:31:23 AM »
PB, looking forward to your return. You were missed yesterday! We will definitely have to do this run. It's a time commitment but worth it. I could even see doing a double or taking windsurf gear for a post paddle session, although you'd have to launch from Arlington which is no picnic as far as a windsurf launch goes.

HM, thanks! Glad you liked it. The run is just short of 9 miles. We had a great group of paddlers yesterday to do this. First time for all of us but not the last. You should visit!

peterp

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #177 on: April 08, 2013, 10:43:14 AM »
Looked great - wondering if these river and non-open ocean swell downwinders are in fact more fun on a SUP than the fabled open swell ones?

The only open ocean run we have is the Millers run and I've done one way up our coast where we were up to 9km off-shore - and both of those don't measure up in fun factor to our in-shore, wind-swell only, Milnerton run. Just looks and feels like glides are steeper, easier to get into and allows you to jump swells more easily than in the big ocean swells where it looks (and in my limited experience) feels like you have these big lumps running under you and maybe giving a small push from time to time. I find it hard to link anything meaningful in the bigger ocean swells.

DJ's local run in Australia also looks like non-stop steep little pearlers and thats also in-shore if I'm not mistaken?


pdxmike

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #178 on: April 08, 2013, 10:49:05 AM »
Plus when you finish, you can check out the Doc Severinsen memorial plaque outside the restrooms in the park.

LaPerouseBay

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Re: The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report
« Reply #179 on: April 08, 2013, 12:10:48 PM »
Nice video covesurfer.  Those were some fantastic glides.  And as you said, the cams make everything look smaller. 

I would advise more people to experiment with video.  Once you see how YOU appear, the vids on the internet have new meaning .  Trust me, those conditions he had were amazing.  You can see the texture and speed of the following swell.  The following swells meant he didn't need to struggle to mantain a glide for fear of losing it. 

This promotes easy experimenting across faces.  If you fall off the glide, a few strokes an you are back on again.  It just doesn't get any better when downwinding.  That's the fun factor that peterp is talking about- Miller's vs Milnerton runs. 

We have the same relationship with our Maliko vs south shore runs.  The south shore is has no fetch, is more groomed than Maliko.  Maliko is bigger, but my average speeds are faster (and I have more fun) on the south shore.  The big maliko swells are rarely caught, even in our big boats.  And we don't really 'catch' them, it's better described as 'reducing your losses.'  As in "try to maintain hull speed, surf down the back of the swell as it blasts past me"  It's an entirely different skill set, not well suited for standups. 

Only the elite paddlers (in any craft) are strong enough to truly exploit open ocean, longer period swells.  Sure, us average guys can shoot the reef and get a thrilling big drop, but your speed quickly drops to zero.  Then its back to building speed for the next one - if there is a next one.  One big glide per hour?  No thanks, I'll take 100 smaller ones, with a side of links, thank you. 

If you have wind on a lake or a river, get out there and try it.  The videos don't do it justice.  Small tight swells are a stone gas on standups.  You will see.  Waist high is heaven.  Head high? hold on to your hat.  And use a good leash.  Be safe.                 
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