Well that sucked...

[PonoBill]

The wind in Hood River was whacky today--super flat water calm interspersed with 50 mph gusts. Insane. So I headed east to Rufus. The big benefit of Rufus has always been plenty of room and not many people. Wow, has that changed. The parking lots, which are endlessly huge, were jammed with MoHos, trailers, and vehicles of every flavor. The water was equally jammed. Hundreds of kites, windsurfers, and a few boats, all claiming their own five meters of space.

The wind was good, the swell reasonable, and the crowd was unbearable. So I bailed.

The Wall, meaning the Washington side, is generally unpopulated. Today it was jammed with vehicles--about fifty in a place that legitimately takes ten and usually has two. So no.

I headed back to Hood River to see if anything had developed along that stretch that might accommodate a wobbly newb wingfoiler. I drove along at 70 MPH, getting blasted by occasional gusts of who knows what. I looked in my rearview window, and watched my brand new, never been wet, Axis foil blow out of the bed.

I had the wing tucked under my board, which had my GoFoil with a 280 on it, with the wing up near the cab. The only thing I can think of is that a side gust lifted the board by cranking on the GoFoil, released the axis, and blew it out of the bed.

Whatever, there it was, tumbling on the pavement at 70 MPH. Not good, in so many ways.

Fortunately, it didn't hit anyone, fortunately, the road was curving so the foil wound up off in the breakdown lane. I pulled off, ran back and recovered what I assumed was a destroyed expensive wad of aluminum and carbon. Surprisingly, the damage is minor. The leading edge is scratched and split, the tuttle adaptor has a few dings, but nothing I can't fix. Still--it was new!

In a rare moment of care, I had the covers on the wing and tail. They definitely saved the brittle bits from more serious damage. I'll shoot some pics. But in the helpful, cautionary tale, don't-fuck-up-like-this, category, I'd say don't assume heavy stuff with wings is going to stay inside a pickup bed. Normally I would have taken it apart and put it in the back seat, but I didn't have the torx wrench.

Anyway, that sucked, But nobody died or even got a papercut, and I can fix it. But still...

[Dwight (DW)]

Once you build out one of these, you’ll wonder how you ever suffered with pickup trucks for the last 40 years. I’m never going back to pickup trucks. I think I understand why pickup trucks never caught on in Europe...they had these awesome vans.

[Admin]

Consider it a sacrifice to the Anemoi.  Next session you will be doing foiling transitions.  If that works out for you I am going to heave a wing in the Dalles as well.

[TallDude]

Well at least you didn't get hit by a car or RV trying to retrieve it