Friday, December 11, 2009
[Blog] Peahi Rocks Out: Bleary eyed, with just a quick cup of scalding Maui coffee and some cold cereal to sustain me, I fired up the trusty, crusty Honda XR 650, shouldered t... http://ping.fm/q35sQ
Monday, November 30, 2009
[Blog] ..Now for something completely different: Video - Descente de cote en BuggyRollin http://ping.fm/sSheT
[Blog] ..Now for something completely different: Video - Descente de cote en BuggyRollin http://ping.fm/JzN3a
Monday, October 19, 2009
[Blog] Stand Up Paddle Surfing- Maui Hawaii: Ivan van Vuuren (Owner of COREBAN SUP GEAR www.Coreban.com & Premier H... http://ping.fm/zkb2h
Stand Up Paddle Surfing- Maui Hawaii
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/eqFlN)
Ivan van Vuuren (Owner of COREBAN SUP GEAR www.Coreban.com & Premier Hawaii), testing Jimmy Lewis 10ft during the making of new Stand Up paddle surfing movie- Available at www.ExtremeSportsMovies.com
Ivan van Vuuren (Owner of COREBAN SUP GEAR www.Coreban.com & Premier Hawaii), testing Jimmy Lewis 10ft during the making of new Stand Up paddle surfing movie- Available at www.ExtremeSportsMovies.com
[Blog] Stand Up Paddle Surfing- Maui Hawaii: Ivan van Vuuren (Owner of COREBAN SUP GEAR www.Coreban.com & Premier Hawaii), testing Jimmy Lewis 10ft during the making of new St... http://ping.fm/5PnvE
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Even Whackier
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/VJ1YX)
The Columbia River was nuts on Thursday , and I had a really fun paddle yesterday with Rod Parmenter and Mark Ribicoff. Today I needed to do some work on our new house in Hood River. By 9:00 AM the west wind was howling and I new it was going to be a good day. I worked like a fiend, got finished, had lunch with Diane and got her to shuttle me to Viento. Rod was out of town doing the race around Mercer Island, and I don't have Mark's cell number, so I went solo.
Driving to Viento the river looked amazing. Big swells, marching at an angle towards the south shore--the wind had swung southwest. We got to Viento park and I schlepped my board to the water, struggling against the wind. There were a few windsurfers hanging out. "You're not going to paddle that thing in this wind are you?" I said "sure, it's going to be fun" and they gave each other knowing glances. Clearly the considered me a few walnuts short of a bag.
I struggled to hold the board, paddle and hook on my leash. Took quite a few tries with the waves smashing into me. Felt like a clumsy morning at Kanaha. I got everything settled, hopped on and was off. Instant acceleration and instantly flying.
I think the wind was a steady 45 knots and the gusts were who knows what. The river was covered in spindrift and spray and the swells were monstrous, especially in the middle of the river. The first big swell I caught flung me forward over the swell in front of it and suddenly I had six or seven feet of board hanging over an eight or nine foot abyss. As I tipped over the edge I thought "Oh shit" but I had enough angle to survive the plunge, though the nose speared straight into the back of the swell in front of it. I blew through the swell with water spraying off my shins and caught that somewhat tattered swell as well. The sense of speed was intense, and growing. I've windsurfed most of my life and I'm used to high speeds in the Gorge. Good thing. This was just like that, only no booms to hold onto. Every time I caught a swell I railroaded at least five more. Sometimes way more than five.
For the first five miles I was totally alone in the river. The size of some of the swells was simply amazing for a river. My rudder wasn't doing much but I finally learned to coordinate rudder, lean angle and paddle to make decent turns. The long F18 is a handful, but it sure does fly, and it's amazingly stable in reflected chop and all the odd swells that were coming from every direction. I briefly considered a stop in the cove, but I was going pretty fast as it came up, and the 15 foot wide entry slot looked a bit narrow. Besides, I was having fun.
The wind started gusting strongly southwest just as I hit swell city. There were a few windsurfers out on very small sails going very fast. We exchanged high-speed pleasantries. I got into a death wobble curving around a particularly steep peak, went straight over the top and punched straight into the trough. I face-planted into the water next to the board. My board got sideways in the wave (my leash is attached to the center) and leashed dragged me for quite a while. Then I felt the calf leash slip down to my ankle. I hooked my toes up and held on. The board finally pulled out of the wave and I lurched across it.
Got to get a new leash.
I got back up and continued my wild ride. A few hundred yards later I fell for no apparent reason, but this time I hugged the board as I fell. Got back up, went a few hundred yards and a reflected wave backwashed me right off the board. I caught the tail and crawled back on.
The rest of the run was uneventful though fast. I got some really long rides in the shallows at the end of Wells Island, went by the Event Center on a nice big swell, curved into the boat channel and was done.
While I was putting the board back on the truck some people came by who had seen me pass the event center. One of the guys asked where the motor was. I explained swell riding, but he wasn't convinced. I heard him tell the other folks "that board ain't thick like that for nothin', there's a motor in there".
The speed range on the right side (red) goes to 17 MPH. Looks like most of my runs were 13-15 MPH. It looks like a fell quite a few times, but i didn't--only three--they might be where I stuck the board in the backside of a swell--did a lot of that.
Yeah, we had a bit of wind.
The Columbia River was nuts on Thursday , and I had a really fun paddle yesterday with Rod Parmenter and Mark Ribicoff. Today I needed to do some work on our new house in Hood River. By 9:00 AM the west wind was howling and I new it was going to be a good day. I worked like a fiend, got finished, had lunch with Diane and got her to shuttle me to Viento. Rod was out of town doing the race around Mercer Island, and I don't have Mark's cell number, so I went solo.
Driving to Viento the river looked amazing. Big swells, marching at an angle towards the south shore--the wind had swung southwest. We got to Viento park and I schlepped my board to the water, struggling against the wind. There were a few windsurfers hanging out. "You're not going to paddle that thing in this wind are you?" I said "sure, it's going to be fun" and they gave each other knowing glances. Clearly the considered me a few walnuts short of a bag.
I struggled to hold the board, paddle and hook on my leash. Took quite a few tries with the waves smashing into me. Felt like a clumsy morning at Kanaha. I got everything settled, hopped on and was off. Instant acceleration and instantly flying.
I think the wind was a steady 45 knots and the gusts were who knows what. The river was covered in spindrift and spray and the swells were monstrous, especially in the middle of the river. The first big swell I caught flung me forward over the swell in front of it and suddenly I had six or seven feet of board hanging over an eight or nine foot abyss. As I tipped over the edge I thought "Oh shit" but I had enough angle to survive the plunge, though the nose speared straight into the back of the swell in front of it. I blew through the swell with water spraying off my shins and caught that somewhat tattered swell as well. The sense of speed was intense, and growing. I've windsurfed most of my life and I'm used to high speeds in the Gorge. Good thing. This was just like that, only no booms to hold onto. Every time I caught a swell I railroaded at least five more. Sometimes way more than five.
For the first five miles I was totally alone in the river. The size of some of the swells was simply amazing for a river. My rudder wasn't doing much but I finally learned to coordinate rudder, lean angle and paddle to make decent turns. The long F18 is a handful, but it sure does fly, and it's amazingly stable in reflected chop and all the odd swells that were coming from every direction. I briefly considered a stop in the cove, but I was going pretty fast as it came up, and the 15 foot wide entry slot looked a bit narrow. Besides, I was having fun.
The wind started gusting strongly southwest just as I hit swell city. There were a few windsurfers out on very small sails going very fast. We exchanged high-speed pleasantries. I got into a death wobble curving around a particularly steep peak, went straight over the top and punched straight into the trough. I face-planted into the water next to the board. My board got sideways in the wave (my leash is attached to the center) and leashed dragged me for quite a while. Then I felt the calf leash slip down to my ankle. I hooked my toes up and held on. The board finally pulled out of the wave and I lurched across it.
Got to get a new leash.
I got back up and continued my wild ride. A few hundred yards later I fell for no apparent reason, but this time I hugged the board as I fell. Got back up, went a few hundred yards and a reflected wave backwashed me right off the board. I caught the tail and crawled back on.
The rest of the run was uneventful though fast. I got some really long rides in the shallows at the end of Wells Island, went by the Event Center on a nice big swell, curved into the boat channel and was done.
While I was putting the board back on the truck some people came by who had seen me pass the event center. One of the guys asked where the motor was. I explained swell riding, but he wasn't convinced. I heard him tell the other folks "that board ain't thick like that for nothin', there's a motor in there".
The speed range on the right side (red) goes to 17 MPH. Looks like most of my runs were 13-15 MPH. It looks like a fell quite a few times, but i didn't--only three--they might be where I stuck the board in the backside of a swell--did a lot of that.
Yeah, we had a bit of wind.
[Blog] Even Whackier: The Columbia River was nuts on Thursday , and I had a really fun paddle yesterday with Rod Pa... http://ping.fm/6NWsC
[Blog] Even Whackier: The Columbia River was nuts on Thursday , and I had a really fun paddle yesterday with Rod Parmenter and Mark Ribicoff. Today I needed to do some work on... http://ping.fm/05eJL
Thursday, September 24, 2009
[Blog] Runaway Train: Holy Maliko what a great run I just had. Waist to shoulder high swells, 40 knot wind, warm air, cool water, and ten miles of constant swell surfing. But ... http://ping.fm/qP8KI
Runaway Train
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/cX5my)
Holy Maliko what a great run I just had. Waist to shoulder high swells, 40 knot wind, warm air, cool water, and ten miles of constant swell surfing. But wait, this isn't Hawaii, it's Hood River!!
Diane offered to drop me off at Viento Park for a downwind run. I had hoped to hook up with Rod Parmenter, but after last evening's marathon paddle he committed to a mountain bike ride today. Rod and I tried to do a no-wind, downcurrent run from Rowena to Hood River. But when we got to Mosier (almost to Hood River) the wind picked up to honking and the last mile looked just too grim. So we turned around and ran back to Rowena and naturally the wind died a mile or so from Rowena, leaving us stroking tiredly against the current as the sun started setting. We made it just before it got dark.
I tried one other guy I've been swapping email with, but he's out of town. I had to hang out all morning until Gorgenet showed up to connect us to the web. With that done I gazed longingly at the blistering winds in the river until Diane decided to have mercy and be my shuttle driver. What a kid.
We got to Viento at 3:30 and I was in the water and paddling five minutes later. The wind was HOWLING and the swells in the normally flat section right off Viento were close to waist high. I started catching swell after swell, but as they got steeper my F18 started punching into more backsides and disappearing right up to my feet. Not to worry, the F18 stays straight when it does that, but it makes for a hairy ride. so I started steering radically every time I caught a swell. It worked like gangbusters. The speed was absolutely mind-boggling. My board was making that patty-pat-pat-patty sound of a windsurfer in full honk. Exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I started looking at the wimpy little coiled kiteboard leash that hooks me to the middle of the board. I learned this lesson long ago--hefty leash. I just didn't expect to need one on the Columbia. If I bailed and didn't catch the board that leash would part like a rotten sneaker lace.
My iPhone was playing "Runaway Train" over and over--somehow I stuck it in continuous play. I was irritated at first, but then I thought, how appropriate. rocking like a runaway train.
I thought "what the hell is going to happen when I hit swell city?" Twenty minutes later I found out when I hit swell city, or rather swell city hit me. "Holy fukowitz, those aren't swells, they're skateboard ramps". I hesitate to call the swells overhead in the presence of so many Hawaiians who would probably call them "tree feet". Instead I'd say they were six to eight feet--draw your own conclusions. All I know is that when I popped the nose over the top and pointed it down the swell it looked like I was headed for the river bottom like a lawn dart. In pure panic I gave it right full rudder, and the board zoomed to the bottom and slid sideways. "Holy shit, the wave is going to hit me" methinks, and I gave it left full rudder and roared up the back of the wave in front, over the top and down the other side. Right full rudder again, and I found a rhythm. Laughing like a lunatic, I slalomed through the moguls, going faster and faster until I thought I would surely blow a turn, hit the water and bounce.
I did about twenty turns in a row, then lost my balance and in the crazy acceleration tottered to the tail of the board--completely off the pad, holding onto the bare fiberglass with my toenails. I teetered there for literally minutes while the board was pointed straight down the face of a swell, rocketing along. Finally it slid to the bottom and leveled off, and I clawed my way back to the center. I thought "wow, if someone saw that from the side it probably looked like I knew what I was doing, instead of just barely being along for the ride." Sure enough, a windsurfer pulled up and said "holy crap, that was awesome. I have to get one of these". and then he said "wow, you're an old guy". I was way too flabbergasted by the wacko ride to respond, so I smiled lamely. Only later did I think I SHOULD have said "Oh, this is what we guys at the old folks home do when we burn out on pinochle".
I had little time to ponder all that because the wind was picking up. the tops of the swells were blowing off and the air was full of spindrift. The kite folks way up ahead off the sandbar disappeared. They might turn up somewhere in Idaho. Most of the windsurfers were gone as well, either saying their rosary and looking at the water or rigging a hankie sized sail so popular in the gorge on days like this. The few souls that remained on the water were touching down every fifty feet or so. I passed two windsurfers huddling in the water and slowed to check on them. They asked me when the wind was likely to drop. I suggested they roll up their stuff and float downwind to the hook. Hope they took my advice, they looked kind of scared.
A little cove I call the castle was coming up. I thought it might be cool to try to shoot the opening and take a break. It's a little slot in a rock wall, but I figured I could make it. When i went through the slot at mach 2 I realized what a chance I was taking. but it worked out. I got to change my iPhone to other music, shoot a few shots, and calm down. An hour of survival swell surfing was taking a toll. I watched a barge and tug coming up the river, smashing whitewater over the length of the barge. wild stuff.
When I hopped back on my board and pushed into the wind I raised my paddle to sail for a bit. I could barely hold it up as a sail. I was doing at least five knots just from wind on my body. I suspect the gusts might have hit 50. The swells were getting ripped to pieces by the wind. I rounded the tip of Wells Island and looked behind me to see a huge set of wells bearing down. I assume it was wake from the barge that was transformed by the wind into big face. They looked like reef waves--big, smooth faced, and feathering. I paddled into the first one and was off--I rode from the tip of wells island to well past the big log that juts out of the water midway down the island. An amazingly long ride. I didn't do any cutbacks with my F18, but I curved up and down the swell. wild ride. and when I dropped out the next one was right behind and ikt took me to the end of the island.
From there the ride was fairly uneventful, though when I went by the event center in the shallow water curving into the boat channel I caught a nice swell that carried me all the way through the mouth. While I was getting my stuff onto the truck a guy and two girls ran up to see what i was doing. they had been following me from the hook, and were completely blown away by the entire idea of riding a surfboard in the Columbia river. I could have sold them three board right then and there. They were literally overwhelmed--completely excited by the whole idea.
They should have seen it from My perspective.
Maliko is Maliko, but Hood River is a damn close second, with it's own unique set of challenges. I bet we're going to find some even better runs here. I can't wait.
Holy Maliko what a great run I just had. Waist to shoulder high swells, 40 knot wind, warm air, cool water, and ten miles of constant swell surfing. But wait, this isn't Hawaii, it's Hood River!!
Diane offered to drop me off at Viento Park for a downwind run. I had hoped to hook up with Rod Parmenter, but after last evening's marathon paddle he committed to a mountain bike ride today. Rod and I tried to do a no-wind, downcurrent run from Rowena to Hood River. But when we got to Mosier (almost to Hood River) the wind picked up to honking and the last mile looked just too grim. So we turned around and ran back to Rowena and naturally the wind died a mile or so from Rowena, leaving us stroking tiredly against the current as the sun started setting. We made it just before it got dark.
I tried one other guy I've been swapping email with, but he's out of town. I had to hang out all morning until Gorgenet showed up to connect us to the web. With that done I gazed longingly at the blistering winds in the river until Diane decided to have mercy and be my shuttle driver. What a kid.
We got to Viento at 3:30 and I was in the water and paddling five minutes later. The wind was HOWLING and the swells in the normally flat section right off Viento were close to waist high. I started catching swell after swell, but as they got steeper my F18 started punching into more backsides and disappearing right up to my feet. Not to worry, the F18 stays straight when it does that, but it makes for a hairy ride. so I started steering radically every time I caught a swell. It worked like gangbusters. The speed was absolutely mind-boggling. My board was making that patty-pat-pat-patty sound of a windsurfer in full honk. Exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I started looking at the wimpy little coiled kiteboard leash that hooks me to the middle of the board. I learned this lesson long ago--hefty leash. I just didn't expect to need one on the Columbia. If I bailed and didn't catch the board that leash would part like a rotten sneaker lace.
My iPhone was playing "Runaway Train" over and over--somehow I stuck it in continuous play. I was irritated at first, but then I thought, how appropriate. rocking like a runaway train.
I thought "what the hell is going to happen when I hit swell city?" Twenty minutes later I found out when I hit swell city, or rather swell city hit me. "Holy fukowitz, those aren't swells, they're skateboard ramps". I hesitate to call the swells overhead in the presence of so many Hawaiians who would probably call them "tree feet". Instead I'd say they were six to eight feet--draw your own conclusions. All I know is that when I popped the nose over the top and pointed it down the swell it looked like I was headed for the river bottom like a lawn dart. In pure panic I gave it right full rudder, and the board zoomed to the bottom and slid sideways. "Holy shit, the wave is going to hit me" methinks, and I gave it left full rudder and roared up the back of the wave in front, over the top and down the other side. Right full rudder again, and I found a rhythm. Laughing like a lunatic, I slalomed through the moguls, going faster and faster until I thought I would surely blow a turn, hit the water and bounce.
I did about twenty turns in a row, then lost my balance and in the crazy acceleration tottered to the tail of the board--completely off the pad, holding onto the bare fiberglass with my toenails. I teetered there for literally minutes while the board was pointed straight down the face of a swell, rocketing along. Finally it slid to the bottom and leveled off, and I clawed my way back to the center. I thought "wow, if someone saw that from the side it probably looked like I knew what I was doing, instead of just barely being along for the ride." Sure enough, a windsurfer pulled up and said "holy crap, that was awesome. I have to get one of these". and then he said "wow, you're an old guy". I was way too flabbergasted by the wacko ride to respond, so I smiled lamely. Only later did I think I SHOULD have said "Oh, this is what we guys at the old folks home do when we burn out on pinochle".
I had little time to ponder all that because the wind was picking up. the tops of the swells were blowing off and the air was full of spindrift. The kite folks way up ahead off the sandbar disappeared. They might turn up somewhere in Idaho. Most of the windsurfers were gone as well, either saying their rosary and looking at the water or rigging a hankie sized sail so popular in the gorge on days like this. The few souls that remained on the water were touching down every fifty feet or so. I passed two windsurfers huddling in the water and slowed to check on them. They asked me when the wind was likely to drop. I suggested they roll up their stuff and float downwind to the hook. Hope they took my advice, they looked kind of scared.
A little cove I call the castle was coming up. I thought it might be cool to try to shoot the opening and take a break. It's a little slot in a rock wall, but I figured I could make it. When i went through the slot at mach 2 I realized what a chance I was taking. but it worked out. I got to change my iPhone to other music, shoot a few shots, and calm down. An hour of survival swell surfing was taking a toll. I watched a barge and tug coming up the river, smashing whitewater over the length of the barge. wild stuff.
When I hopped back on my board and pushed into the wind I raised my paddle to sail for a bit. I could barely hold it up as a sail. I was doing at least five knots just from wind on my body. I suspect the gusts might have hit 50. The swells were getting ripped to pieces by the wind. I rounded the tip of Wells Island and looked behind me to see a huge set of wells bearing down. I assume it was wake from the barge that was transformed by the wind into big face. They looked like reef waves--big, smooth faced, and feathering. I paddled into the first one and was off--I rode from the tip of wells island to well past the big log that juts out of the water midway down the island. An amazingly long ride. I didn't do any cutbacks with my F18, but I curved up and down the swell. wild ride. and when I dropped out the next one was right behind and ikt took me to the end of the island.
From there the ride was fairly uneventful, though when I went by the event center in the shallow water curving into the boat channel I caught a nice swell that carried me all the way through the mouth. While I was getting my stuff onto the truck a guy and two girls ran up to see what i was doing. they had been following me from the hook, and were completely blown away by the entire idea of riding a surfboard in the Columbia river. I could have sold them three board right then and there. They were literally overwhelmed--completely excited by the whole idea.
They should have seen it from My perspective.
Maliko is Maliko, but Hood River is a damn close second, with it's own unique set of challenges. I bet we're going to find some even better runs here. I can't wait.
[Blog] Runaway Train: Holy Maliko what a great run I just had. Waist to shoulder high swells, 40 knot wind, warm ai... http://ping.fm/sga8R
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
[Blog] Whitewater SUP: Dan Gavere and Nikki Gregg invited me to join them on a whitewater SUP expedition on Sunday morning. The plan was to run the lower White Salmon river (I... http://ping.fm/s8pgs
Whitewater SUP
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/egcU7)
Dan Gavere and Nikki Gregg invited me to join them on a whitewater SUP expedition on Sunday morning. The plan was to run the lower White Salmon river (I think that's what they call the run--it goes from Rattlesnake Rapids to Northwestern Lake) and then do a downwinder on the Columbia. Sounded great to me.
My whitewater experience consists of flyfishing in the Deschutes river in a Hobie fishing catamaran and a few runs down the Deschutes in a drift boat, occasionally handling the oars. Still, I figured it wouldn't be that hard. I won't keep you in suspense--I sucked at it. I spent the morning kneeling on my board or bobbing through the whitewater alongside it. It was great fun, and for some masochistic reason I can't wait to try it again.
Everything works differently in the river. The toughest thing to learn (for me anyway) is to keep the up-current edge of the board angled up so the water runs under it. Also, your paddle works very differently depending on which way you are facing. Sometimes it zips away from you and sometimes it wants to hide under your board.
Nikki and Dan were great guides for the trip. Not only were they patient with my flailing but they taught me a lot--not that it probably showed yet. Dan is amazing on the board but he knows exactly how to break down what he's doing and explain it clearly. Didn't help, but that's my problem. Nikki hasn't been doing it as long as Dan, but she's really good and charges everything. Inspirational and fearless. Here's an animoto video of the two of them, first running Rattlesnake rapids, then a long turn with a big rock in the middle of the drop, and finally surfing in some standing waves. Enjoy.
Dan Gavere and Nikki Gregg invited me to join them on a whitewater SUP expedition on Sunday morning. The plan was to run the lower White Salmon river (I think that's what they call the run--it goes from Rattlesnake Rapids to Northwestern Lake) and then do a downwinder on the Columbia. Sounded great to me.
My whitewater experience consists of flyfishing in the Deschutes river in a Hobie fishing catamaran and a few runs down the Deschutes in a drift boat, occasionally handling the oars. Still, I figured it wouldn't be that hard. I won't keep you in suspense--I sucked at it. I spent the morning kneeling on my board or bobbing through the whitewater alongside it. It was great fun, and for some masochistic reason I can't wait to try it again.
Everything works differently in the river. The toughest thing to learn (for me anyway) is to keep the up-current edge of the board angled up so the water runs under it. Also, your paddle works very differently depending on which way you are facing. Sometimes it zips away from you and sometimes it wants to hide under your board.
Nikki and Dan were great guides for the trip. Not only were they patient with my flailing but they taught me a lot--not that it probably showed yet. Dan is amazing on the board but he knows exactly how to break down what he's doing and explain it clearly. Didn't help, but that's my problem. Nikki hasn't been doing it as long as Dan, but she's really good and charges everything. Inspirational and fearless. Here's an animoto video of the two of them, first running Rattlesnake rapids, then a long turn with a big rock in the middle of the drop, and finally surfing in some standing waves. Enjoy.
[Blog] Whitewater SUP: Dan Gavere and Nikki Gregg invited me to join them on a whitewater SUP expedition on Sunday ... http://ping.fm/1ft9T
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Cape Cod Bay Challenge--blow by blow
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/AwYOD)
This is a bit of an experiment--an audio article. My voice is kind of nasal and my narrating skills are very rusty, but we'll give it a shot.
http://ping.fm/sThia
Bob (Stoneaxe) Diane and Mike (ECSup) wearing whack hats. Mike showed up at Bob's house the day before the CCBC paddle with a car full of whacky stuff, including the RonJon hat with surf hair that Bob is wearing. Sue and Bob had anticipated Mike's wackiness and got him this amazing visor.
Mike is as bald as a cue ball.
Bob doesn't have much hair either. The facial slump is a remnant of Bob's recent surgery, It's supposed to go away. If it doesn't he'll still be the same lumpy guy with a big heart.
The paddlers and their friend gather at 0530
This is the track we took, as recorded by my Garmin 305. A few wobbles in there. I went back to the rear twice to check on folks.
Too many stops, but we needed to keep everyone reasonably close with just one boat.
Flat and calm, what a beautiful morning we had
Pretty classic Cape Cod
The paddlers head to the water like a herd of ducks. Flock, gaggle, wad?
And we're off
Nice conditions. We set a good strong early pace, but it might have been a little aggressive
We met the boat about three miles out
Heading for the lighthouse. we turned the corner on the spit and took a heading of 101 degrees
Entering Provincetown nine hours later
Big bald Mike blows the ceremonial conch
Rounding the breakwater and forming up so we can land together
Tired but happy.
Looks like I'm kind of sinking Bob's 12'6" Starboard--must just be the camera angle
The crew--everyone made it.
Prizes, awards, and presentations
This is a bit of an experiment--an audio article. My voice is kind of nasal and my narrating skills are very rusty, but we'll give it a shot.
http://ping.fm/sThia
Bob (Stoneaxe) Diane and Mike (ECSup) wearing whack hats. Mike showed up at Bob's house the day before the CCBC paddle with a car full of whacky stuff, including the RonJon hat with surf hair that Bob is wearing. Sue and Bob had anticipated Mike's wackiness and got him this amazing visor.
Mike is as bald as a cue ball.
Bob doesn't have much hair either. The facial slump is a remnant of Bob's recent surgery, It's supposed to go away. If it doesn't he'll still be the same lumpy guy with a big heart.
The paddlers and their friend gather at 0530
This is the track we took, as recorded by my Garmin 305. A few wobbles in there. I went back to the rear twice to check on folks.
Too many stops, but we needed to keep everyone reasonably close with just one boat.
Flat and calm, what a beautiful morning we had
Pretty classic Cape Cod
The paddlers head to the water like a herd of ducks. Flock, gaggle, wad?
And we're off
Nice conditions. We set a good strong early pace, but it might have been a little aggressive
We met the boat about three miles out
Heading for the lighthouse. we turned the corner on the spit and took a heading of 101 degrees
Entering Provincetown nine hours later
Big bald Mike blows the ceremonial conch
Rounding the breakwater and forming up so we can land together
Tired but happy.
Looks like I'm kind of sinking Bob's 12'6" Starboard--must just be the camera angle
The crew--everyone made it.
Prizes, awards, and presentations
[Blog] Cape Cod Bay Challenge--blow by blow: This is a bit of an experiment--an audio article. My voice is kind of nasal and my narrating skills are very rusty, but we'll give... http://ping.fm/kVwW6
[Blog] Cape Cod Bay Challenge--blow by blow: This is a bit of an experiment--an audio article. My voice is kind of ... http://ping.fm/DflJY
Viento Park to Hood River Downwinder
(My Original Blog Post: http://www.kenalu.com/2009/08/25/viento-park-to-hood-river-downwinder/)
We were in Hood River today (Diane and I) to finalize purchasing our house there. To celebrate I took a nice downwinder from Viento park to Hood River and used my iPhone to record the trip as a GPS track. There's the slideshow. clik on the play button to see the animation. Not hugely exciting, but it has possibilities.
We were in Hood River today (Diane and I) to finalize purchasing our house there. To celebrate I took a nice downwinder from Viento park to Hood River and used my iPhone to record the trip as a GPS track. There's the slideshow. clik on the play button to see the animation. Not hugely exciting, but it has possibilities.
Hood river downwind
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[Blog] Viento Park to Hood River Downwinder: We were in Hood River today (Diane and I) to finalize purchasing our h... http://ping.fm/5jhEM
[Blog] Viento Park to Hood River Downwinder: We were in Hood River today (Diane and I) to finalize purchasing our house there. To celebrate I took a nice downwinder from Vient... http://ping.fm/uoRul
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Hood River Big Winds Windup
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/BOfmU)
Sunday was the final event in the Hood River Big Winds SUP racing series, and a fine windup it was. We had a grueling Thursday evening race, and I'll cover that first.
Nick Stuart has been laying out the courses for the series as well as acting as the starter and paddling in the races, and he's done a great job at it. Virtually every race presented new challenges and required different skills and SUP racing knowledge. The early races offered variations on a straight race from the Hook with varying amounts of upwind effort required. Then he added in paddling upwind around Wells Island and a longer downwind section. Most recently we did a straight downwind run from the hatchery to the event center--a run of about 2.5 miles in high winds and fine swells. Then this Thursday he got out the big hammer.
I guess part of the reason we did this course was the trailer that usually carries a bunch of the SUP rentals up to the hook wasn't available, so Nick figured we needed to start and finish at the event center. The course he laid out was a run slightly upwind, and then straight out into the river, going around the big sandbar that the kiteboarders launch from (the satellite photo in the map shown below is a bit old, the sandbar is a lot bigger now). Then along the back of the sandbar and up the Hood River, against the current up to the footbridge. A quick 180 turn and back down the river to the base of the sandbar WHERE YOU PICK YOUR BOARD UP AND RUN ACROSS to the channel that runs into the old boat launch channel next to the event center.
Okay, well that sucks. Especially since the only suitable board I had on the truck was my 17'6" F18. But I would give it my best.
A substantial women's group (eight paddlers) lined up before the men. Ten minutes later the eleven men lined up and we were off. The big SIC F18 handled the crosswind nicely, and stayed up with the leaders as the group spread out, dashing for the end of the sandbar about mid-river. As I paddled I realized how shallow the water was and angled out a little to make sure my rudder didn't strike. The sandbar fell away as we neared the end, so I angled a bit downriver and caught a few little swells. The wind was about 20 knots. As I turned to cut across the end of the sandbar my paddle hit bottom at the start of a stroke just as a swell hit my board. I tettered, and fell, hopping straight into the water feet first. Big mistake--I felt the old skateboard injury in my right ankle flare with pain, but I hopped back on the board and started paddling hard. I lost some ground and fell back into third. Rounding the east end of the sandbar I ran into some shallow water and had to jump off and run the board out to the deeper channel. But still by the time we were approaching the mouth of Hood River I was close on the heels of second and third place--even briefly passed Rod Parmenter and got into third, but I went the wrong way while passing one to the woman paddlers and ran out of water again.
The slog up the river was hard, both because of the current and the necessity of reading the water to avoid rocks and shallows. Dan Gavere was hundreds of yards ahead, paddling in his backyard. At the turnaround I was in forth with no one behind me for a long way. Rod and Craig Bishop were right ahead, still in reach. We paddled hard down the river together. When we reached the closest spot to pull out and start the run I followed Rod and Craig up onto the beach. I briefly considered paddling down the shore much further, but I thought running would be faster.
Big Mistake.
I got the board on my back and started running. Rod and Craig sprinted away. The wind was pushing my board all over, and my run was more of a stagger. Nick Stuart passed me, Doug Hopkins passed me, Nick Leonard passed me. I staggered into the water and tossed my board down. Too shallow. I picked up the tail and started running (sort of) up the channel to the deeper water. "Here's where my heart seizes up and I pitch on my face" I thought. No such luck. Travis Ronk passed me. I got on my board and paddled hard to the finish. When I crossed the line I tossed myself into the water and floated. Damn.
Ninth place, my worst finish of the series. But I definitely won the "didn't die" award. And Diane said I was a stud. We went to the Pourhouse and had a nice dinner. Sometime around midnight I finally caught my breath. Got to work on that running part.
Anyway, on to the last race. Rod Parmenter asked to borrow my Point so he could have a shot at beating Dan Gavere. I said "sure" and brought it along for him. The race meeting was at Ten AM which left time to go to Bette's for breakfast. Anyone who has been to Hood River knows what that means--good food and too much of it. Diane and I both had crab omelets . The perfect training food.
The wind was howling so Nick called for a downwinder from the hatchery. Perfect. Nick wanted to add the extra challenge of swinging to the south side behind Wells Island, but we talked him out of it because the wind had a bit too much south in it. Besides, the swells up by the hatchery were pretty good sized--fun riding them. A substantially smaller group of four women paddlers took off and were soon remote specks. Ten minutes later we started, and I got into some nice runs right away.
My plan was to angle across the river gradually, and hit the slower current close to the shor just after passing Wells Island. The swells usually get a lot smaller upriver from the Hatch, and I thought that might be the fastest track. I was solidly in third, with Dan Gavere and Rod Parmenter sprinting away. I thought they would burn each other out, but they never slowed down. In the meantime I was getting some great rides on my F18 and conserving energy, trying to stay ahead of Craig Bishop who was already hugging the south shore. As the rides atarted to peter out, Craig started to pull past me, paddling hard in the slower current close to shore. The swells looked wimpy in there, so I figured my F18 was better off a bit offshore. Then I fell. Can't even say why--I just did. It's a bit of a bitch getting back on the F18 because it floats so high. While I struggled onto my board Nick Stuart passed me and pulled out a lead. "Damn, that's not happening" I thought, not after he passed me in the sand on that grim run Thursday night. I paddled hard to catch him--and fell again!
By now Nick had a good lead, and someone else was pulling up close on my port side. I concentrated on catching swells and getting the most out of every ride, and I slowly closed on Nick. I pulled up directly behind him, robbing some of his wind, and then pulled around and passed. "Will you get that damned big thing out of here" he said as I pulled past. "My board or my butt" I said, and then added "Okay" and I did.
Up ahead Dan and Rod crossed the narrow neck to the finish line nearly side-by-side but I could see Dan had him by a few feet. Craig Bishop was well ahead of me--out of range for any final dash notions I might have. I paddled hard to the end and as I cross the shallow neck into the boat channel my board hit sand. I jumped off and pushed through the shallows then hopped back on to finish a few feet ahead of Nick. Good enough, a solid fourth. I felt redeemed after Thursdays dismal showing.
The top four overall finishers in both groups got some nice swag--paddles for first and second, Da Kine bags, shirts and such. The three finishers also get invited to San Diego for the series final. I finished fifth overall for the series. Missing one race and scoring low on two had moved me out of the hunt. But I had a great time, met some truly fine people, and was motivated to train hard for weeks.
Doing your own race series
I think the Big Winds race series points out very clearly that you can do a successful SUP race series anywhere. You don't need an ocean, don't need waves. You can deal with any kind of wind or current. All you need to do is be as clever as Nick Stuart was in choosing the courses to fit conditions. The course don't need to be super long, and you don't need a huge number of participants for it to be fun. The participants will improve over the course of the series so you can make it progressively tougher. If Nick had sent us upwind around Wells Island the first night probably half the paddlers would have quit before the turn, but by the third event they were ready for it and all made it.
It doesn't take much money--numbered jerseys are about all you need. Your race buoys can be milk jugs with an anchor. It doesn't take a huge amount of organization--someone to write the numbers down as people cross the line.
Basically you just have to do it.
Results:
Sunday was the final event in the Hood River Big Winds SUP racing series, and a fine windup it was. We had a grueling Thursday evening race, and I'll cover that first.
Nick Stuart has been laying out the courses for the series as well as acting as the starter and paddling in the races, and he's done a great job at it. Virtually every race presented new challenges and required different skills and SUP racing knowledge. The early races offered variations on a straight race from the Hook with varying amounts of upwind effort required. Then he added in paddling upwind around Wells Island and a longer downwind section. Most recently we did a straight downwind run from the hatchery to the event center--a run of about 2.5 miles in high winds and fine swells. Then this Thursday he got out the big hammer.
I guess part of the reason we did this course was the trailer that usually carries a bunch of the SUP rentals up to the hook wasn't available, so Nick figured we needed to start and finish at the event center. The course he laid out was a run slightly upwind, and then straight out into the river, going around the big sandbar that the kiteboarders launch from (the satellite photo in the map shown below is a bit old, the sandbar is a lot bigger now). Then along the back of the sandbar and up the Hood River, against the current up to the footbridge. A quick 180 turn and back down the river to the base of the sandbar WHERE YOU PICK YOUR BOARD UP AND RUN ACROSS to the channel that runs into the old boat launch channel next to the event center.
Okay, well that sucks. Especially since the only suitable board I had on the truck was my 17'6" F18. But I would give it my best.
A substantial women's group (eight paddlers) lined up before the men. Ten minutes later the eleven men lined up and we were off. The big SIC F18 handled the crosswind nicely, and stayed up with the leaders as the group spread out, dashing for the end of the sandbar about mid-river. As I paddled I realized how shallow the water was and angled out a little to make sure my rudder didn't strike. The sandbar fell away as we neared the end, so I angled a bit downriver and caught a few little swells. The wind was about 20 knots. As I turned to cut across the end of the sandbar my paddle hit bottom at the start of a stroke just as a swell hit my board. I tettered, and fell, hopping straight into the water feet first. Big mistake--I felt the old skateboard injury in my right ankle flare with pain, but I hopped back on the board and started paddling hard. I lost some ground and fell back into third. Rounding the east end of the sandbar I ran into some shallow water and had to jump off and run the board out to the deeper channel. But still by the time we were approaching the mouth of Hood River I was close on the heels of second and third place--even briefly passed Rod Parmenter and got into third, but I went the wrong way while passing one to the woman paddlers and ran out of water again.
The slog up the river was hard, both because of the current and the necessity of reading the water to avoid rocks and shallows. Dan Gavere was hundreds of yards ahead, paddling in his backyard. At the turnaround I was in forth with no one behind me for a long way. Rod and Craig Bishop were right ahead, still in reach. We paddled hard down the river together. When we reached the closest spot to pull out and start the run I followed Rod and Craig up onto the beach. I briefly considered paddling down the shore much further, but I thought running would be faster.
Big Mistake.
I got the board on my back and started running. Rod and Craig sprinted away. The wind was pushing my board all over, and my run was more of a stagger. Nick Stuart passed me, Doug Hopkins passed me, Nick Leonard passed me. I staggered into the water and tossed my board down. Too shallow. I picked up the tail and started running (sort of) up the channel to the deeper water. "Here's where my heart seizes up and I pitch on my face" I thought. No such luck. Travis Ronk passed me. I got on my board and paddled hard to the finish. When I crossed the line I tossed myself into the water and floated. Damn.
Ninth place, my worst finish of the series. But I definitely won the "didn't die" award. And Diane said I was a stud. We went to the Pourhouse and had a nice dinner. Sometime around midnight I finally caught my breath. Got to work on that running part.
Anyway, on to the last race. Rod Parmenter asked to borrow my Point so he could have a shot at beating Dan Gavere. I said "sure" and brought it along for him. The race meeting was at Ten AM which left time to go to Bette's for breakfast. Anyone who has been to Hood River knows what that means--good food and too much of it. Diane and I both had crab omelets . The perfect training food.
The wind was howling so Nick called for a downwinder from the hatchery. Perfect. Nick wanted to add the extra challenge of swinging to the south side behind Wells Island, but we talked him out of it because the wind had a bit too much south in it. Besides, the swells up by the hatchery were pretty good sized--fun riding them. A substantially smaller group of four women paddlers took off and were soon remote specks. Ten minutes later we started, and I got into some nice runs right away.
My plan was to angle across the river gradually, and hit the slower current close to the shor just after passing Wells Island. The swells usually get a lot smaller upriver from the Hatch, and I thought that might be the fastest track. I was solidly in third, with Dan Gavere and Rod Parmenter sprinting away. I thought they would burn each other out, but they never slowed down. In the meantime I was getting some great rides on my F18 and conserving energy, trying to stay ahead of Craig Bishop who was already hugging the south shore. As the rides atarted to peter out, Craig started to pull past me, paddling hard in the slower current close to shore. The swells looked wimpy in there, so I figured my F18 was better off a bit offshore. Then I fell. Can't even say why--I just did. It's a bit of a bitch getting back on the F18 because it floats so high. While I struggled onto my board Nick Stuart passed me and pulled out a lead. "Damn, that's not happening" I thought, not after he passed me in the sand on that grim run Thursday night. I paddled hard to catch him--and fell again!
By now Nick had a good lead, and someone else was pulling up close on my port side. I concentrated on catching swells and getting the most out of every ride, and I slowly closed on Nick. I pulled up directly behind him, robbing some of his wind, and then pulled around and passed. "Will you get that damned big thing out of here" he said as I pulled past. "My board or my butt" I said, and then added "Okay" and I did.
Up ahead Dan and Rod crossed the narrow neck to the finish line nearly side-by-side but I could see Dan had him by a few feet. Craig Bishop was well ahead of me--out of range for any final dash notions I might have. I paddled hard to the end and as I cross the shallow neck into the boat channel my board hit sand. I jumped off and pushed through the shallows then hopped back on to finish a few feet ahead of Nick. Good enough, a solid fourth. I felt redeemed after Thursdays dismal showing.
The top four overall finishers in both groups got some nice swag--paddles for first and second, Da Kine bags, shirts and such. The three finishers also get invited to San Diego for the series final. I finished fifth overall for the series. Missing one race and scoring low on two had moved me out of the hunt. But I had a great time, met some truly fine people, and was motivated to train hard for weeks.
Doing your own race series
I think the Big Winds race series points out very clearly that you can do a successful SUP race series anywhere. You don't need an ocean, don't need waves. You can deal with any kind of wind or current. All you need to do is be as clever as Nick Stuart was in choosing the courses to fit conditions. The course don't need to be super long, and you don't need a huge number of participants for it to be fun. The participants will improve over the course of the series so you can make it progressively tougher. If Nick had sent us upwind around Wells Island the first night probably half the paddlers would have quit before the turn, but by the third event they were ready for it and all made it.
It doesn't take much money--numbered jerseys are about all you need. Your race buoys can be milk jugs with an anchor. It doesn't take a huge amount of organization--someone to write the numbers down as people cross the line.
Basically you just have to do it.
Results:
Scoring is 1st = 10 points; 2nd = 8; 3rd = 7; 4th = 6; 5th = 5; 6th = 4; 7th = 3; 8th = 2; 9th+ = 1
Women’s Division
| Paddler | 18-Jun | 25-Jun | 2-Jul | 9-Jul | 16-Jul | 23-Jul | 30-Jul | 2-Aug | Total | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Wrenn | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 70 | 1 |
| Skye Robbins | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 53 | 2 | ||
| Victoria Hopkins | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 49 | 3 | |
| Emma Rose Rossoff | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 33 | 4 | ||
| Amanda Borel | 8 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 5 | ||
| Cynthia Brown | 3 | 1 | 17 | 6 | ||||||
| Elizabeth Whelan | 5 | 4 | 5 | 16 | 7 | |||||
| Tami Starczak | 5 | 4 | 11 | 8 | ||||||
| Nikki Gregg | 1 | 10 | 9 | |||||||
| Lindsay Claus | 6 | 7 | 8 | dq | 9 | 10 | ||||
| Katie Crafts | 5 | 5 | 11 | |||||||
| Meg Chun | 5 | 5 | 11 | |||||||
| Amy Combs | 6 | 4 | 13 | |||||||
| Erin Gates | 7 | 3 | 14 | |||||||
| Mariva England | 7 | 3 | 14 | |||||||
| Carol Shick | 7 | 3 | 14 | |||||||
| Cat Kutz | 8 | 2 | 17 | |||||||
| Charlotte Bell | 9 | 11 | 2 | 17 | ||||||
| MJ Reeves | 8 | 2 | 17 | |||||||
| Alyson Fromm | 9 | 1 | 20 | |||||||
| Beatriz Acosta | dq | 1 | 20 | |||||||
| Sarah Lyon | 10 | 1 | 20 | |||||||
| Susan Rourst | dq | 0 | 23 |
Men’s Division
| Paddler | 18-Jun | 25-Jun | 2-Jul | 9-Jul | 16-Jul | 23-Jul | 30-Jul | 2-Aug | Total | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan Gavere | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 58 | 1 | ||
| Rod Parmenter | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 52 | 2 | |
| Craig Bishop | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 48 | 3 | ||
| Nick Stuart | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 46 | 4 |
| Bill Babcock | 3 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 32 | 5 | |
| Doug Hopkins | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 30 | 6 | |
| Mike Haase | 4 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 24 | 7 | |||
| Travis Ronk | 6 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 23 | 8 |
| Dave Kalama | 1 | 8 | 12 | 9 | ||||||
| Owen Macdonald | 5 | 3 | 12 | 9 | ||||||
| John Davies | 1 | 10 | 11 | |||||||
| David Ambrose | 7 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 11 | |||
| Kent Forrest | 6 | 5 | 9 | 13 | ||||||
| Michi Schweiger | 2 | 8 | 14 | |||||||
| Steve Gates | 2 | 8 | 14 | |||||||
| Lee Murray | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 14 | ||
| Robby Naish | 3 | 7 | 17 | |||||||
| Mark Ribcoff | 13 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 17 | ||||
| Alex Stankie | 10 | 13 | 27 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 19 | ||
| Nick Leonard | 7 | 8 | 5 | 20 | ||||||
| Bob Rueter | 11 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 4 | 21 | ||||
| John Wren | 13 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 21 | ||||
| Dan Schwaz | 19 | 11 | 13 | 3 | 23 | |||||
| Ashlee Bridgewater | 17 | 16 | 18 | 3 | 23 | |||||
| Mark Wiltz | 7 | 3 | 23 | |||||||
| Maui Meyer | 14 | 20 | 13 | 3 | 23 | |||||
| TJ Gulizia | 7 | 3 | 23 | |||||||
| Matt Willett | 18 | 12 | 2 | 28 | ||||||
| Greg Starczak | 15 | 12 | 2 | 28 | ||||||
| Raimund Pichler | 10 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Jeff Pritcher | 11 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| John Rurenn | 14 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Tripp Frey | 16 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Johnny Simms | 20 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Kyle Simms | 21 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Ben Groener | 22 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Stuart Shankland | 23 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Adam Shankland | 24 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Mike Groedner | 25 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Derek Fromm | 26 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Aaron Paz | 15 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Bob Anaceron | 18 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Brad Gordan | 16 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Chris Boston | 12 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| John Ritter | 13 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Jon Sassonne | 9 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Mark Ames | 14 | 1 | 30 | |||||||
| Trevor Gregson | 9 | 1 | 30 |
[Blog] Hood River Big Winds Windup: Sunday was the final event in the Hood River Big Winds SUP racing series, and a... http://ping.fm/0Je7y
[Blog] Hood River Big Winds Windup: Sunday was the final event in the Hood River Big Winds SUP racing series, and a fine windup it was. We had a grueling Thursday evening race... http://ping.fm/HzjkX
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Micro Maliko
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/mBS0m)
I've been looking for a good downwinder on the Oregon Coast. It might not be a great place to look since the prevailing wind is almost straight onshore, but topology changes wind radically, as Maui demonstrates nearly every day. If it didn't there would never be a south side downwinder Haleakala redirects the trades dramatically. I figured Neahkahnie Mountain might do the same on the northern Oregon coast, but until last weekend all I've gotten for my troubles is a lot of long crosswind paddles in spooky places.
Last weekend my wife had a girls trip planned with some friend to our beach house in Manzanita. I was invited along for the first day to schlep, cook barbecued Oysters, back a few crab and bar tend. Not such bad duty considering my wife's beautiful friends. I planned to do a little exploring, torture myself with some icewater surfing, and the beat feet back to Portland when my welcome ran out. Unfortunately one of Diane's friends had a family crisis, but every cloud has a silver lining--I was permitted to stay longer. And I got a email from my friend Paul suggesting some downwinder exploring and surfing--perfect, and exactly what I had in mind, only now I had someone to go with.
Paul showed up early Saturday morning, but not early enough. I had decided to catch some early morning surf. Unfortunately the surf sucked, and the only surfing SUP board I had only brought was my Starboard 12'2 X 26". I like surfing this board in clean waves, but in the slop and chop it was a handful. I caught a few nice rides, but I was getting dunked enough to get an ice cream headache. And the flimsy, ancient windsurfing two piece wetsuit I was wearing was about as warms as a T-shirt. We decided to scout for something better. We drove North, looking at a few uninspiring breaks, watched a couple of longboarders doing an unrewarding drop-turn-bail in the shorebreak, and stared in amazement at the Short Sands parking lot where hundreds of cars were unloading boards of all lengths, but mostly extremely short boards that would never catch the knee high mushburgers that dribbled in. Must be some kind of mating ritual.
With the wind rising steadily, we decided to retreat to the Nahalem River and do a paddle. We left Paul's rig at Brighton Marina near the mouth of the river, and drove upriver about eight miles to an easy entry--an old semi-abandoned boat ramp. The first five miles were pleasant but unremarkable, but the wind rose steadily until it was blowing about 15 knots in our faces. The tide was going out, so the river current provide a good offset to the wind, and we made good progress until we reached the last bend where the wind was howling and our position was unprotected. I waited for Paul and said "do we slog it out for two more miles or bail and paddle back six?" We decided to slog, and I proceeded to paddle hard, incing forward until I finally rounded the bend. As I made the turn I realized the last two miles wouldn't be a slog at all if I did the route just right. The river turned enough to head away from the coast before it made it's final reversal and spilled out over the bar. A huge mudflat extended along the near shore, and the wind would be straight on the the flats and cross-current to my direction for some ways, but then I could turn and run downwind to the marina. Looked like fun.
I paddled hard along the shore, using the rails and the rudder to keep my big 17'6" SIC F-18 off the flats. The paddling got easier as I rounded the flats, and then suddenly I was riding swells. The wind was pushing some nice peaks, and the shallow water near the flats gave the wave faces definition. I held a line aiming past the marina to make sure I didn't undershoot, but soon the wind was mostly at my back and the rides were getting longer and faster.
By the time I was half a mile from Brighton Marina I had switched to a surfing stance to control the board and was using the rudder to chase the peaks, railroading swells together continuously. The board was flying. I came into the mouth of the dock area on a plane, turned behind the finger docks and slid to a stop next to a slip. Stepped off like I did this everyday. The people fishing and crabbing on the dock were slack-jawed, reaching for cameras and gawking. I wouldn't have made a more shocking entry if I'd landed a flying saucer. "Migod, how the hell did you do that and what is that thing?" a chunky fisherman asked. A woman and two kids came over and the lady said her kids thought I was waterskiing without a boat.
I went to the end of the dock to look for Paul--no where in sight. Uh-oh. I figured he might not have been able to get around the corner, might have turned back to Paradise Cove, might have turned into the bay behind the mudflats, might have bailed and was now walking the highway in a shorty wetsuit. I did the only rational thing--went up to the Brighton Marina Store and bought a six-pack of Alaska Amber and some fritos.
I sat on the dock with a beer and the chips and watched the edge of the mud flats two miles away. I finally saw a spot of black and a flash of red and white. My Starboard Point with Paul on it. He was pushing it along the flats. He'd gotten in too close and couldn't claw his way off. Once he cleared the corner he was back up on the board, and a few minute later pulled into the docks riding a swell with a big grin. "Let's do that last part again!" he said. So we did.
This Micro Malko run is short, but intense. After we had recovered my truck from the Nahalem River launch point we left it at Brighton Marina and drove Paul's rig to the boat launch in Nahalem Bay State Park. The state park has a three dollar day use fee. Brighton Marina charges ten dollars to use their launching ramp and park a vehicle, but you can do the shuttle as many times as you like. With the wind howling over the dunes, you toss your board into the water and you're off. Keep a good angle at first, aiming at the outer edge of the marina and staying somewhat close to the channel buoys. At this angle you won't be getting a full assist from the wind, but you'll be catching some nice swells and riding them at an angle that imparts a lot of speed. As you round the last buoy, aim at the right side of the marina and have at it. The nose of your board will lift out of the water as you plane up onto the larger swells, and you're off. The only downside of this part of the run is that you're going so fast the run will be over soon.
I stopped at the 1.2 mile point to have Paul catch up, My big 17" SIC F18 was just flying
I
Note the big mudflats. The shallow water punches up the swells and gives the faces pushing power.
As usual, the picture doesn't really do the swells justice. They're pretty good size.
The ideal way to do this run would be with one rig and a driver that drops you off at the boat ramp then circles around and and picks you up at the marina. Each run takes about 20-25 minutes, each shuttle takes about the same so it's about 1 hour per round trip. You could easily do five or six runs in an afternoon. A two car shuttle takes a lot longer since you have to go get the shuttle car each trip.
It might get boring after a while, but so far it's insanely fun.
I've been looking for a good downwinder on the Oregon Coast. It might not be a great place to look since the prevailing wind is almost straight onshore, but topology changes wind radically, as Maui demonstrates nearly every day. If it didn't there would never be a south side downwinder Haleakala redirects the trades dramatically. I figured Neahkahnie Mountain might do the same on the northern Oregon coast, but until last weekend all I've gotten for my troubles is a lot of long crosswind paddles in spooky places.
Last weekend my wife had a girls trip planned with some friend to our beach house in Manzanita. I was invited along for the first day to schlep, cook barbecued Oysters, back a few crab and bar tend. Not such bad duty considering my wife's beautiful friends. I planned to do a little exploring, torture myself with some icewater surfing, and the beat feet back to Portland when my welcome ran out. Unfortunately one of Diane's friends had a family crisis, but every cloud has a silver lining--I was permitted to stay longer. And I got a email from my friend Paul suggesting some downwinder exploring and surfing--perfect, and exactly what I had in mind, only now I had someone to go with.
Paul showed up early Saturday morning, but not early enough. I had decided to catch some early morning surf. Unfortunately the surf sucked, and the only surfing SUP board I had only brought was my Starboard 12'2 X 26". I like surfing this board in clean waves, but in the slop and chop it was a handful. I caught a few nice rides, but I was getting dunked enough to get an ice cream headache. And the flimsy, ancient windsurfing two piece wetsuit I was wearing was about as warms as a T-shirt. We decided to scout for something better. We drove North, looking at a few uninspiring breaks, watched a couple of longboarders doing an unrewarding drop-turn-bail in the shorebreak, and stared in amazement at the Short Sands parking lot where hundreds of cars were unloading boards of all lengths, but mostly extremely short boards that would never catch the knee high mushburgers that dribbled in. Must be some kind of mating ritual.
With the wind rising steadily, we decided to retreat to the Nahalem River and do a paddle. We left Paul's rig at Brighton Marina near the mouth of the river, and drove upriver about eight miles to an easy entry--an old semi-abandoned boat ramp. The first five miles were pleasant but unremarkable, but the wind rose steadily until it was blowing about 15 knots in our faces. The tide was going out, so the river current provide a good offset to the wind, and we made good progress until we reached the last bend where the wind was howling and our position was unprotected. I waited for Paul and said "do we slog it out for two more miles or bail and paddle back six?" We decided to slog, and I proceeded to paddle hard, incing forward until I finally rounded the bend. As I made the turn I realized the last two miles wouldn't be a slog at all if I did the route just right. The river turned enough to head away from the coast before it made it's final reversal and spilled out over the bar. A huge mudflat extended along the near shore, and the wind would be straight on the the flats and cross-current to my direction for some ways, but then I could turn and run downwind to the marina. Looked like fun.
I paddled hard along the shore, using the rails and the rudder to keep my big 17'6" SIC F-18 off the flats. The paddling got easier as I rounded the flats, and then suddenly I was riding swells. The wind was pushing some nice peaks, and the shallow water near the flats gave the wave faces definition. I held a line aiming past the marina to make sure I didn't undershoot, but soon the wind was mostly at my back and the rides were getting longer and faster.
By the time I was half a mile from Brighton Marina I had switched to a surfing stance to control the board and was using the rudder to chase the peaks, railroading swells together continuously. The board was flying. I came into the mouth of the dock area on a plane, turned behind the finger docks and slid to a stop next to a slip. Stepped off like I did this everyday. The people fishing and crabbing on the dock were slack-jawed, reaching for cameras and gawking. I wouldn't have made a more shocking entry if I'd landed a flying saucer. "Migod, how the hell did you do that and what is that thing?" a chunky fisherman asked. A woman and two kids came over and the lady said her kids thought I was waterskiing without a boat.
I went to the end of the dock to look for Paul--no where in sight. Uh-oh. I figured he might not have been able to get around the corner, might have turned back to Paradise Cove, might have turned into the bay behind the mudflats, might have bailed and was now walking the highway in a shorty wetsuit. I did the only rational thing--went up to the Brighton Marina Store and bought a six-pack of Alaska Amber and some fritos.
I sat on the dock with a beer and the chips and watched the edge of the mud flats two miles away. I finally saw a spot of black and a flash of red and white. My Starboard Point with Paul on it. He was pushing it along the flats. He'd gotten in too close and couldn't claw his way off. Once he cleared the corner he was back up on the board, and a few minute later pulled into the docks riding a swell with a big grin. "Let's do that last part again!" he said. So we did.
This Micro Malko run is short, but intense. After we had recovered my truck from the Nahalem River launch point we left it at Brighton Marina and drove Paul's rig to the boat launch in Nahalem Bay State Park. The state park has a three dollar day use fee. Brighton Marina charges ten dollars to use their launching ramp and park a vehicle, but you can do the shuttle as many times as you like. With the wind howling over the dunes, you toss your board into the water and you're off. Keep a good angle at first, aiming at the outer edge of the marina and staying somewhat close to the channel buoys. At this angle you won't be getting a full assist from the wind, but you'll be catching some nice swells and riding them at an angle that imparts a lot of speed. As you round the last buoy, aim at the right side of the marina and have at it. The nose of your board will lift out of the water as you plane up onto the larger swells, and you're off. The only downside of this part of the run is that you're going so fast the run will be over soon.
I stopped at the 1.2 mile point to have Paul catch up, My big 17" SIC F18 was just flying
I
Note the big mudflats. The shallow water punches up the swells and gives the faces pushing power.
As usual, the picture doesn't really do the swells justice. They're pretty good size.
The ideal way to do this run would be with one rig and a driver that drops you off at the boat ramp then circles around and and picks you up at the marina. Each run takes about 20-25 minutes, each shuttle takes about the same so it's about 1 hour per round trip. You could easily do five or six runs in an afternoon. A two car shuttle takes a lot longer since you have to go get the shuttle car each trip.
It might get boring after a while, but so far it's insanely fun.
[Blog] Micro Maliko: I've been looking for a good downwinder on the Oregon Coast. It might not be a great place to ... http://ping.fm/If3e3
Monday, June 29, 2009
How NOT to Launch
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/LWcCN)
Just in case you were wondering, this is not how a boat should be launched
Just in case you were wondering, this is not how a boat should be launched
[Blog] How NOT to Launch: Just in case you were wondering, this is not how a boat should be launched http://ping.fm/YwwrY
[Blog] How NOT to Launch: Just in case you were wondering, this is not how a boat should be launched http://ping.fm/X8lVc
Friday, June 26, 2009
Second Hood River Race
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/4qkMk)
I participated in the second race in the Hood River Big Winds series on Thursday, June 25th. I love the idea of a race series on Thursday night. Nothing much else going on, it stays light until ten in Oregon this time of year, and it's a reasonable after-work drive from Portland. Diane packed a picnic dinner, we tossed the dog in the truck, picked up the grandkids from the OMSI Summer Science camp (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and headed up the gorge.
We got to the registration in plenty of time, had a quick dinner by the river, watching the kite and wind surfers, and headed for the hook.
While I was getting the board off the car I noticed two SUP paddlers rounding Wells Island. A few minutes later they showed up on the shore--Michi Schwieger and Dave Kalama. What a surprise. They had been at the first race along with Robby Naish, and I knew they were headed up to Canada to poke around, but I didn't expect to see them at the second event.
Since there was no elite paddler class this time they took off at the same time as the women and juniors, and just cruised with them, providing tips and encouragement.
The Men's race started ten minutes later and I pulled into a comfortable early lead, rounding the tip of the hook well ahead. Then we hit the wind. I'd say it was blowing twenty knots. I'm guessing twenty because it felt like thirty. I dug in and paddled hard, but two young whippersnappers got past me and pulled out a little lead. I could see a wind shadow near wells island, but there was also a lot of side swells. After a long grind I finally reached the shadow, wobbled off balance as the wind shut off and promptly got knocked off by a swell. Five paddlers got past me before I regained my feet and started paddling hard for the buoy.
After rounding the buoy I slowed a bit to catch my second wind, then started stroking hard, working to catch the little runners. I did a lot of short stoking into the swells, then quickly turning on the face to extend the run and build speed. It worked pretty well, You can see from the GPS track that I got a lot of runners and maintained a pretty high speed. I passed my way up to fourth from eighth.
I started catching up with Dave Kalama in the downwind section--he was standing on his board with his paddle up catching wind, talking to the woman in last place and giving her tips on paddling. He was moving almost as fast as I was. What the hell is with that? I didn't pass him until the last upwind section, where I was two strokes from blowing a gasket and he was still chatting calmly. Clearly he's made some kind of deal with King Neptune.
The leaders were just ahead of me heading for the last stretch. I had some thought of beating them by making an all out effort--as if they wouldn't be also. I nearly got the guy in third, but he saw me coming and redoubled his efforts. We crossed the line about two board lengths apart.
Fun race. The short length and high average speed belied the difficulty. It's not easy. 1.9 miles in 24 minute with an average speed of 4.6 knots. But it's a true sprint--I had nothing left when I crossed the line. I think this is another good format for SUP racing.
I participated in the second race in the Hood River Big Winds series on Thursday, June 25th. I love the idea of a race series on Thursday night. Nothing much else going on, it stays light until ten in Oregon this time of year, and it's a reasonable after-work drive from Portland. Diane packed a picnic dinner, we tossed the dog in the truck, picked up the grandkids from the OMSI Summer Science camp (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and headed up the gorge.
We got to the registration in plenty of time, had a quick dinner by the river, watching the kite and wind surfers, and headed for the hook.
While I was getting the board off the car I noticed two SUP paddlers rounding Wells Island. A few minutes later they showed up on the shore--Michi Schwieger and Dave Kalama. What a surprise. They had been at the first race along with Robby Naish, and I knew they were headed up to Canada to poke around, but I didn't expect to see them at the second event.
Since there was no elite paddler class this time they took off at the same time as the women and juniors, and just cruised with them, providing tips and encouragement.
The Men's race started ten minutes later and I pulled into a comfortable early lead, rounding the tip of the hook well ahead. Then we hit the wind. I'd say it was blowing twenty knots. I'm guessing twenty because it felt like thirty. I dug in and paddled hard, but two young whippersnappers got past me and pulled out a little lead. I could see a wind shadow near wells island, but there was also a lot of side swells. After a long grind I finally reached the shadow, wobbled off balance as the wind shut off and promptly got knocked off by a swell. Five paddlers got past me before I regained my feet and started paddling hard for the buoy.
After rounding the buoy I slowed a bit to catch my second wind, then started stroking hard, working to catch the little runners. I did a lot of short stoking into the swells, then quickly turning on the face to extend the run and build speed. It worked pretty well, You can see from the GPS track that I got a lot of runners and maintained a pretty high speed. I passed my way up to fourth from eighth.
I started catching up with Dave Kalama in the downwind section--he was standing on his board with his paddle up catching wind, talking to the woman in last place and giving her tips on paddling. He was moving almost as fast as I was. What the hell is with that? I didn't pass him until the last upwind section, where I was two strokes from blowing a gasket and he was still chatting calmly. Clearly he's made some kind of deal with King Neptune.
The leaders were just ahead of me heading for the last stretch. I had some thought of beating them by making an all out effort--as if they wouldn't be also. I nearly got the guy in third, but he saw me coming and redoubled his efforts. We crossed the line about two board lengths apart.
Fun race. The short length and high average speed belied the difficulty. It's not easy. 1.9 miles in 24 minute with an average speed of 4.6 knots. But it's a true sprint--I had nothing left when I crossed the line. I think this is another good format for SUP racing.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Paddle Oregon Invites SUP Paddlers
(My Original Blog Post: http://www.kenalu.com/2009/06/24/paddle-oregon-invites-sup-paddlers/)
Paddle Oregon, the premier canoe and Kayak adventure on the Willamette River is accepting reservations for their annual 90-mile, five-day trip. And for the first time they are accepting Stand Up Paddle surfers. This is a comprehensive excursion, including delicious northwest cuisine, daily baggage shuttle, safety paddlers, camping accommodations, showers where possible,entertainment, t-shirts, reusable lunch bags, ACA insurance coverage and logistical support.
From the website:
Paddle Oregon, the premier canoe and Kayak adventure on the Willamette River is accepting reservations for their annual 90-mile, five-day trip. And for the first time they are accepting Stand Up Paddle surfers. This is a comprehensive excursion, including delicious northwest cuisine, daily baggage shuttle, safety paddlers, camping accommodations, showers where possible,entertainment, t-shirts, reusable lunch bags, ACA insurance coverage and logistical support.
From the website:
Now in its 9th year, Willamette Riverkeeper™ is proud to present PADDLE OREGON as the premiere canoe and kayak adventure on the Willamette River.
ITINERARY
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[Blog] Paddle Oregon Invites SUP Paddlers: Paddle Oregon, the premier canoe and Kayak adventure on the Willamette River is accep... http://ping.fm/i28zU
Paia Inn One Year Party and SUP Race
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/7M2WA)
Paia Inn is where I would stay if I was going to Maui and didn't have a house within fifteen miles of Paia. Great place, very lively, private beach access to a nice break. Perfect place for a SUP vacation. We reviewed it about a year ago when they first opened, and just love the place. Right next to Lightning Bolt Surf shop and right across the street from Anthony's, the world's finest coffee joint. They used to throw really great parties on Friday night, but it got a little too big, so that had to chill. But parties are clearly in their DNA, and they're having what looks like a great one for their first year anniversary--including a SUP fun race sponsored by Naish.
My prescription for economic doldrums. Go to Maui, stay at the Paia Inn, surf and downwind your guts out every day, and time it so you can do this. May not change your economic situation, but at least you'll be happy. Here's the details:
Paia Inn is where I would stay if I was going to Maui and didn't have a house within fifteen miles of Paia. Great place, very lively, private beach access to a nice break. Perfect place for a SUP vacation. We reviewed it about a year ago when they first opened, and just love the place. Right next to Lightning Bolt Surf shop and right across the street from Anthony's, the world's finest coffee joint. They used to throw really great parties on Friday night, but it got a little too big, so that had to chill. But parties are clearly in their DNA, and they're having what looks like a great one for their first year anniversary--including a SUP fun race sponsored by Naish.
My prescription for economic doldrums. Go to Maui, stay at the Paia Inn, surf and downwind your guts out every day, and time it so you can do this. May not change your economic situation, but at least you'll be happy. Here's the details:
[Blog] Paia Inn One Year Party and SUP Race: Paia Inn is where I would stay if I was going to Maui and didn't have a house wit... http://ping.fm/KILzc
Saturday, June 20, 2009
[Blog] SUP Sprint Rac...: I beat Dave Kalama at the inaugural Big Winds SUP race in the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. Finished about five minutes ahead of him--long enough to get off my board, walk up to the deck above the river and take pictures of Dave, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger crossing the finsih line. So I'm going to share my simple recipe for how to beat these guys:
Good board
Lots of practice
Short race
and most importantly, a ten minute lead.
Here's a blow-by blow of this very fun event.
I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day--a press release posted on the Standup zone said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn't have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It's an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house--about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail--any sail, and sailed my 12'2" starboard, which is great fun.
I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short--about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current--west to east--which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.
The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience there I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the bouy near Wells was rounded it's a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that's about six feet deep at the center. It's rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.
Once through the gap it's a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bout at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.
I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes--one of those "gotta do it" places. Like eating breakfast at Bette's in Hood River.
Didn't really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.
I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.
You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12'2" Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it's a lot more stable and it has steering with is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because with it's thick sides and long length I suspected it would be hell in the crosswi...
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Good board
Lots of practice
Short race
and most importantly, a ten minute lead.
Here's a blow-by blow of this very fun event.
I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day--a press release posted on the Standup zone said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn't have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It's an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house--about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail--any sail, and sailed my 12'2" starboard, which is great fun.
I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short--about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current--west to east--which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.
The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience there I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the bouy near Wells was rounded it's a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that's about six feet deep at the center. It's rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.
Once through the gap it's a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bout at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.
I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes--one of those "gotta do it" places. Like eating breakfast at Bette's in Hood River.
Didn't really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.
I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.
You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12'2" Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it's a lot more stable and it has steering with is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because with it's thick sides and long length I suspected it would be hell in the crosswi...
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Apache/2.2.9 (Fedora) Server at www.s3nt.com Port 80
SUP Sprint Racing
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/7ivWo)
I beat Dave Kalama at the inaugural Big Winds SUP race in the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. Finished about five minutes ahead of him--long enough to get off my board, walk up to the deck above the river and take pictures of Dave, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger crossing the finsih line. So I'm going to share my simple recipe for how to beat these guys:
Here's a blow-by blow of this very fun event.
I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day--a press release posted on the Standup zone said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn't have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It's an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house--about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail--any sail, and sailed my 12'2" starboard, which is great fun.
I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short--about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current--west to east--which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.
The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience there I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the bouy near Wells was rounded it's a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that's about six feet deep at the center. It's rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.
Once through the gap it's a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bout at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.
I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes--one of those "gotta do it" places. Like eating breakfast at Bette's in Hood River.
Didn't really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.
I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.
You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12'2" Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it's a lot more stable and it has steering with is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because with it's thick sides and long length I suspected it would be hell in the crosswinds.
I beat Dave Kalama at the inaugural Big Winds SUP race in the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. Finished about five minutes ahead of him--long enough to get off my board, walk up to the deck above the river and take pictures of Dave, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger crossing the finsih line. So I'm going to share my simple recipe for how to beat these guys:
- Good board
- Lots of practice
- Short race
- and most importantly, a ten minute lead.
Here's a blow-by blow of this very fun event.
I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day--a press release posted on the Standup zone said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn't have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It's an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house--about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail--any sail, and sailed my 12'2" starboard, which is great fun.
I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short--about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current--west to east--which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.
The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience there I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the bouy near Wells was rounded it's a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that's about six feet deep at the center. It's rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.
Once through the gap it's a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bout at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.
I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes--one of those "gotta do it" places. Like eating breakfast at Bette's in Hood River.
Didn't really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.
I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.
You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12'2" Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it's a lot more stable and it has steering with is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because with it's thick sides and long length I suspected it would be hell in the crosswinds.
[Blog] SUP Sprint Rac...: I beat Dave Kalama at the inaugural Big Winds SUP race in the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. Finished about five minutes ahead of him--long enough to get off my board, walk up to the deck above the river and take pictures of Dave, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger crossing the finsih line. So I'm going to share my simple recipe for how to beat these guys:
Good board
Lots of practice
Short race
and most importantly, a ten minute lead.
Here's a blow-by blow of this very fun event.
I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day--a press release posted on the Standup zone said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn't have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It's an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house--about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail--any sail, and sailed my 12'2" starboard, which is great fun.
I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short--about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current--west to east--which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.
The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience there I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the bouy near Wells was rounded it's a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that's about six feet deep at the center. It's rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.
Once through the gap it's a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bout at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.
I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes--one of those "gotta do it" places. Like eating breakfast at Bette's in Hood River.
Didn't really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.
I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.
You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12'2" Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it's a lot more stable and it has steering with is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because with it's thick sides and long length I suspected it would be hell in the crosswi...
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Good board
Lots of practice
Short race
and most importantly, a ten minute lead.
Here's a blow-by blow of this very fun event.
I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day--a press release posted on the Standup zone said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn't have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It's an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house--about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail--any sail, and sailed my 12'2" starboard, which is great fun.
I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short--about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current--west to east--which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.
The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience there I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the bouy near Wells was rounded it's a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that's about six feet deep at the center. It's rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.
Once through the gap it's a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bout at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.
I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes--one of those "gotta do it" places. Like eating breakfast at Bette's in Hood River.
Didn't really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.
I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.
You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12'2" Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it's a lot more stable and it has steering with is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because with it's thick sides and long length I suspected it would be hell in the crosswi...
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Apache/2.2.9 (Fedora) Server at www.s3nt.com Port 80
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Grumpy About Gerry Lopez
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/k9s7S)
This is really irritating. Really irritating.
A few weeks ago someone on the Standup Zone (http://ping.fm/5JCGD the best forum for Stand Up Paddle Surfing around, including the little forum here on Ke Nalu) mentioned the book Fierce Heart: The Story Of Makaha and the Soul of Surfing. My friend Kaweeka pointed out some local Hawaiian controversy about the book, which was enough to pique my curiosity. I went to Amazon and ordered a copy. So far, I'd have to say it's everything a book should be--fearless. I'll get to Gerry in a minute. But here's my take on writing.
Everyone has their own unique view on the world. That usually doesn't matter much until you sit down to write something. But a book, or any writing for that matter has to reflect the writer's view of the world, or it's worthless pap. You can't write a book that your Mom won't be embarrassed by. You can't write a book caring that your friends might consider you a perverted whack job. You have to write fearlessly, or you're a hack and your book is crap. Stuart Holmes Coleman wrote both this book and "Eddie Would Go". Both are fine books. Eventually the people he wrote about will understand that he loves and respects them, and wanted to tell their story the best way he could. I think he did that. I haven't finished it yet, but so far, so very, very good. They have warts, he talks about them, but they are all HUGE people, and if I'm very lucky I'll get to meet them.
On to Gerry. While I was on Amazon I noticed Gerry Lopez's book, and bought that too. So here's the short version. If you care about great writing, stop reading this and buy this book. If you care about surfing, stop reading this and go buy this book. If you'd like to see how life should be lived...well, you get the idea.
But I'm pissed about this book, really pissed. I can live with the fact that Gerry Lopez is an infinitely better surfer than me, and an infinitely better Stand Up Paddle Surfer than me. But I'm a relatively new surfer and he's been surfing all his life--that's understandable. But I've been writing all my life, made my living and my fortune writing stuff. And he's a far better writer than me. That pisses me off.
Pick someone you think has a modicum of sensitivity and an appreciation of elegance. Your significant other will probably do. Read them this passage:
"The summer wave off the little point of the bay at Pakala still spins perfectly around it's arc of shallow reef, just as it did before my grandparents lived there, or later when a child looked up to notice its ample grace."
Damn.
This is really irritating. Really irritating.
A few weeks ago someone on the Standup Zone (http://ping.fm/5JCGD the best forum for Stand Up Paddle Surfing around, including the little forum here on Ke Nalu) mentioned the book Fierce Heart: The Story Of Makaha and the Soul of Surfing. My friend Kaweeka pointed out some local Hawaiian controversy about the book, which was enough to pique my curiosity. I went to Amazon and ordered a copy. So far, I'd have to say it's everything a book should be--fearless. I'll get to Gerry in a minute. But here's my take on writing.
Everyone has their own unique view on the world. That usually doesn't matter much until you sit down to write something. But a book, or any writing for that matter has to reflect the writer's view of the world, or it's worthless pap. You can't write a book that your Mom won't be embarrassed by. You can't write a book caring that your friends might consider you a perverted whack job. You have to write fearlessly, or you're a hack and your book is crap. Stuart Holmes Coleman wrote both this book and "Eddie Would Go". Both are fine books. Eventually the people he wrote about will understand that he loves and respects them, and wanted to tell their story the best way he could. I think he did that. I haven't finished it yet, but so far, so very, very good. They have warts, he talks about them, but they are all HUGE people, and if I'm very lucky I'll get to meet them.
On to Gerry. While I was on Amazon I noticed Gerry Lopez's book, and bought that too. So here's the short version. If you care about great writing, stop reading this and buy this book. If you care about surfing, stop reading this and go buy this book. If you'd like to see how life should be lived...well, you get the idea.
But I'm pissed about this book, really pissed. I can live with the fact that Gerry Lopez is an infinitely better surfer than me, and an infinitely better Stand Up Paddle Surfer than me. But I'm a relatively new surfer and he's been surfing all his life--that's understandable. But I've been writing all my life, made my living and my fortune writing stuff. And he's a far better writer than me. That pisses me off.
Pick someone you think has a modicum of sensitivity and an appreciation of elegance. Your significant other will probably do. Read them this passage:
"The summer wave off the little point of the bay at Pakala still spins perfectly around it's arc of shallow reef, just as it did before my grandparents lived there, or later when a child looked up to notice its ample grace."
Damn.
[Blog] Grumpy About Gerry Lopez: This is really irritating. Really irritating.
A few weeks ago someone on the St... http://s3nt.com/g8qu
A few weeks ago someone on the St... http://s3nt.com/g8qu
[Blog] Grumpy About Gerry Lopez: This is really irritating. Really irritating.
A few weeks ago someone on the Standup Zone (http://ping.fm/szHYt the best forum for St... http://s3nt.com/g8qu
A few weeks ago someone on the Standup Zone (http://ping.fm/szHYt the best forum for St... http://s3nt.com/g8qu
Dolphin Rings
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/0qhbM)
One of the best things about being on a Stand Up Paddle board is the marine life you can see. It's always a privilege, even just looking at a little school of fish, or a nice reef. But when you get sot see something big in the water--a shark, a whale, a turtle--it seems really special. And certainly one of the most exciting and wonderful animals to see are Dolphins (or more precisely, porpoises). All you have to do is look at their clear curiousity to understand how smart they are. Given how limited our understanding of intelligence is, I can't help but think we might be looking at our intellectual equals or superiors.
This video is simply astonishing. In some ways it's even more interesting to listen to the people talk about the "animals" and the "behavior" as if they were simply parroting a learned response. I have no idea how to make a ring like these dolphins do, and no idea how it could be manipulated like this. I don't understand the physics.
Simply astonishing. Here's some Beluga whales doing the same thing.
The YouTube comments are pathetic as usual. For some reason YouTube always seems to show people at their worst. Or maybe I'm just an optimist.
One of the best things about being on a Stand Up Paddle board is the marine life you can see. It's always a privilege, even just looking at a little school of fish, or a nice reef. But when you get sot see something big in the water--a shark, a whale, a turtle--it seems really special. And certainly one of the most exciting and wonderful animals to see are Dolphins (or more precisely, porpoises). All you have to do is look at their clear curiousity to understand how smart they are. Given how limited our understanding of intelligence is, I can't help but think we might be looking at our intellectual equals or superiors.
This video is simply astonishing. In some ways it's even more interesting to listen to the people talk about the "animals" and the "behavior" as if they were simply parroting a learned response. I have no idea how to make a ring like these dolphins do, and no idea how it could be manipulated like this. I don't understand the physics.
Simply astonishing. Here's some Beluga whales doing the same thing.
The YouTube comments are pathetic as usual. For some reason YouTube always seems to show people at their worst. Or maybe I'm just an optimist.
[Blog] Dolphin Rings: One of the best things about being on a Stand Up Paddle board is the marine life you can see. ... http://s3nt.com/g7vb
[Blog] Dolphin Rings: One of the best things about being on a Stand Up Paddle board is the marine life you can see. It's always a privilege, even just looking at a little schoo... http://s3nt.com/g7vb
Monday, May 11, 2009
Hydration = Balance
(My Original Blog Post: http://www.kenalu.com/2009/05/11/hydration-balance/)
When you perform any exercise it makes sense to have your body operating at optimal levels, and hydration is clearly necessary to achieve optimal performance. But proper hydration is even more critical for Stand Up Paddle Surfing, because hydration has a profound effect on balance. Try this simple test. Next time you are thirsty, before you drink water balance on one leg, close your eyes, and count how many seconds you can remain balanced. Then drink as much water as you can comfortably hold, wait a few minutes, and repeat the test. You'll find you can balance much longer.
Not a very scientific test, but it should bring home the message that hydration is important to balance. Dehydration slows muscle response and detunes the fine muscle control that is critical to maintaining balance. There are other reasons too--physical performance, both intensity and endurance, falls quickly as athletes become dehydrated. In the longer term, operating in a dehydrated state is bad for your immune system, hard on your kidneys, and bad for your heart and lungs.
Here's the kicker--sedentary people don't have a big problem with hydration. They generally get enough fluids: Roughly a gallon of fluids for men and three quarts of fluid for women per day. It's the folks that are physically active that are frequently dehydrated to the point of substantially decreasing performance and compromising health. This has been well understood for a long time, most of the data still quoted in journals is from the 1960's. In random weighings of people working out in gyms with water freely available, more than 40 percent were dehydrated 3 percent or more; for bicycle riders it was more than 60 percent, runners more than 70 percent. A dehydration level of three percent is serious. Here's the standard dehydration scale:
0% -- normal performance
1% -- thirst occurs, heat regulation may be compromised, balance compromised
2% -- dry mouth, worsening performance
3% -- Heat regulation is compromised, strength and endurance performance declines 10-20 percent
4% -- discomfort, performance declines 20-30 percent
5% -- headache, fatigue, disorientation
6% -- weakness, severe loss of heat regulation
7% -- collapse
How Much And How Frequently
So when you've been paddling for an hour and you feel a little thirsty, your balance is probably reduced by 50 percent and your strength by at least 10-20%. Even if you take along a camelbak and drink from it while you paddle, you may not be getting enough fluid to maintain hydration. Slaking your thirst is just turning off the alarm.
If you'd like to be a little scientific about this you can do some fairly accurate and simple measurements. Before you go for a paddle empty your bladder and record your weight naked ___________ lbs.
Do a typical paddle or surf session and drink as you normally would. Record the volume of fluid you consumed ___________ fluid ounces
Towel dry, empty your bladder and then record your weight naked ___________ lbs.(B)
Subtract your post-exercise weight from your pre-exercise weight to get the number of pounds you lost during exercise. To find out how many fluid ounces of water you have lost, multiply the weight you lost in pounds by 16. That amount of water plus the amount of water you drank is how much water you needed to drink to maintain normal hydration. You can remember the conversion factor for ounces to pounds easily with this mnemonic--a pint's a pound the world around.
To find out your dehydration percentage, divide the amount of weight you lost by your original weight and multiply by 100. For example, if you weighed 200 pounds and you lost 2 pounds, it's (2/200)*100 = .01*100 = 1 percent.
If you lost two pounds that's 32 ounces of water you lost, so if you drank one quart you really needed to drink two. It's more likely though that even if you are wearing a camelbak that you drink just a few sips as you exercise, and it's not enough to maintain performance and balance. Generally, in warm weather paddling hard a person will need eight ounces of water every twenty minutes
Obviously you're not going to be carrying a gallon of water with you if you go for a two hour paddle. So here's a reasonable hydration plan for warm weather: In the hour before the paddle drink 32 ounces or more of water (one quart). During the paddle drink 6 ounces of water every 20 minutes. Following the paddle drink 32 ounces of water (one quart). Again, if you want to be precise, or just get a baseline measurement, weigh yourself before and after the paddle with an empty bladder and drink 24 ounces of water for each pound of weight you lost.
Unless you are exceptionally vigilant, as an active person you are probably chronically dehydrated. Not only is that bad for performance, it's bad for your long term health. The list of diseases and disorders linked to chronic dehydration is long and unpleasant. Some of them are not things you would automatically associate with not drinking enough water. When I started paying more attention to hydration the backaches I thought were just the price I was paying for an active lifestyle disappeared.
Once you have a clear idea of how much water you need during exercise, it's fairly easy to stay hydrated. You will increase your overall performance and recovery to a remarkable degree.
When you perform any exercise it makes sense to have your body operating at optimal levels, and hydration is clearly necessary to achieve optimal performance. But proper hydration is even more critical for Stand Up Paddle Surfing, because hydration has a profound effect on balance. Try this simple test. Next time you are thirsty, before you drink water balance on one leg, close your eyes, and count how many seconds you can remain balanced. Then drink as much water as you can comfortably hold, wait a few minutes, and repeat the test. You'll find you can balance much longer.
Not a very scientific test, but it should bring home the message that hydration is important to balance. Dehydration slows muscle response and detunes the fine muscle control that is critical to maintaining balance. There are other reasons too--physical performance, both intensity and endurance, falls quickly as athletes become dehydrated. In the longer term, operating in a dehydrated state is bad for your immune system, hard on your kidneys, and bad for your heart and lungs.
Here's the kicker--sedentary people don't have a big problem with hydration. They generally get enough fluids: Roughly a gallon of fluids for men and three quarts of fluid for women per day. It's the folks that are physically active that are frequently dehydrated to the point of substantially decreasing performance and compromising health. This has been well understood for a long time, most of the data still quoted in journals is from the 1960's. In random weighings of people working out in gyms with water freely available, more than 40 percent were dehydrated 3 percent or more; for bicycle riders it was more than 60 percent, runners more than 70 percent. A dehydration level of three percent is serious. Here's the standard dehydration scale:
0% -- normal performance
1% -- thirst occurs, heat regulation may be compromised, balance compromised
2% -- dry mouth, worsening performance
3% -- Heat regulation is compromised, strength and endurance performance declines 10-20 percent
4% -- discomfort, performance declines 20-30 percent
5% -- headache, fatigue, disorientation
6% -- weakness, severe loss of heat regulation
7% -- collapse
How Much And How Frequently
So when you've been paddling for an hour and you feel a little thirsty, your balance is probably reduced by 50 percent and your strength by at least 10-20%. Even if you take along a camelbak and drink from it while you paddle, you may not be getting enough fluid to maintain hydration. Slaking your thirst is just turning off the alarm.
If you'd like to be a little scientific about this you can do some fairly accurate and simple measurements. Before you go for a paddle empty your bladder and record your weight naked ___________ lbs.
Do a typical paddle or surf session and drink as you normally would. Record the volume of fluid you consumed ___________ fluid ounces
Towel dry, empty your bladder and then record your weight naked ___________ lbs.(B)
Subtract your post-exercise weight from your pre-exercise weight to get the number of pounds you lost during exercise. To find out how many fluid ounces of water you have lost, multiply the weight you lost in pounds by 16. That amount of water plus the amount of water you drank is how much water you needed to drink to maintain normal hydration. You can remember the conversion factor for ounces to pounds easily with this mnemonic--a pint's a pound the world around.
To find out your dehydration percentage, divide the amount of weight you lost by your original weight and multiply by 100. For example, if you weighed 200 pounds and you lost 2 pounds, it's (2/200)*100 = .01*100 = 1 percent.
If you lost two pounds that's 32 ounces of water you lost, so if you drank one quart you really needed to drink two. It's more likely though that even if you are wearing a camelbak that you drink just a few sips as you exercise, and it's not enough to maintain performance and balance. Generally, in warm weather paddling hard a person will need eight ounces of water every twenty minutes
Obviously you're not going to be carrying a gallon of water with you if you go for a two hour paddle. So here's a reasonable hydration plan for warm weather: In the hour before the paddle drink 32 ounces or more of water (one quart). During the paddle drink 6 ounces of water every 20 minutes. Following the paddle drink 32 ounces of water (one quart). Again, if you want to be precise, or just get a baseline measurement, weigh yourself before and after the paddle with an empty bladder and drink 24 ounces of water for each pound of weight you lost.
Unless you are exceptionally vigilant, as an active person you are probably chronically dehydrated. Not only is that bad for performance, it's bad for your long term health. The list of diseases and disorders linked to chronic dehydration is long and unpleasant. Some of them are not things you would automatically associate with not drinking enough water. When I started paying more attention to hydration the backaches I thought were just the price I was paying for an active lifestyle disappeared.
Once you have a clear idea of how much water you need during exercise, it's fairly easy to stay hydrated. You will increase your overall performance and recovery to a remarkable degree.
[Blog] Hydration = Balance: When you perform any exercise it makes sense to have your body operating at optimal levels, and hydration is clearly necessary to achieve optimal pe... http://s3nt.com/gqh3
[Blog] Hydration = Balance: When you perform any exercise it makes sense to have your body operating at optimal leve... http://s3nt.com/gqh3
Monday, May 4, 2009
iPhone for SUP
(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/6Zbpp)
Apple's iPhone is a great tool for anyone, but it has some features and available applications that make it particularly great for Stand Up Paddle Surfing. The phone I'm going to cover is the 3G version, which is handiest since it has built-in GPS capabilities. In fact the iPhone GPS is especially useful since it has special features that increase the accuracy, even when GPS satellites are obscured by weather conditions or terrain.
Unfortunately the iPhone is not waterproof, so you need a dry carrier of some sort. There are some fairly expensive and clumsy hard case versions, but the touch screen of the iPhone makes hard cases problematic. Thin clear drybags enable you to operate the phone right through the bag, and both talk and listen through the bag or via headphones.� My current favorite is the OverBoard case, which has a compact closure system and a built-in headset jack. The only drawback is that the back of the case is opaque so you can't use the phone's camera without taking it out of the case. Overboard makes a bag with a camera window on the back, but it doesn't have a jack. Damn--they're so close. Maybe they'll do a mashup of the two cases. I sent them an email about it, but they responded (more or less correctly) that the iPhone camera is so lame that they think most people are more interested in an armband and flotation, which are hard to provide along with a camera window. What they are not considering is geocoding photos, which I find extremely useful. Even a fairly crappy picture becomes interesting when you automatically know EXACTLY where it was taken. Anyway, here's overboard's MP3 case, and it really is a very fine product:
As it is the iPhone is great for downwinders and distance paddling. It has a clock, a stopwatch to time your run, it's a superb iPod player for your music, and if you or someone else gets into trouble or needs a lift your phone is right there. I consider it an important safety device. But it really comes into its own when you add applications that are available either for free or very inexpensively. There are currently about 30,000 applications available for iPhones. But before we explore iPhone Apps, let me give you a tip about music for paddling.
Automatic Playlists
You might be used to putting together playlists of music for your MP3 player. I find it really tedious, so I'm really pleased that Apple came up with a wonderful automated playlist building tool that's very appropriately called "Genius". If you have the latest version of iTunes (free on either PCs or Macs) you have Genius. To turn Genius on you click "Store" in the top iTunes menu, then select "Turn On Genius". iTunes will be busy for quite a while, indexing your songs, checking with the iTunes store about some mysterious characteristics of every song you own, and building the database that Genius uses. When you want to build a Genius playlist you just select a song that is representative of the music you want. Click on the Genius button (a little atom symbol in the lower right corner of the iTunes screen) and Genius builds you a playlist of compatible songs assembled from your library--the songs you own.
I have no idea of how it builds the lists, but they are great. Really great. The songs don't sound all the same, and they are not all from the same kind of band or even the same genre. They just work really well together. They remind me of an old disk jockey that used to work at a musty meat market bar in Eugene Oregon called Foo's Spinnaker about thirty years ago. The guy would somehow assemble playlists on the fly from a huge vinyl collection he carted around. He made music link together emotionally so well that he controlled the mood. People who experienced his talents remember him all these years later. The Genius isn't quite that good, but it's close.
Sometimes it's so good it's just plain weird. Who knew that Dunk n' Dine by The Georgia Satellites goes perfectly with Thick and Thin by the Black Crowes and Ride, Ride, Ride by Foghat--but it absolutely does.
You can give the lists a memorable name and save them by first clicking Edit>Select All, then clicking File>New Playlist From Selection. Then you can add the playlists to your iPhone by connecting your iPhone to your computer. When the iPhone sysnc screen appears click the Music tab. Check the Sync Music box, then click the Selected Playlists button, and check the box next to the playlist you just saved. You can build genius lists on your iPhone as well, but I find it convenient to have a selection of playlists that I know suit the kind of paddling I'm planning to do.
Finding Your Way
On to more specific SUP things. You have a lot of choices for planning where to go and/or tracking your travels. At the base level there's a nice implementation of Google Maps that enables you to look at satellite pictures of your planned route. "Wow, that reef sure goes out a looong ways", or "where did that waterfall come from" are both obstacles that are fine to discover when looking at a google map--much better than bumping into them.
So far we've just talked about fundamental features. Moving up a BIG step are the GPS apps.
So far my favorite Stand Up Paddling App is EveryTrail. Everytrail is both a free stand-alone application and a connector to the excellent GPS experiential site, also called Everytrail (http://www. everytrail.com). The GPS features we are adding to Ke Nalu are patterned after Everytrail.
You can download the Everytrail App by browsing the Appstore on your iPhone, and then search for EveryTrail, or go to the Travel Category and look for it. The iPhone has to stay active while the EveryTrail application is tracking your run, so you'll find it works best for SUP tracking if you go to the general iPhone Settings menu
set the screen brightness of your iPhone to the lowest setting, turn off WiFi and 3G
Apple's iPhone is a great tool for anyone, but it has some features and available applications that make it particularly great for Stand Up Paddle Surfing. The phone I'm going to cover is the 3G version, which is handiest since it has built-in GPS capabilities. In fact the iPhone GPS is especially useful since it has special features that increase the accuracy, even when GPS satellites are obscured by weather conditions or terrain.
Unfortunately the iPhone is not waterproof, so you need a dry carrier of some sort. There are some fairly expensive and clumsy hard case versions, but the touch screen of the iPhone makes hard cases problematic. Thin clear drybags enable you to operate the phone right through the bag, and both talk and listen through the bag or via headphones.� My current favorite is the OverBoard case, which has a compact closure system and a built-in headset jack. The only drawback is that the back of the case is opaque so you can't use the phone's camera without taking it out of the case. Overboard makes a bag with a camera window on the back, but it doesn't have a jack. Damn--they're so close. Maybe they'll do a mashup of the two cases. I sent them an email about it, but they responded (more or less correctly) that the iPhone camera is so lame that they think most people are more interested in an armband and flotation, which are hard to provide along with a camera window. What they are not considering is geocoding photos, which I find extremely useful. Even a fairly crappy picture becomes interesting when you automatically know EXACTLY where it was taken. Anyway, here's overboard's MP3 case, and it really is a very fine product:
As it is the iPhone is great for downwinders and distance paddling. It has a clock, a stopwatch to time your run, it's a superb iPod player for your music, and if you or someone else gets into trouble or needs a lift your phone is right there. I consider it an important safety device. But it really comes into its own when you add applications that are available either for free or very inexpensively. There are currently about 30,000 applications available for iPhones. But before we explore iPhone Apps, let me give you a tip about music for paddling.
Automatic Playlists
You might be used to putting together playlists of music for your MP3 player. I find it really tedious, so I'm really pleased that Apple came up with a wonderful automated playlist building tool that's very appropriately called "Genius". If you have the latest version of iTunes (free on either PCs or Macs) you have Genius. To turn Genius on you click "Store" in the top iTunes menu, then select "Turn On Genius". iTunes will be busy for quite a while, indexing your songs, checking with the iTunes store about some mysterious characteristics of every song you own, and building the database that Genius uses. When you want to build a Genius playlist you just select a song that is representative of the music you want. Click on the Genius button (a little atom symbol in the lower right corner of the iTunes screen) and Genius builds you a playlist of compatible songs assembled from your library--the songs you own.
I have no idea of how it builds the lists, but they are great. Really great. The songs don't sound all the same, and they are not all from the same kind of band or even the same genre. They just work really well together. They remind me of an old disk jockey that used to work at a musty meat market bar in Eugene Oregon called Foo's Spinnaker about thirty years ago. The guy would somehow assemble playlists on the fly from a huge vinyl collection he carted around. He made music link together emotionally so well that he controlled the mood. People who experienced his talents remember him all these years later. The Genius isn't quite that good, but it's close.
Sometimes it's so good it's just plain weird. Who knew that Dunk n' Dine by The Georgia Satellites goes perfectly with Thick and Thin by the Black Crowes and Ride, Ride, Ride by Foghat--but it absolutely does.
You can give the lists a memorable name and save them by first clicking Edit>Select All, then clicking File>New Playlist From Selection. Then you can add the playlists to your iPhone by connecting your iPhone to your computer. When the iPhone sysnc screen appears click the Music tab. Check the Sync Music box, then click the Selected Playlists button, and check the box next to the playlist you just saved. You can build genius lists on your iPhone as well, but I find it convenient to have a selection of playlists that I know suit the kind of paddling I'm planning to do.
Finding Your Way
On to more specific SUP things. You have a lot of choices for planning where to go and/or tracking your travels. At the base level there's a nice implementation of Google Maps that enables you to look at satellite pictures of your planned route. "Wow, that reef sure goes out a looong ways", or "where did that waterfall come from" are both obstacles that are fine to discover when looking at a google map--much better than bumping into them.
So far we've just talked about fundamental features. Moving up a BIG step are the GPS apps.
So far my favorite Stand Up Paddling App is EveryTrail. Everytrail is both a free stand-alone application and a connector to the excellent GPS experiential site, also called Everytrail (http://www. everytrail.com). The GPS features we are adding to Ke Nalu are patterned after Everytrail.
You can download the Everytrail App by browsing the Appstore on your iPhone, and then search for EveryTrail, or go to the Travel Category and look for it. The iPhone has to stay active while the EveryTrail application is tracking your run, so you'll find it works best for SUP tracking if you go to the general iPhone Settings menu
set the screen brightness of your iPhone to the lowest setting, turn off WiFi and 3G
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