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
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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.
