Most of us headed to the Hatchery. It was a little hard to judge the wind strength because of the smoke, but it was definitely windy. Mike was one of the first out on his 5.2, but came in right away to rig down.
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| Mayhem n the water! |
I took out my 4.8 and Code (smallest board) and had a great hour. I had some of the best, and also some of my worst jibes of the trip, but averaged on the good side. I then took a break and shot some video - although, with the smoke, I am not sure how well they will turn out.
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| Mike - always seems to be able to sail, independent of what the wind does. |
The wind picked up, and everyone started rigging down. By the end of the day, Gerry had three sails rigged - he switched sail five times. Handre only had two sails rigged, but also had two boards and was switching back and forth as the wind came up and down.
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| Rene had a great day on his 4.8 Hucker. |
I went out again later on the same rig. The wind had dropped a bit, so I was perfectly balanced and had a short sail until two barges came by - one from each direction. I pulled in to the beach to wait for the barges, but the wind quickly dropped off.
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| My 4.8 and Code |
Kent spent most of the day on his 3.8 sail and had a great day.
There was so much gear on the beach at the end of the session that it was Mayhem! Almost everyone had a couple several sails and a couple of boards on the beach.
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| Jim - caught with his mouth full - Lunch Time! |
I think everyone was exhausted by the end of the session. We sat around and had lunch trying to rehydrate and recover.
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| Gerry's Rigs |
At around 4:00, we headed over to the Event Site to see if we could go out foiling. Dale, Bruce and Jim were there. Jim went back to the sailworks shop to get a demo board and foil for Jim, and a demo board for Gerry.
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| Brad - taking a mid-day nap - and resting his knee! |
The Kites, Ross, Eddy and Cam joined us. They had been at White Salmon and had had a great day. They had one session on small kites (Eddy was on his 5.0m), then went to for lunch at Manny's Lonchera (excellent taco's), and then had another session on larger kites (Eddy was on his 10m). We had seen Ross earlier as he had worked his way up to the hatchery late in the day, and given us a show with big jumps and wave riding. He has sure become a pro - looks like one of the best on the water!
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| Harold - sad because he was 1/2 hour late getting out! |
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| Harold - happy because he had a great day! |
Alex had gone to Luhr Jenson Park to try out a Stubby board which she was demo-ing.
A "Foiling Frenzy" ensued. We covered the grass with Sails, big boards, and Foils. Kent, Brad, Jim and I all headed out on foils, while the others watched (I think a bit envious).
Kent is getting very good at his jibes. I was starting to get the feel for it and was able to get the board off the water a few times. It is a very eerie feeling as the noise stops, everything gets very smooth, but you feel like you are on the edge of a big explosion if you so much as twitch the wrong way.
Jim, who was on the foil for the first time, also had a lot of success and started to get the feel of it.
Cam got out his kitefoil and thought he would give it a try, but the wind was a little light for the kite that he choose, so he didn't really get going. He did start to get the feel for it though - it was his first time on a kite foil.
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| Kiter Cam - with his foil |
It was almost dark when we quit. While it was clear skies and sunny, you could see the smoke from the fire to the North over Hood River. With the strong winds, the firefighters had lost a lot of ground, and parts of Hood River are now under a Class Two Evacuation Notice - they have to be ready to leave at any time. Once again, I have to say that one feels a little guilty being on the water having fun, while such an emergency/disaster is happening only a few miles away.
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| Smoke over Hood River |
Our Fan Club all left us to de-rig and headed over to 6th Street Bistro for dinner. It takes even longer to pack up a foiling rig than a windsurfing rig (more junk on the beach), so we joined the rest about an hour later.
Alex told us she was heading home early the next morning, so said goodbye to everyone.
Some of the group went for Ice Cream. Another late night - 10:30ish everyone was out for the night. Great Day!
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| The sky as we were de-rigging! |
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| The fire looks very close. Taken from the Event Site! |
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