Big Maliko: iPad Video

Bill Boyum shot this video some time ago, and I’ve been fiddling with streaming media on the server I use ever since, trying to find a way to do good streamed video. After many days of fiddling and playing I’ve come to the conclusion that the Pro version of Vimeo makes a lot more sense than trying to roll my own. It does what I want, streams in all kinds of formats (including iPhone and iPad) and doesn’t cost much. So here’s the first video I’m posting using this new tool. It’s HD, so you can go full screen and enjoy a fine looking picture, though you might get a better full screen version if you click on the video and go to Vimeo (haven’t figured that one out yet). It also works on iPads in full resolution and iPhones in HD.

Maliko Run: SIC from Bill Babcock on Vimeo.

Catching Up

Ke Nalu has been on a bit of a hiatus. Just too many things going on, and fortunately some of them were fun. Some medical crap, a lot of work getting moved to Hood River (my shop is still 90 percent in Portland) but also a lot of downwinders in the gorge, lots of SUP races, and riding my new trike. I’ll do an article on my new surfboard transport trike a little later. For now I have a lot of catching up to do. We have raw story material submitted from the Battle of the Paddle Hawaii, Maui to Molokai races, the Ross Island SUP races, a race in Venice, as well as some board reviews and SUP accessory articles.

Looking forward, there’s the Battle of the Paddle in Dana Point, the Cape Cod Bay Challenge, a host of late summer and early fall races. And then back to Maui. Mainstream media is covering SUP more and more, especially the inland aspects. The big SUP companies are focusing effort on the heartland, because growth is rapid there and seems almost unlimited–we’ll cover that aspect. The steady growth of Ke Nalu readers even while content production has been slow is strong testament to growing interest. The Ke Nalu archives are full of information newbies find useful and people are mining deep into the back issues. It’s also an important time to pay attention to regulation, and the unintended consequences of the Coast Guard’s ruling that SUP’s are a vessel. We’ll do some article on that.

Bottom line, while this one-man band may wander off and do other things occasionally, Ke Nalu is alive and well. I hope you’re having a great summer and you’re getting on the water and enjoying this great sport.

Oregon Open Ocean Classic

Here comes a fun one friends–as long as you don’t mind a little nippiness in the water.

The Oregon Open Ocean Classic is an 11 mile, North to South SUP / paddleboard race along the Oregon coast from Beverly Beach State Park to Newport harbor. You’ve heard of flat water races, down winders and through the surf challenges. This race is a combination of them all! It will be open to SUP and traditional paddleboard competitors.

The Le Mans beach start will have participants charging through the surf to reach the open ocean. Once outside, paddlers will head offshore ~1/2 mile and then South 8 miles riding the prevalent 15 -30 knot winds and swell around Yaquina Head to the mouth of Newport Harbor. The final 1.5 miles will be a sprint between the jetties on flat water to the Yaquina bridge finish.

Registration forms are available online now. Be sure to mark this one on your calendar for the weekend of August 28th, it will be a blast

The Blowout is ON…

…If the wind cooperates. The Columbia Gorge Blowout has been going on for 28 years, and this year it includes a SUP race. I did the blowout a few times on windsurfers, and it was always such a blast. Not just the race, but all the after stuff too. Hood River is such a lively town as summer starts to unfold. Great restaurants, wineries, brewpubs, fun people, lots to do. It just flat out rocks here.

There was a bit of uncertainty and confusion (I’m blaming Matt, from Naish, he got me spun up over dates. You just can’t do that to a guy with a geezer memory) but we’re on for the Blowout this weekend. The first Gorge Blow Out SUP Downwinder Race, this weekend June 26 or 27 depending on the wind forecast. This is an 8 mile course from Viento to Hood River, riding swells with the wind and battling against the current. The wind and swells win, but if you fall off you’ll be amazed at how fast you go backwards. Registration is at Bob’s Beach in Stevenson, WA from 8-9:00 AM on the day of the race. Check the VMG website for race schedule updates http://www.vmgevents.com/gc/schedule.htm to know what day to show up.

Classes:
12’6” and below
14’ and below
Unlimited

Be sure to check the VMG site for general info and registration. Understand that VMG runs this race, we just talked them into adding SUP and promote it. Just to make it completely clear, you check in at Bob’s Beach in Stevenson at 8:00-9:00, sign their waivers, register and pay your race fee ($45). The fee includes snacks and beverages at the finish. Then you drive across the Bridge of the Gods to Cascade locks and travel up the Gorge to Viento Park. Viento has a $5 day use fee for parking. Bring a fiver, it’s a self-pay system–envelope in a strongbox. We launch there according to VMG’s schedule–approximately 10:00 but it could be a little later if the wind is still building. Trust us, we want wind.

Notification of whether the race will happen on Saturday or Sunday will be ON THE VMG SITE. We’ll mirror it as soon as we hear, and we’ll send email to anyone that preregisters with us (see our pre-registration form at : http://www.downwindrace.com/2010/06/registration-form/

The Fast Way and the Fun Way
With the current being so brisk this year (lots of runoff from all the late spring rain) the fast way to the event center will probably not be the fun way. Fun is to get out in the river a bit and enjoy surfing the swells. You can get some incredibly long rides because the current keeps you in the swell so long. Unfortunately the current is much stronger anywhere there is swell, so the fast way is usually to hug the shore a bit. Then again, this is a FUN event, so if you get to Hood River without riding some swells, you lose out in the fun category.

You should also understand that the Columbia River is big, swift and cold. That means its dangerous, and you should NOT attempt this race if you are not ready for these conditions. Life jackets are required by coast guard regulation. Inflatable belt style or suspender style are fine. You might find a standard kayak jacket to be an advantage–it increases your sail area and doesn’t hinder paddling. Be prepared for early morning temperatures and spring runoff water temps. A shorty wetsuit is recommended, though some folks will undoubtedly be in Boardies.

Hope to see you there. Race On.

Racing In The Northwest

It’s been an interesting race season so far. Most of the downwind races have been what Dave Kalama calls “good training”. In other words, a lot of work. The last race of the Portland Ross Island Races put on by Gorge Performance had to be postponed due to high water, debris and nasty current in the Willamette River. A product of the copious rain we’ve had lately. It’s four days to the official start of summer and we’ve been freezing our butts off. I’m glad Bob postponed the race, I don’t care to be run down by a root ball when I’m trying to race. That freed up last Saturday, so Rod Parmenter, Mark Ribkoff and I made the long trek to Port Angeles for the Wanda Fuca race.

This was supposed to be a high wind race, but the Straits of Juan De Fuca is a treacherous place, and this time the treachery was that there was NO wind. There was a strong tidal current, headed theoretically in the right directions: 13.5 miles along the coast to Port Angeles. But like all tidal flows it was fluky. Guessing where it was going and where it was strongest would figure large in the race. To make a long story short, it was a very tough race, basically flat water paddling for 11.5 miles and then against a brisk side wind and chop for the last two miles. I was glad to see the finish. Beau Whitehead won the race on a Bark, followed by Rod on his F18, then Rick Graves–I don’t recall what he paddled. I came fourth on my F18, followed by Mark on a Starboard Surf Race. there were about ten or so SUP racers, and a big turnout of sea kayakers, OC-1s, and surfskis.

Back to Hood River, the mighty Columbia and Big Winds first race of the season. The river current is strong right now, and the winds are moderate, so I expected an easier time of it on the first leg of the course: upwind, but downcurrent around Wells Island. I was pretty surprised when we rounded the end of the Hook to paddle face into a powerful wind and some decidedly rough swells. My F18 was a handful in those conditions and bounced all over the place. Rod Parmenter took an early lead and I slotted in behind him, paddling hard. By the time we were halfway to the island Rob had given me the slip, and both Mark Ribkoff and another guy on a Starboard race board were edging past me. We reached the island and started along it’s shore, trying to duck out of the wind and use the current. It was simply a gut-wrenching pull to the tip of the island. we rounded the tip and my F18 started doing what it does best, getting into small swells and ripping along in them. I pulled away from Mark fairly quickly, though he stayed on my heels most of the way to the event center. Rod was too far way to catch, but the guy in second looked close enough (don’t know his name, sorry). I concentrated on my stroke, watching the water, keeping the stroke clean and fast, and edging towards the land where I knew the current would be much less even though the wind would be a little lighter. I started catching the guy in second, though very slowly. As we got closer to the event center second place edged out to catch more wind and swell. I considered this a mistake and increased my cadence to take advantage. Sure enough, as we entered the boat works channel I was neck and neck. We sprinted for the turning buoy and I seemed to have a small advantage. He rounded the buoy the wrong way so he could stay in the wind shadow, but I still had him by a length or two at the finish.

I caught a little static for having an F18 at a race where only 12’6″ boards count for points. My retort was “hey, I’m 250 pounds and 63 years old. If I can’t play the fat or old cards then you can’t play the board card”. I’m sure it was an advantage in the run downwind, but it certainly wasn’t on the upwind leg. Guess I need to get a 12’6″ race board. No idea which one will handle my weight best.

Time for a comparo, methinks.

Tomorrow is the last race in the Gorge Performance Ross Island race series. It’s a neat event, been a lot more fun racing around Ross Island than I thought it was going to be. It’s a pretty tactical race since there’s so much current variation. Tomorrow will be even moreso since the current in the Willamette is still really strong. The return leg is going to be a real grind. It will be interesting to see what the times are like.

Through a bit of a fluke I seem to be the points leader for the series even though I haven’t won first overall in any race. As I recall I’ve come in third in each race, but I was first in the unlimited class and the other classes have had turnover in the winners. Just a scoring oddity, but what the heck. I’ve been on the bad side of those things before. It also helped a lot that Mark Ribkoff bonked when he was paddling his F18, and missed the start in the second race.

Coming up soon is the Gorge Blowout, and SUP racing will be part of it. It’s very cool to have Stand Up Racing added to this venerable and highly regarded event. In years past the party afterward was more physically taxing than the race. I don’t know if that’s still a tradition, but I’m hoping for the best.

Here’s the basic details:
The Columbia Gorge Blowout is a classic Windsurfing event, they’ve been ripping up the Gorge for 28 years, and this year it’s going to include Stand Up Paddlers. The blowout is a big event, with lots of great activities surrounding it. We got together with the Darren Rogers, the principal race officer for the blowout and he enthusiastically agreed to include SUP. Get this on your calendar: Gorge Blowout June 26 or 27

The full blowout runs from Stevenson to Hood River, but we’ll be doing the short course version which is Viento to Hood River.

You can preregister for both the Gorge Blowout and the Kite blowout here:
The entry fee for the Gorge Blowout is $45 which includes food and beverages.

Kite Blowout July 23-24 For the past few years the Columbia Gorge Kitesurfing Association has been holding downwind races from Stevenson to the Hood River sandbar. This year they have agreed to add Stand Up Paddlers to the lineup. We are considering offering both a short and a long course for this race, with the long course being the full 17 mile run from Stevenson and the short course jumps in at Viento. Details to follow, but mark your calendar.

GREAT Maliko Video

Bill Boyum has outdone himself this time–the first Mailko video that actually gives a sense of the ride and the buzz, though the terror of a mountain rearing up behind you is still lacking. We might have to wait for next winter to see that. But this video rock, I mean really, really rocks. If you watch this and don’t get sweaty palms about doing a Maliko run then I don’t know what to do for you.

Connor Flying at Malkio

Bill Boyam did a Maliko run with Connor Baxter, Livio Menelau and Jack Dyson a few days ago to shoot some video. This clip shows the kind of form and speed that enabled Connor to win the Maui to Molokai race this year.

Connor Baxter flying at Maliko from Babcock on Vimeo.

Connor Baxter showing the kind of speed that enabled him to win the Maui to Molokai race against some of the world’s best downwind standup paddlers.

Here’s Bill’s comments:
“Shot Conner and Livio and Jack Dyson while I sailed downwind. First try and didn’t want to put on too much sail so I went with a 1.9 m school sail on a Starboard 12’6″. I almost was going fast enough but not quite. But still got some decent stuff with all three boogieing. Pretty cool to have us all lined up together … just wish I had a 2.6… woulda been perfect. They waited up a few times and then they gave me the slip. It was their second run but they’re on a mission. Wind got stronger and I caught back up with Jack and had all time positioning and great glides we were both on but alas … water and fog on the lens…. But the beginning stuff was clear although their white boards were giving my camera the fits… I’ve had better luck with red and yellow boards. Nice to take a break and cruise on a sail yesterday. Paddled the last 6 days in a row and needed a break. Those two young guys are fantastic to watch. Jack was pretty damn good too tho he’s gonna cringe when he sees his posture next to theirs.”

Jack usually has good form, maybe his back is bothering him. We geezers tend to seize up every now and then.

Laird Playing

A few simple tricks anyone can master–from Laird’s website

Finding Your Own

This year in Maui I resolved to find new surf spots in outer reef areas that prone surfers wouldn’t bother with. I chickened out in the beginning of the year, I was having too much fun at Kanaha, and the waves were pretty big. But whenever the waves got smaller or the crowds at Kanaha got too large I went off to find new stuff. And I found an amazing variety of surfable areas, some I consider far better than the popular spots when the conditions are right. Let me tell you how and why I did it.

First the why.

Crowds.

There’s been a lot of talk on the various forums about the backlash from surfers towards Stand Up Paddle Surfers, but it doesn’t seem like that big of a problem in Maui, in fact the new SUP surfers are the biggest issue. As far as prone surfers go, I’ve seen what looks like a pretty complete cycle here on Maui. First curiosity and interest, then mild hostility when the numbers of sweepers increased, then some serious stinkeye and hostility, then grudging acceptance with a lot of Maui surfers switching over to Stand Up Surfing at least part time. All the same, when there’s a big crowd of Stand Up Surfers at any popular break, it’s not as much fun. Not only do you need to be thoughtful towards the prone surfers, you also have to take your turn with the SUP folks, and some of them are still in the stage where they consider every wave they can make to be fair game. For me it was time to look for other waves.

I started by trying less popular breaks near the standards. Kanaha is a very long reef, and there’s lots of places to surf. But the simple truth is that the bigger waves are best in a small area. And you always feel like you’re taking the short end of the stick.

I knew from my windsurfing days and from Maliko downwinders that there are lots of reefs at various spots all along the North Shore, most of which rarely see a surfer. So I started figuring out how to get at them. The method is pretty easy. I used Google Earth to find likely access areas and reefs. I’d scope the access area I wanted to try on my way back home from a day of surfing, looking at places to get into the water and places to park. In a couple of spots I found a good place to launch but nowhere to park close by, so I found places to unload my board and paddle, then I ride my bicycle back to the launch after parking the car.

Next morning I’d go to the candidate spot  early so I wouldn’t have to fight wind, and I’d pick a day when the swell was small but still surf-able.

I get in the water, paddle around and size up the likely breaks. I get on the inside of them and find where the reef comes up to snatch your board, where the channels are, how to locate them, and what way the wave breaks–where the likely takeoff spots are. Then I give it a go. Honestly, twenty minutes of scouting was usually more than enough to size up the dangers and figure out the break. Most of the stuff I was finding is what I’d call “middle reef”. Out far enough for the water to get navigable, but not in water so deep that only the monsters break. The true outer reefs also take some of the steam out of the waves, making them into the slope-y, mushy user friendly waves that I feel most comfortable on. I’m not fast enough yet for the top-to-bottom pitching waves. Maybe next year.

Dave Kalama at a Maui Outer Reef Break (I THINK this break is near one I tried on a smaller day) Photo By Darrell Wong

By my rough count and unreliable memory I got about 20 days at new breaks this year (compared to probably a hundred plus at Kanaha and the Harbor). Every one of those 20 days was an adventure. I did make it out to what I think would be considered outer reef for a few days of overhead plus, but it was nerve wracking. Not because the waves were so huge (though they were pretty toasty) but because I was by myself. No one in sight in any direction. Break a leash and it’s going to be a very ugly swim in. Not because of the distance, but because of all the breaking waves and reefs you’d be crossing.

In return for scaring myself a bit pretty much every time, a few minor coral cuts and some fins that look like I’ve been dragging them across a parking lot, I got twenty days of riding wave after wave. Taking the best of each set. Never having to share a wave or pull out for someone else. In 20 days of perfect surfing I saw one guy, twice, in a surf kayak. And he was in a different break. Other than him and a few fishermen–no one.

I don’t know that this approach works everywhere. But I do know that people like to congregate. There’s two bars on the same street, with the same amenities. One is full of people laughing and talking, the other has a few customers. Which one do you go into? People attract people. If you’re looking for surfing, give my wandering around method a try. If your looking to socialize then it’s probably not for you.

Out Like a Lion

I received this email from Bill Boyum about a downwind run March 31st. I didn’t go that day, and I’m kind of glad I didn’t, though I heard it was epic. Sounds scary as hell, but epic. I’ve been in that position of looking ahead at Upper Kanaha and seeing breaking waves out to the horizon. Takes the stuffing right out of you–admin.

” I registered on Ke Nalu and wrote an article to send you using the publishing form and then it disappeared. Couldn’t really figure out how to send (I guess there’s another thing I need to work on–admin). But anyway here it is… ”

Out Like a Lion

My gal Shirley was sad to miss what she figured was the concert of a lifetime that Paul McCartney gave at the Hollywood Bowl. Macca played for three hours on a chilly night in early March.

On the 30th of March I was contemplating what I considered might be the Maliko run of a lifetime. Wind speeds were hitting 45mph. I’ve had many runs over 30 and a few that have touched 40 and were keen. However a rising full size swell was in the works and the possibility of getting tagged somewhere out there seemed too great. I had been tagged the week before in large surf outside Sprecks with my pal Victor (both of us are 59) and we had to swim a quarter mile for our boards. Didn’t want to repeat that. The forecast was reporting even more wind and less swell for the next day. I decided to wait.

The wind on the 31st did notch up higher from early in the morning and by high noon it was gusting to 55mph. The song says “I can’t drive 55″ but I was jacked. The swell dropped only slightly but who knew when I’d see 55 mph again and I decided to take a run to the harbor on my 14′ that I’ve ridden for the last 4 years of my 5 year stint at SUP Maliko downwinding. (since 1990 with lay-down boards).

I had afternoon appointments and went early rather than wait for my friends–the odd couple of Scott and Alan. Shirley dropped me and I launched at 1:45. Had the usual peaceful stroke out to the mouth. Abruptly was knocked down hard by a gust. A first. Still saw considerable surf on the downwind side of the bay and opted to stay on my knees and paddle hard straight out until I figured I could safely angle out to the line. Once on my feet it was easy to angle glide out with the wind direction and especially the velocity.

Since it was a harbor run and I was anticipating uppers I waited till I was about a half mile out before falling off the angle I was holding and letting the wind take me. Took a look downwind and saw nothing but smoky mist from wind and surf. The ocean surface looked like one of those end-of-the-world movies where earthquakes undulate. There were a few one-man canoes that launched with me. They would blast in to the same rollers PonoBill has been writing about in his articles. I’ve seen big rollers many times before, though not as big as these. But with less wind they usually traveled too fast for me to catch them with my stand-up board. On a great run I might bag two or three like that. But the 31st was a different world. Crest to troughs were easy 12-15 feet deep with long smooth deep powder slopes. After I saw the one-mans do their thing and I had decompressed from the intensity of being out there, I figured it was time to roll.

Drop ins were no longer difficult because of the wind velocity. Little swells and body sail were plenty to propel you into a full speed drop. I know for sure that was the fastest I’ve gone on my board. After the initial drop I was on the back of my board for the rest of the run. Whoever was next to me disappeared into valleys sufficient to easily hide a one man. Open ocean swells were breaking with loud claps and the wind noise was like an airport. With the line I set it was easy to clear all the breaks before uppers but a mile away I was shocked to see that uppers had rogue peaks breaking in my path. Another jog out to sea and a few years off my heart made me anticipate what I saw next. Pier One. I’ve surfed the break since 1969 but the intensity of this whole adventure was playing tricks on my mind.

It looked like the harbor entrance was closing out.

The mist and glare combined and I couldn’t see crap. All I could see was the surf. I had a few feather under my board and then saw the entrance was open. What a relief. But the waves were running sideways and I managed to snag a shoulder right into the entrance at speed and pull a backside turn in under the wind shadow of the breakwall. Stone glass. A long exhale. Stroked the glassy shadow all the way to the Young Bros tugs (no cruise ship) and then fell off my hard angle to the wind into the shadow of the lower pier and on to the club. Scott and Alan arrived before I drove off and it was great to see their faces.

I do enjoy the articles on Ke Nalu and I’ve been looking for someone else who went that day to write down what happened to them so I could relive it. But no one has. Cheers Bill Boyum

Downwinding: Swellriding

The swell blocks the howling wind at the bottom of each trough. You stroke hard, the tail of your board lifts, and you’re looking into a pit nine feet deep, with a wall of water on the far side. Two short, sharp pulls of your paddle close to the nose and the board teeters in, dropping past the stall point and starting to fall. The steep face grips the board and accelerates it instantly to wave speed. Acceleration continues as the board starts its fall, and you stare at the swell ahead, looking for patterns that show the way to turn. Straight ahead into that wall is not an option. Far to the left is a low spot, and a dip in the face of the wave shows where a crossing swell moves. You cut towards the slot, cranking the rudder with your toe at the same time that you lean to the inner rail and slip your paddle across the wave face. Your seventeen foot board pivots smoothly and cuts the face, accelerating harder as vector forces press it. The nose patters across the wind chop on the face, you crank the rudder gently in the opposite direction to kill your turn and head for the slot. The nose is too low, so you step quickly back to the tail, giving a hard paddle stroke to maintain speed and lighten the board.

The nose smashes into the wave, buries itself under a few inches of water, and pops free, sheeting water past your feet. You slide over the wave crest and see a long rippled sheet of smoother water curving off to the right and dropping into a trough. You reverse your turn, chatter across the sheet, gaining speed. Your board has a rooster tail spraying from it and the speed feels amazing–at the hairy edge of control. Only four more miles to go. Maybe there’s enough daylight left for a second run…

This article is a composite of swell-catching advice from numerous people, including Jeremey Riggs, Randy Strome, Chantelle Strome, Dave Kalama, Larry Risely, Jack Dyson, and other Maui downwind addicts. Of course none of them knew they were providing advice for publication, it’s just talk from countless post-run bull sessions, shuttle rides, and other informal occasions where I try to soak up all I can from these far more experienced swellriders.

Downwind fanatics often say it’s like surfing for ten miles, but that’s not true, it’s just not the same as Stand Up Paddle surfing–there’s really nothing like a real swellride. For one thing you don’t have the same kind of control you have with a surfboard, the board is bigger, the forces are more subtle, and the riding surface is unpredictable. Downwinding is almost as much a mind game as a physical challenge. Learning to read the swells is critical. The first time you go with a few experts, and they zoom away from you even when you’re doing well catching swells, you realize there’s a lot more to this than a few good rides. Played at a high level, this is a momentum game, with accomplished riders always riding a swell, and the best riders maintaining a constant high speed. Great riders do Maliko runs in under an hour–that’s more than ten MPH average speed.

Just like chess, you can learn the basics in fifteen minutes and then spend your life mastering the game. Let’s get the basics down and then we’ll talk about a few refinements.

Trim and Turning: You need to be comfortable moving around your board. Trim is critical in downwinding, and you are the trim ballast. If you’re paddling a rudder board you’ll likely feel anchored to the rudder. You can do a lot of trimming with one foot on the pedal, but in the early stages you shouldn’t. Use the rudder when you can, but concentrate on learning to handle the board with it’s rails and your paddle. Every board handles differently. A board with soft front rails or a displacement nose may not respond to rail pressure in the manner you’d expect. For example, don’t assume a displacement board will turn to the inside when you press down a rail. If you are standing at the neutral center or forward it may well turn towards the outside in response to rail pressure, or it may not turn at all. Spend some time learning to turn your board from various positions: The neutral center, forward of center, aft of center, and at the tail.

Generally you trim forward to catch a swell, aft to ride it and further aft get the nose over the next swell. When you are swellriding well, you are going faster than the swells travel, so you catch the swell in front and have to ride over it without stalling or burying the nose so deep that the board stops or dumps you off. You can trim inelegantly by shuffling forward or back, elegantly by cross-stepping, or you may try to just shift your weight by stepping back into a deep surfing stance and shifting between your front or back leg.

Shuffling upsets the board at a critical time because you shift weight from rail to rail as you shuffle. Cross-stepping is far better, both because it looks great and because if you do it well the board remains weighted as you intend it instead of sloshing side to side.

Weight shifting from front to back foot may not be enough. In big swells and high winds it will NOT be enough.

Your paddling needs to be up to snuff to do downwinders successfully. Read and practice this short post from Dave Kalama in his blog

As soon as you catch a swell you need to start deciding where you want to turn. You almost always want to turn in a swell for the same reason that you turn in a wave on a surfboard. If you just run down to the bottom of the swell you will lose power and slow down, then the swell will run underneath you with little hope of staying in it. If you turn into the swell and ride its face the wave will be pushing you as long as you stay there. You will reach higher speed and sustain it longer, and you’ll be able to swing up over the swell in front of you and start riding it.

The photo sequence below of Dave Kalama swellriding illustrates a turn in a swell that optimizes the ride. The helicopter camera angle and telephoto lens foreshortens the swells, which makes it hard to see what Dave sees, but you can still get a general picture.

Dropping into the swell with momentum, Dave sees both a larger swell to his left that should give a good ride, a low spot to his right to drop into, and a gap in the swell in front of him at far right

He turns right, dropping into the deeper pit as the swell to his left starts to push

The swell to his left is pressing hard as the nose of the board cuts a bit of chop in the trough

The chop helps lift the nose to get it through the gap in the next swell

Turn completed, starting to flatten

Aimed for the slot

Over and through, and looking for the next sequence

Trimmed back at high speed

Which direction you turn is depends on what you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to maximize speed you look for the deepest parts, or areas with no crossing swell to oppose you. Swells are almost always complex, with the biggest peaks being the intersection of two swells, often moving at opposite angles. Taking the larger one can increase speed.

On the other hand, you may have somewhere you want to go, like towards the shore if the wind is offshore. Turning in the swells is the way to get there. When you are paddling you’re going perhaps four miles per hour. In a good sized swell you’re going 10-15 MPH. Turning in a swell and riding it towards shore for twenty seconds is the same as paddling in the same direction for a minute. It’s the best way to get where you want to go.

Next time, Catch That Swell.

I Like Whales, but…

…this is getting crazy. Every day it seems to get a little more extreme, like some kind of Stand Up Paddle whale slalom. Today started sort of uneventfully, the wind didn’t look that great–strong at the Canoe Hale up by the Kehei Pier, and positively nukin’ on the North Shore, but when we drove down to Makena Landing to drop off the shuttle truck it was dead calm and whatever windline we could see was five or more miles out. Still, we decided to suck it up (Chan is going to get tired of hearing that) and go all the way. What the heck, it’s just paddling (though it never is).

We hit the water and started getting some nice bumps and rides right away. There was a surprisingly big swell angling onshore. Must have been a reflection off Sugar Beach, there isn’t enough fetch to build a swell that size right at the Hale. I angled sharply out. Rand stayed inside for some reason, and Chan took the middle ground. I think I actually made the best choice. I had good rides for at least half of the run. Up ahead the whales were going nuts. There were huge splashes everywhere.

As we neared Sorrentos I angled out further to avoid a pod that were doing breaches and tail slaps right in my path. As I angled out a particularly large whale surfaced a few hundred feet from me and started doing kind of an oddly angled tail slap that was kind of like slapping the water backhand, then forehand, then backhand–flipping his tail over at an angle. The sound was so intense I could feel it in my feet and my chest. Just past that whale a mid-sized calf did a forward flip coming completely out of the water. Ahead of me a big whale did a partial breach–shooting about half it’s body out of the water then sliding back and sideways. It was close enough for me to clearly see the lumps under it’s chin and a big scar where it’s right pectoral fin joined its body. I felt quite small. My board seemed ridiculously fragile. Like skateboarding through an elephant herd.

I made it clear of the pod without incident, had a few more close encounters, then the wind died off, the swells got big, cresting, and oily, and I saw a boat that looked like it might be in trouble. I altered course to pass close by and checked it out. Two guys and a gal, fishing. They were fine. They must have strong stomachs, the boat was pitching wildly. I felt much safer on my Stand Up Paddleboard.

I angled in a little because it looked like the wind might be a little better. I wasn’t. A few minutes after I left the boat I heard the whine of an engine behind me. But it wasn’t my new fisherman friends, it was a lifeguard on a jetski with a rescue sled. “You okay” he said. “Sure” said I. He told me they had been called by a tourist that said two people were being carried out to sea on standup boards. He understood we were doing downwinders, asked where we started from, radioed back that all was well and left me to my paddling.

Chan was working her way out, I was working in as we neared Makena Landing. We were soon in talking distance. She had seen the lifeguard and wanted to know what was up. A few minutes later I heard her yell “Hey Bill” from a little distance behind and inside me. I turned and saw a dolphin fin, a foot or two from the nose of her board. She had a friend. The Dolphin cut back and forth in front of her for some time, rolling his body sideways to get a good look, then came over to check me out. He dodged under the nose of my board, I watched him cut through the water and swim right in front of TWO WHALES!! Holy smokes they were right on top of me!! They both surfaced, the nearer one no more than five feet away, the further one perhaps ten. I could see the nearer one’s pectoral fin under my board–it had wide white markings all along it’s edge. The nearer one hosed me down comprehensively with his spout. Uck. It didn’t feel as snotty and wasn’t as bad smelling as the last time I got whale sprayed, mostly just water and a little shrimpy smell, but I still wasn’t going to lick my dry, parched lips–though I suddenly really needed to. As soon as they were a few feet past me I jumped in the water and scrubbed off. Somehow they didn’t get Chan even though she was no more than 20 feet away and she found the whole thing pretty amusing.

We made the turn into the bay, met Rand who said he hadn’t seen a thing on his inside line–considered it an uneventful trip.

If these whale encounters get any more up close and personal we’re going to have to invite some of these whales over for dinner. I wonder if Costco carries Krill?

Stand Up Catamaran–stolen!! (Video)

I got a chance to paddle the SIC S-16 Catamaran Stand Up Paddle Board yesterday–I guess I should say I TOOK a chance to paddle it. Everyone was gone, transferring shuttle cars. So I grabbed it and gave it a try. Here’s the video:

I liked what I felt, considering how short the test was. It’s very stable, very quick and very fast. I didn’t have an opportunity to try it in a swell, but I can say that it would be very fast on flat water. It does have the inter-hull wave reflectance that I assumed it would, and that causes turbulence with leaves a substantial wake. But the hulls are clearly low friction–it doesn’t take much to get it moving, and it reaches high speed very quickly. It seemed to like Dave Kalama’s Tahitian stroke a great deal, responding quickly to the short pulls.

The rudder is precise and quick without being twitchy. All in all, it’s a hell of a good board, and beautifully finished.

Paddling with Dave

So if you wanted to get some paddle coaching for SUP, who would be your absolute, top of the line pick as coach? No question in my mind that my choice would be Dave Kalama, and Dave DOES do one-on-one coaching when he has the time. I figured if I’m going to spend time and money on racing Stand Up Paddle boards that I needed some serious coaching, so I engaged with Dave for a couple of days of training. It’s been pretty remarkable.

Some of you might not be familiar with Dave Kalama. Here’s a little background;

Dave is credited with the co-development of tow-in surfing, along with Laird Hamilton, Darrick Doerner, and Buzzy Kerbox. They pioneered tow-in surfing and later stand up surfing at Peahi (Jaws).

Kalama and close friend Laird Hamilton essentially reinvented and invigorated stand-up paddling. In October 2006, Dave Kalama and Laird Hamilton, biked and paddled the entire Hawaiian Island chain—more than 450 miles—in a week. The feat was featured on Don King’s film A Beautiful Son in support of those afflicted with autism. He appeared in the opening sequence of the James Bond film Die Another Day.

Dave is a descendant from a long line of noteworthy Hawaiian watermen; his grandfather brought outrigger canoe paddling to the mainland U.S., and his father Ilima Kalama was the 1962 world-champion surfer and a lifelong outrigger canoe paddler.

He’s fast as hell, can paddle forever (he once did six Maliko runs in a day just to train) and looks like he’s effortlessly stroking the water while he disappears on the horizon. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad thing about him and literally every surfer I know considers him the ultimate waterman.

He’s a fine teacher–he’s got a real knack for taking complex physical actions apart and showing you how to do each bit. He trained Slater Trout in paddle technique and general physical conditioning. Slater went on to take an upset second place in the Elite category of the 2009 Battle of the Paddle and contended strongly for first.

I guess he’s qualified to give me a few pointers.

The good news is that I have been putting the board in the water the right way–the fin does indeed go down. The bad news is that’s about it for the parts I’ve been doing right. The basic stroke Dave taught me is so counter-intuitive, subtle and complicated that I am absolutely certain that you will be totally confused by the time you finish this article.

Let me give you these words of encouragement–the end result of a few hours of coaching with Dave and a couple of days of practice in between session is that a four mile paddle today going as fast as I can for the entire distance left me feeling no fatigue whatever. I’m not going any faster yet–I’m a long, long way from mastering the stroke–but I’ve already gained a tremendous amount of efficiency

Start by watching this video (shot by Randy Strome of the Standup Zone) through a couple of times. The first stroke he’s doing is the Hawaiian stroke, which is a lot more like what I was doing (though Dave is far more fluid). The second stroke is Tahitian, which is the stroke he taught me.

Notice how much power and effort he’s putting into the Hawaiian stroke. The paddle is pulled hard all the way to his feet, then he wings out his upper hand just enough to clear the blade from the water, twists the upper hand to feather the blade and clear the water, then swings the blade back forward, raising his upper arm back into position.

Now watch the video from about 1:40 where he start doing the Tahitian stroke. In the end of this stroke he doesn’t wing his upper arm at all, rather he pulls the blade up and out of the water like drawing a sword. He breaks the wrist of his lower hand inward and relaxes most of the lower arm, using only minimal effort to push the paddle upwards. The upper hand holds the handle more like a knob than a T handle, with the thumb pointed to the side somewhat to start with. This enables the upper hand to twist the blade to a feathered position without putting a strain on the wrist.

As the blade leaves the water the shoulder, arm and upper torso swing forward in a sort of gentle punch, enabling momentum to stretch the muscles forward and give a longer reach for the catch. The upper arm which has been extended now moves a few inches inward towards the head and the torso rotates to stack the shoulders. At the catch the muscles start to spring back almost by themselves, and a firm torso and shoulder rotation applies power. The upper hand pushes forward and slightly down to aid in the power and position the shaft vertically. Almost as soon as power is applied you relax, and start the withdrawal sequence. The upper arm motion is a fluid rotation, with the hand describing a flattened oval–like an almond. Efficiency is gained by paying attention to when each muscle set can be relaxed. You can literally SEE the relaxation in Dave’s body, at the same time that the board is positively flying across the water.

Dave explained the efficiency this way: Properly done, the catch and first bit of pull is 70 percent of the power in any stroke. The energy applied after the catch can aid speed, but only a little bit, and it comes at a large cost. You get both your hands and your torso out of position for the next stroke, and you have to get them back where they belong before you can start again–that takes energy. The Hawaiian technique is fast, but it takes a supremely conditioned athlete to make it work and compensate for the inefficiency.

The Tahitian stroke is constantly lifting the nose of the craft, and it’s designed to build momentum. Your hands, torso and shoulders return to position automatically, on a circular, continuous path, and only travel a short distance. To build speed you increase the cadence, and it’s a lot easier to do that because the stroke recovery is so much shorter.

The hard part of all this is that every little aspect of the stroke is important, and the subtleties are endless. “Soften your lower hand–you need to relax. You’re lifting your upper hand too high. Reach. No, really reach. You need to stack your shoulders more. Your upper hand has to be closer to your head to get the shaft vertical. You’re pushing your upper hand too late. More torso rotation. Reach.” Good thing this guy is patient.

The format was that Dave taught me the basics for about two hours, then I spent the rest of the day practicing and basically screwing it all up. Then we met for another couple of hours and he got me back on the right path and showed me some of the more subtle stuff I was missing. More practice. Then a hour for a tuneup.

I’m now doing a reasonable facsimile of the Tahitian stroke. I know what I’m doing wrong, and how to fix it. There’s about ten things to be thinking about at any one time, and I know what all ten are, but I only get about six right at once. Of course all this has to get into muscle memory, and then I’m going to need another tweak or two.

Dave does this quick but comprehensive and effective program of one-on-one paddle coaching for $1000 and he has other programs that are more intensive and complete, and he also does one-on-one surf coaching. That’s comparable to pro coaching in other sports and it’s enormously effective. It’s a lot like having Babe Ruth teach you to bat. He’s not always available–he keeps a pretty busy schedule. But if you’re going to be on Maui it’s a really worthwhile thing to try add to your vacation and you’ll leave a greatly improved SUP paddler.

You can contact Dave through this form, which will be automatically emailed to him:

Hmmm, we’re having a technical challenge with the form. If you want to contact Dave before I get this fixed drop me an email at bill at kenalu dot come and I’ll forward.

Standup TV: Gary Lopez Vol 1.1

Stand Up Paddle Television started airing last year as a special segment of My Local Lineup TV on every third week of the month on iTV San Diego, channel 16, covers everything stand up paddling, from surfing and flat water to down wind and white water. While airing to about three million people in San Diego County, the show has now launched Stand Up Paddle TV, with all of its episodes, on the web. We will be carrying all the future episodes on Ke Nalu, and we’re catching up TODAY on all eleven of the episodes previously aired.

The episodes probe into several different facets of the sport, including history, profiles, industry, fitness, and more. Among some of the names already featured in the show are: Gerry Lopez, Chuck Patterson, Colin McPhillips, Slater Trout, Dave Kalama, Jamie Mitchell, Candice Appleby, Dan Gavere, Donald Takayama, Ron House, and the list goes on.

Here’s volume one with everyone’s favorite king: Gerry Lopez

Sam Busts Into iPad Launch

Okay, not really, but it looks like him. If he’d stay on a board without bailing. We’d have to staple a sausage to the deck.

The REAL sam:

The Low Buck Option

How about this board and paddle for $250? You could actually do it for less.

New Standup Paddle Surf boards are undeniably expensive compared to standard surfboards. There are several reasons for this–first, they have a lot more material in them. Not just foam, but all the expensive chemicals that go into building a board. And since they are large they need better and more expensive materials to make them both light and strong. They also need a paddle, and good ones are expensive. We’ll give you options for this later, first let’s talk boards.

Another reason SUP boards are expensive is that not everyone can build them. You need a large area and a lot of experience to shape a big board like a SUP. If you’re going to build a custom one you probably need vacuum bagging equipment and the know-how to use it. Vacuum bagging uses fairly expensive consumables. Most likely boards will be shipped into your area, and that means a lot of freight cost for the big boxes. Manufacturers have to plan on some shipping loss because boards this big and fragile are going to take some whacks.

So it’s justified–so what. It’s still a lot of money. What’s a low buck dude or dudette going to do? There are many options. Especially now that we’re well into the fourth generation of SUP boards. There’s some decent boards hitting the secondhand market. Craigslist works fine for finding a used SUP, you can expect to find older boards for sale frequently. Most are in the $500-700 range. If this is your route, have some caution. SUP boards are a good target for thieves since they bring a nicer buck than a longboard. You don’t want to buy stolen property, not just because of the legal issues but because it’s a good way to find a large angry guy shaking his fist in your face. A cop friend of mine once told me that the reason people don’t protest much when they are found with stolen property is that everyone either knows or suspects the item was stolen when they bought it. So trust your gut. Ask some basic questions over the phone to your potential seller. Like “where did you buy this board, how long have you had it, what other SUP boards do you have.” It doesn’t take much to make a thief get defensive.

But the most effective way to find a used SUP is to take an active approach. It has the added benefit that you’ll be pretty certain the board isn’t stolen. Simply ask all the SUP paddlers you can find if they know anyone with an old board they’d like to sell. SUP is one of those sports that causes rapid accumulation of gear, even though it’s pretty simple. My brother is on a tight budget and I think he has six boards. Almost anyone that’s been doing SUP for any length of time has boards they’ve outgrown. They’ll almost always be what you want–a beginner board. With a little luck the seller can show you some of the ropes as well.

You might also take a look at the classified sections of SUP forums. We don’t have a classified section on Ke Nalu, but we probably should. In the meantime, the Standup Zone has one that’s pretty active.

One very cheap way to get into Stand Up Paddle Surfing–especially the flatwater paddling–is to dig up an old windsurfing board. Back in the early days of windsurfing a lot of boards were big and floaty. You had to stand on them to uphaul the sail. !0 foot boards were common and some reached over 12 feet. Their hull design isn’t usually good for surfing, but they’re fine for flatwater and some are really fast.

Here’s a pretty remarkable project that John Watkins (Mindtripped on the Standup Zone) undertook to make a nice flatwater SUP from an old windsurfer:

So I was browsing craigslist for months trying to find a cheap SUP to get into the sport when I came upon this black 10′ 6″ windsurfing board. I checked it out and scored it for 120 bucks with a 9″ Curtis Fin.

Then came the long process of sanding down the black spray paint that these punk kids put on and discovered graphics that said 1986 F2 comet! I couldn’t believe how old it was (only 3 years younger than me) but in great condition minus the black spray paint. I pad sanded and polished the board back to its original white finish and then filled in the mast box, binding brackets and dagger board slot with foam and sealed it with marine-tex.
I purchased an OAM traction pad and converted a kayak paddle into a stand up paddle that my friend found floating in our canal.
The boards dimensions are 10’6″X26″X5″ with the tail tapering out pretty freakin thin. The board is pretty tippy in the chop and I haven’t had a chance to surf it, but am getting used to it. I’m 6’4″ and 165 and I’ve been using it in the canals around Pompano Beach, FL and it has worked great in the calm stuff.

For $120 for the board, $100 for the traction, about $30 for material, and a free paddle, I got into the sport for about 250 bucks with a board that looks and paddles pretty sweet.

The tip is hard rubber that F2 built into the board, it works really well to protect the nose. The quiksilver logo I made out of traction material because I have a crate with rod holders that I put on the board and the traction makes it stay put and not slide around. We have a straight SUP/Longboard fishing tournament coming up that has already been postponed twice due to nasty weather just south of Hillsboro Inlet in Pompano Beach,FL. http://www.boardfish.com Should be the first of its kind! I just need time to practice on my new board. –John

Actually John, paying $150 for that board is pretty high–it all came out great, but sometimes you can get old windsurfers like that for free.

DavidJohn responded on the zone with these pictures of his windsurfer conversion that he now loans to a friend:

I also have a Cobra windurfing board that works great as a flat water SUP. My friend has been using it until he can afford to buy his own… It goes great.. and very fast. I’ve been thinking about doing what you have done to it.

Paddles
New, high quality SUP paddles cost $200-500. That can break the bank right there. A used paddle is another easy way to go, and if you’ve take the active approach your new SUP owning friend might have or know of a paddle for sale. One thing to be sure to ask about is broken paddles. People who can afford a new paddle after breaking one usually just buy it, and the broken one languishes in the garage. They aren’t hard to fix. Broken shafts can be repaired with an internal sleeve and some fiberglass wrap on the outside. There will be an article on paddle repair in Ke Nalu soon.

The easiest way to get a cheap paddle is to visit your local sporting goods store or Marine supply store. They sell adjustable paddles for as little as twenty bucks. All you need is a way to extend the shaft, and there are some paddles that have long enough shafts for short people to begin with. The lifeguards at Kahana beach park in Maui did SUP paddling on their rescue board with a paddle made from a broken windsurf mast top section they salvaged and a paddle blade from a ten buck plastic paddle they bought at Walmart. And of course they rip. Lately they’re using a better paddle but they’re surfing the rescue board.

You can certainly modify this paddle to work easily

This telescoping paddle from West Marine can be easily modified into a SUP paddle

West Marine also sells an $89 SUP paddle for the Seyvlor inflatable SUP they sell. At 80″ maximum extension they are a little short for tall SUPers, but the price is right and they are adjustable. The Seyvlor Samoa SUP at $700 is a possible choice for the cash strapped Stand Up Paddle wannabe, but some reviewers had a problem with it’s quality. Still, for a board you can take anywhere and carry on a scooter or bicycle, it’s a darned good price.

My friend Sol Morey makes great paddles from salvaged materials. If you can find a windsurfing mast or broken carbon fiber windsurfing boom you have most of what you need to make a cool paddle. You can lay up the blade in fiberglass on a sheet of window glass and attach it to your handle. I’ve tried Sol’s paddles–a little heavy but they work fine. Of course Sol can make anything look good.

There’s really not that much of a financial barrier to getting into SUP. Once you have the gear it’s basically free except for time and transport to the water. A bike works fine for that:

This is my  17’6″ F18 attached to a mountain bike. I trailered this ten miles though heavy traffic. Not the safest thing I’ve done recently, but it works.

Back At It

I’ve been slacking off terribly. No Ke Nalu articles, features, or even blog posts for ages. I’ve had good reason for that, the best in fact, the surf and downwind paddling on Maui has been just too good to do anything but play in the water. But after a month back on the island I’m settled back in and it’s time to work a bit. Here’s what I have planned:

Board Reviews: One of the most popular segments of Ke Nalu is board reviews, but ours have become very out of date. I’m reorganizing the review section to reflect the yearly release of new equipment. To aid that I’m adding several ways to search for boards. More important is how new boards will get reviewed–the majority of the information will come from readers. I simply can’t access enough boards to keep this part of Ke Nalu relevant, so I’m setting up a review system that any and all of you can access. It’s wiki-like in that anyone’s comments and information can be added, but I will review the information as time permits to ensure some measure of quality. I’ll keep you posted on the launch of the new system.

I’m also considering a redesign of Ke Nalu. I did this last year, and it was a major effort, but it helps me to keep my skills updated. There are some new themes that I like the looks of. I have to do a fair amount of manual work to make Ke Nalu look good. It would be nice to have more of it automated.

Broader Scope: I built Ke Nalu as a marketing experiment. I’m writing a book on new marketing concepts, and Ke Nalu is intended to form a large number of the examples in the book. I’m at the point in the book where the examples need to become significantly more complex in scope, and so I’m going to have to invest some time in events, other media (podcasts, video, audio) and other delivery mechanisms. So you’ll be hearing more of my somewhat grating nasal voice.

More external content: I’m going to bug everyone I know to write articles. There’s a great deal of information out on the web, but it disappears quickly. forums like The Standup Zone (http://www.standupzone.com) have great content that disappears down the threadline much too quickly. I’ll be bugging the people who write these fine and detailed posts to turn into articles.

So we’re back in biz. I have a lot of articles that I’ve been collecting bits for. I’ll be releasing at least three per week as soon as I get the review system up and debugged.

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 the camera bag with the big glass, and headed to Peahi (Jaws). Even at 00:dark:thirty there was a crowd at the junction on the Hana Highway. I slalomed around them and hit the dirt road only to find a huge mass of cars and people headed for the bluff. I passed most of them, got to the bluff and found several hundred people already there, and the jet skis circling below, though slinging few riders into the maws of Jaws–no helicopters around. No choppers, no up close pics. The boys (and a girl) were on hold and the crowd was restless. I took advantage of the turnover at the bluff’s edge to grab a primo shooting spot.

The waves were immense, but not the biggest I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure the Thanksgiving waves a few years ago were larger. But these had a super fat lip and plenty of power. almost every wave was tossing way out, breaking top to bottom.

To make a long story short, I shot about 450 photos, should have done some video but didn’t, and here they are. Sorry about the techno music, it helps if you think of a couple of blank-faced euro girlz grinding away at each other in an Amsterdam club with the video playing behind them. “Now is the time on sprockets when we dance.” It was the only music that remotely fit that was long enough, This is a big file since I wanted to show this off in higher rez. You may have to wait a while for it to buffer:
Peahi animoto

Some people had problems with the high resolution version above–it takes a long time to load no matter what. You can right click on the link, select “Save Target As” and save the whole 80MB file for your uninterrupted viewing pleasure. It will take a while, but I think the better resolution makes the shots. Here’s a low resolution, streaming version but the high rez one is worth the wait.

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 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.

Rod Parmenter on yesterday’s run. Ron is paddling a Starboard Point. The little gap behind him is the one we have to shoot to make the cove. No big deal on a mellow 25 mph wind day like yesterday, but challenging when the wind gusts to 50.

Mark Ribicoff, celebrating “we lived!!” Of course we still had a ways to go.

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 they 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 (green) 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 overall speed is pretty good as it is, but it’s even more interesting when you consider this run is against a 3-5MPH current. That probably subtracts 1.5 MPH from the average speed.

Viento at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Community

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