Gorge Performance

Gorge Performance now offers Ke Nalu Stand Up Paddles.

Gorge Performance has been serving the needs of Northwest Adrenaline junkies for well.. forever I guess. At least they’ve always been there when I needed gear. I bought my first “performance” windsurfer from Bob Rueter in 1983–a Aiken 10’3″. I found it in the crawlspace of my beach house in Manzanita when I went to sell the house two years ago. Brought tears to my eyes. I had good times with that board, and the Lanny Schuler custom that followed it, which I still have. I sailed it last summer in Hood River. Still rocks.

The shop has grown a great deal since 1983, when it was pretty much just windsurfing and surfing gear, though I remember Bob doing some incredibly dumb stunts with a sail-powered skateboard back when we were both young and stupid, so there was probably a skate section as well.

Humble beginnings, back in ’83. the tin shed is still part of Gorge Performance, in fact it’s where most of the SUP stuff is. 

Enough nostalgia, Gorge Performance has ALWAYS been hard core. Windsurfing, surfing, kitesurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding–if you’re looking for a way to scare the crap out of yourself, Bob has your gear. And now he’s neck deep in Standup Paddle surfing and racing. Gorge Performance has organized and ramrodded the Ross Island SUP races for the last two years. Bob himself has morphed from a fairly slow guy padding a crapola modified windsurfer to kicking my ass in more than a few races on his own, personally shaped and glassed, pretty fricken’ fast board.

A very dramatic finish at the Gorge Challenge. John Goodman was closing on Bob coming around the mark, but Bob held him off.  In addition to participating in races like Round the Rock and the Battle of the Paddle Gorge Performance has been organizing and running the very popular Ross Island Race series  in Portland for the last two years

The repair shed. Puts the funk back into functional. 

Bob still does a lot of the repair and modification work. Including shaping and glassing his own SUP race board.

So naturally, when it came time to pick dealers Gorge Performance was number one on my list. Good thing Bob really liked the Ke Nalu paddles. I lent him a demo to use in this year’s Battle of the Paddle. He liked our paddles enough to build a little Ke Nalu shrine in the store. Well, that’s what it looks like to me anyway.

Nice display! As packed with stuff as Gorger Performance is, everything is well merchandised and displayed. They even did their own vinyl sign from our logo. 

Gorge Performance is like Dr. Who’s time and space ship the Tardis. On the outside it’s the size of a London phone booth. On the inside it makes Home Depot look like a garden shed. How did they DO that? Bob has a huge stock of SUP boards–surf, cruise and race. Boards from Tahoe SUP, Jimmy Lewis, Surftek, Starboard, Naish, Paddle Surf Hawaii, C4, Amundsen, Bic, Southpoint, Oxbow, NSP, and others–and they have multiple models and sizes in all those brands and more. WHAT!?! you say. Exactly. They do the same thing for windsurfing, kiting, snowboarding and skating–huge selection in each category of gear, clothes, and accessories. They have the largest selection of wetsuits I’ve ever seen. And everything is well-merchandise and presented, well organized. Tidy in the sense of a meticulous guy with too many great tools and toys in a small garage. They’ve got all the cool stuff–GoPro, Maui Jims, more fins than even a fin-hoarder like me can wrap their head around.

Deep and wide inventory–for everything

You can burn through an afternoon very easily at this this place. 

Part of the trick is that it’s three buildings–the main building that looks small because of the small entry, but really isn’t, then the old tin shed thing that’s full of boards and sailing gear, and then an even scuzzier shed where repairs and board shaping takes place.

One of several rows of SUP boards. Gorge Performance is a few hundred yards from Willamette Park, a favorite place for Portlanders to paddle SUPs.

The place is a Portland treasure, and a real pleasure for me to visit. Diane is not all that thrilled about going there–I walk through the door and it’s gonna be at least an hour. Plan your day accordingly.