Ross's final update

The final/final update (after Ted left):


Thurs:...."The day that never happened". Great forecast, big gradients.....resulted in 5.2 up and down sailing at the Hatchery. PM did, however, work out well with fantastic 8m kiting for Mike and I launching at kite beach.

Friday: Stevenson 4.7, sunny hot, usual small waves for the location. Blaine/Mike/Andreas and I packed up by about 1330hrs. Blaine went biking, Mike and I tried to go kiting at Rooster Rock but the wind died, Andreas went to the show. Pizza, beer and chatting with some of the locals...Mike and Temira to finish the day off.

Sat: Gusty 4.2 at the Wall...location selected based on advice from Temira with the best session very late in the PM where it was very solid for about 1hr. Also some freaky 8m kiting...Andreas had the better kiting. Blaine left early after wind pretty much shutdown for a prolonged pause at 1500hrs to try his luck at Roosevelt...but decided to keep on trucking. I departed about 1830hrs for points North. Andreas decided to stick it out at least one more day and go to Oceanside for the forecast mid 20's wind and 7ft swell.

Sun: Crossed the border 0100hrs and passed Blaine snoring in his van at the rest stop. Stopped at the Yak rest stop and slept. After windy drive back I stopped at Sylvan Lake and sailed solid 4.7 and 80L....swell was better than Doug's the day that we were there! Of course air temp was a bit lower but water is still warm plus my new Rip Curl suit is toasty! Supper, sleep.  Ted's Note - It was very windy at Dried Meat Lake with solid whitecaps - as I left for Toronto...  :<(

Monday: Back to bloody work....except for Harold who is already sending out emails about next June.

Ross Abdurahman, P.Eng., LEED AP

2009-09-19 - Ted's Home Safe

Arrived home at 1:00am this morning, after 1435km.  Only locked my key in my car once - had to call BCMA in Cranbrook - how dumb is that......

I almost hit a moose - 10km from home, and then a deer jumped out in front of me 1km from home.  I avoided both, but it got my heart rate up.....

Don't know how the other guy's did yesterday.  Of course regardless how little wind there was, we will hear stories of 3.8's, 3.2's and waves as high as a house!

Hope everyone has a good trip home.  I hear Mike may be staying for another few weeks - lucky guy!

Ted

2009-09-16-Hatchery-Dougs-Trade Show

I started off the day today at 4:00am.  I drove Kent to the Airport for his 7:00am flight.  He was much better this morning.  The pain seemed to be managable - at least he wasn't flinching or groaning as much....  He seemed to be in relatively good spirits - and, I think looking forward to getting home to Laurna.

I got back to the house again at 6:30 and went back to bed - had a great sleep until around 9:00.

The call for the day was the Hatchery - and possibly out east later in the day.

Winds at the Hatchery were relatively light - most of the guy's were out on 5.6's.  Andreas asked me to take some photos, and I thought that if I waited a bit, the wind would kick in, so I spent the first hour taking pictures. He was complaining that he was under powered, but his jumps still looked pretty high to me...

 Andreas learning a new trick....

The wind did seem to pick up, so I rigged my 5.6 and went out.  Unfortunately after half an hour the wind totally died.  It was now 3:00pm.  The rest of the guy's were talking about going to Doug's Beach, but I thought I would go to the Windsurfing Trade Show that was going on at the event site. 

I packed up and headed out.  I ran into Scott Currie, (From Edmonton - Starboard and Savern rep), Declan (from Nitinat - Trident Sports), Phil Soltysiak (Friend from Nitinat and ranked 8th in world freestyle), and Jeff Style.

Scott and Seatrend had all their 2010 boards lined up.  The wind started out very light, but continued to build until about 7:00pm.  I tried a SUP (Stand up Paddle Board) with a windsurf sail on it - very cool surfing in waves - easy to use, Phil's new concept sail 5.8 (ligher than my 4.2), two sizes of Kode boards, an Atom board (designed to be strapless - very easy to wave sail with), and two sizes of Futuras - a slalom style board - very fast in straight lines.  My favourit was the 112l Kode - but I think I would like the 94l Kode if it was a bit windier...  I had a great time.

I was first back to the house - the other guy's had a great sail at Doug's.  Great day - and great week (except for Kent's accident). 

I am now packed up and will be leaving for home tomorrow.  Hope you enjoyed the blog.....

Ted

Phil - on the wrong side of the sail - as usual!

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A bunch of photos of Andreas......

The boy's at the Hatchery!

2009-09-15 - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.....

Today started off on a high note.  After Breakfast, Big Jim borrowed a SUP (Stand Up Paddle Board) from friend Scott Currie (Our local Starboard rep), and went to look for his sail and rig.  Believe it or not, he found it lying against the shore with only minor damage.

Big Jim with his Rig - FOUND!!

Jim and I spent most of the day, taking his sail in for minor repairs, and getting a kit to re-grip his boom.  We also took out two SUP's and paddled from the event site to the Hood River Bridge and back.  Lots of fun and a good workout.  We had to jump in the river a few times to cool off.  On flat water, it is very easy to do.  Neither of us fell off the board.  I imagine it would be a lot more difficult in wind and waves....

Some of the guy's went golfing (Blaine, Brad, Jim S, and Mike), while others went Mountain Biking to Post Canyon Falls.

Late in the day, Blaine got a call from Ross.  Kent had crashed his bike and broken his collar bone.  He had been going down a "technical" section of the trail, hit some roots, then a steep turn, and then went vertical and hit a ditch in the bottom.  He basically landed on his head and shoulder.  His helmet and shoulder broke.  Fortunately his head didn't.....  It took Kent a long while to get up.  He couldn't ride, so they had to walk down to the road, which took the better part of an hour.  Blaine, Brad and I drove up to meet them.  When we got there, Kent was sitting on the side of the road in a lot of pain.  He did, however think it would be a good idea to get a Hero Shot for the blog.

Notice his left shoulder doesn't look like the right...

We drove to the hospital with Kent feeling every bump.  The first 10k or so was over a very rough gravel road.  It was not a fun trip.  The people at the hospital were friendly and efficient.  We were in and out in less than an hour.

Even I can tell that it doesn't look right...

The collar bone IS broken.  They gave Kent a sling.  Apparently you can't "set" a fracture like that - it just has to heal itself.  In the Doctors words, "the next two weeks will really suck".  Apparently in about 4 weeks, he should be back to normal - but no sports for some time after that....

Armed with lots of pain killers, they sent us home. 

Rather than face a 16 hour drive home, Kent decided to fly.  I will be driving him to the airport early Wednesday morning so he can get a 7:00am flight.  We will organize to get his car and trailer home later in the week.

Kent took a lot of verbal abuse from his "friends" tonight - and I am sure it will get worse over the next weeks -- but in truth we are all feeling terrible for him.  The only silver lining is it could have been a whole lot worse.......

2009-09-14 Rigging Day!!

Monday started slowly.  The forecast said it would blow all day.  We were in Bett's for Breakfast, when we got a phone call from Andreas!  What were we doing at Breakfast, when the forecast that he and Ross read said it was blowing 30mph at the Wall, and it would shut down at 2:00pm?  They were leaving RIGHT NOW!
 

We scrambled, but had to make a trip to Sailworks first, then safeway....

Jim - stoked on his Roberts Slalom Board

 

When we arrived at the Wall, Ross had been sailing for two hours already.  4.2, glassy swells, no one else out - basically the best day ever.....  Andreas got their early too, but had to wait for Blaine to arrive with his gear - so basically just watched.  Kent and Andreas were next out and also had a great session.  Brad and Jim S also got out and caught a bit of the wind.

I rigged my 4.2, but the wind started backing off as I was walking out, so I stayed on shore - good thing.  I rigged my 4.8 and Andreas convinced me to take it out with my 76litre Acid.  Big mistake.  I slogged all the way across the river.  Andreas must have felt bad, because he sailed across and brought me my bigger board.  At least with that board, I was able to get back.

Andreas Showing off his new Kiteboard!

The wind continued to dye.  Everyone slogged back.  Jim S. was caught on the other side of the river, so walked way up wind, and then slogged back.  After watching the river for a while, I rigged my 5.6 and took out my biggest board.  With that setup, I had some good sailing. Everyone rigged at least twice and some three times.  We sailed until about 5:00.  By the end of the day, we were the only ones left at the site - but there was equipment everywhere! 

After getting back to the house and cleaned up, we went to a dinner party hosted by locals Sue and Mike P.
We had a wonderful time mixing with the locals.

Mohammad Richens with Big Jim 

Big Jim - Blasting!

Pefect temperature - warm wind....

Andreas and Ross

Mike - flying in a gust!

Kent's new move!!

Harold W - Jibe

Blaine relaxing after a hard day!

2009-09-13 - Wow!

Well - quite a day !!.

Jim C. takes the award for most sports and most adventure.  More about that later....

Temira's Wind Forecast called for moderate westerlies (the prefered wind direction) starting at about 2:00pm.  Some of the boy's decided that there was enough time for a round of Golf.

Andreas, Blain, Jim C, Jim S, Brad, and Mike.   They apparently had a very nice 6 holes until the wind started to blow ---  then they started to loose their concentration....  Big Jim won - with a "Blistering 40", but Brad says that the score is in contention and their may be a disqualification...

When we reviewed the rule - it turns out that ...  well you read it... http://golf.about.com/cs/rulesofgolf/a/rfaq_practicehi.htm

Even with a single stroke penalty - Jim still Won!.  

Next Brad said that Jim should be disqualified for turning in an incorrect score card.....

Then we find out that when Jim S. re-added the score cards there were mistakes in all of them - except for Mike and Brad - who didn't bother adding up their score cards, because they were so bad that they didn't have a hope.

Sounds like fun by all!

I went to the Hood River Airport Fly-In and the Washington Aircraft and Auto Museum.  They have a wonderful museum with many old aircraft (mostly civilian aircraft).  They had about 200 aircraft fly in over two days.  Very interesting - I even went for a short ride in a Helicopter.  I was hoping we would go over the river, but we stayed low (less than 500 feet), and toured through an adjacent valley!  Lots of beautiful acerages.

More Airshow Photos here...

The rest of the guy's (Kent, Harold and Ross, made the "Correct Call", and stayed home.  It started blowing around 11:00 - they went to the Hatchery and had a great sail from 12-1 on 4.2's and smaller.

While it wasn't very windy at the airport, I could tell something was going on as soon as I started to drive away.  I got to the Hatchery around 1:00 just as everyone was comming off the water - it looked like I had missed it.  The wind was fluky and up and down for the next hour.  I decided to wait for a bit - good thing I did.

The wind started to fill in again.  I went out on my 4.8 at about 2:00 and was litterally blown off the water - holly cow!  I re-rigged to my 4.2 hucker (first time I have used it).  This was much better, but still very over powered at times.  Sometimes the river was just horizontal spray!!

The Golfers arrived around 1:30.  Everyone had an exciting afternoon!!  Wow!  Huge waves - lots of spray.  Everyone was pretty beat up by the end of the day.  No one, except maybe Kent, Andreas, and Ross, were really in control....  (Brad says I should delete that last sentence....  Mike says that if Ross was upside down bashed into his sail, he would still say that he was in control!!)

What a day!

Big Jim ended the day with quite an adventure.

He was standing on the far side trying to adjust his mast track.  Unfortunately, his board separated from his rig.  (He says he was a DF).  The Board immediately started to go down wind quickly!  He left his rig and ran after his board.  It didn't take him long to realize it was a loosing battle.  We walked to shore, and climbed the rocks to the railway tracks (which run parallel to the river).  From the tracks he was able to see his board.  He ran along the tracks, thinking if he could get ahead of the board he might be able to swim out and get it.  He chased it to Well's Island by the hook.  The board lodged itself in the island.  Jim was able to swim out the Island, then walk around the shore and find the board.  He then swam with the board across the channel to the Hook.  On the way, a helicopter came over to see if he needed assistance.  Jim waved him off, because he was almost across.  When he got to shore, the first person he saw was our friend Bart (Bart's best bet for windsuring).  Bart helped him out, and drove him back to the Hatchery. 
Meanwhile, we were starting to get worried.  The wind was dying and people were comming off the water.  No one had seen Big Jim for a while.  We walked up and down the shore with Binoculars - but no luck.  We new that he had a life jacket and helmet, so we weren't too worried - but still.  We knew that if he was on the other shore - he would either end up calling on a cell, get a ride to the Hatchery or meet us at the house.

Jim said he was never really scared and was never really in danger (although he was listening very carefully for trains when he was running down the tracks).

Jim's board survived without a scratch, but his rig is gone.  We are hoping someone found it, so we will be checking with the local shops and internet sights.  Bart says there is a reasonable chance he will get it back, but all in all Jim is happy to have is board.  The joke is he invented a new sport - the Hexta-athlone  Sailing, Water Jogging, Rock climbing, Running, Swimming, Paddling Boarding .........

We ended the day with great Mexican food at the restaurant up the hill - where we ran into Bart again.  Jim was happy to buy him a drink.  Great night of tall stories (getting better with each telling)!

This is a mitary training Glider - three passenger...

This is the Helicopter that I flew in.

Harold A

... and Harold W!

Mike!

Jim S had a great day!

2009-09-12 First few days - Stevenson

Welcome to the 2009 Fall Gorge Trip Blog!

Well - here we are again.  This year we have Blaine, Jim S, Jim C, Brad, Kent, Harold, Andreas, Ross Mike and Ted.  We also have a new member Harold W, who is a friend of Harold A's.

Most everyone arrived early on Friday and had 3-4 hours of sailing at Stevenson on fairly small sails.  I arrived late (3:30) and caught a 1/2 hour session on my 6.6 (big sail).  Hey - it counts as a sailing day!

Saturday, we had another easterly day (wind blowing from the east - same direction as the current).  I was on the water first (about 9:00), and sailed virtually by myself for the first hour or so.  It was lighter than Friday, but still a very good day - althought by noon it stated to get very gusty with wind from mixed directions, and various speeds.  By the end it was tough sailing for me - partly because I was getting tired, and partly because of the conditions....

No photos of sailing - Everyone was sailing on the other side of the river, and way upwind. 

Kent had a great day!

Brad

Mike!

The new improved (lighter) Jim S.

Still always has something to say......"Eat Less!"

 

This is a screen shot of the City of Stevenson "Web Cam" site.  I was sitting on the beach after sailing with my laptop.  If you look closely you can see Kent and Andreas waving at the Camera.  I don't know if we will be sailing there again, but if we do, you can watch us live on the site - very cool!