From: kenb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Ken Berger)
Newsgroups: rec.windsurfing
Subject: September Gorge Summary
Date: 29 Sep 92 23:50:37 GMT
Reply-To: kenb@vice.ico.tek.com
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.

As others have mentioned, the wind has been good all month.  Out of
seven days sailing for me in September, 4 of those days I was on a
3.5 fully powered or overpowered.  I rounded the month out with one
4.0 day and two 5.0 days.  It's been a 3 meter month for my
smaller friends.  I thought I would share some of the highlights
below.


9/4:  A great day to be alive in the east end of The Gorge.  Rufus
was howling and so was I on a 3.5.  My first of four days sailing
with the California Crew.  My two dogs and I pile into a Ford Bronco
with Mark and Russ and all our gear in Portland.  We didn't even
stop until we hit Rufus.  It's Russ' first day of his life east of
Doug's.  I kept talking about motorhome sized swells on the way up.
Our adreniline goes balistic when we hit the bridge at Maryhill and
see that the river is on fire.  We surf swells, jump and jibe
until we drop, then drive the whole mess back to Portland.

9/5:  Next day the same group plus a wife goes back up The Gorge in
style, in the motorhome.  We ended up at Doug's in light wind, Mark
and Russ on 4.5s and me on my 8'10" and 5.0.  Things were
un-eventfull until I got ran over right in front of the beach while
waterstarting.  I'm in the water with my sail flying, just about
ready to hop up on my baord when CRASH!  I never saw him coming.
The boom is ripped out of my hand and I fall under water.  When I
surfaced this guy, his board and rig are on top of my sail.  The
first thing the guy says is "I broke your mast."  In addition his
fin did a number on a whole panel of my sail.  Upon further
inspection I see that the jagged mast has shreaded the mast sleeve.
Heavy Sigh.  He said he never even saw me until it was too late as
he was coming out of a jibe.

Meanwhile on the beach Russ sees this pile of equipment
on the water and draws everybodys attention to it.  He asks a guy on
the beach next to him if he can come and get me with his board.
Russ gets out to me just after the guy that hit me promised to watch
for me to get to the beach and come in when he saw me on shore.  I
grab hold of the back footstrap of this board and I'm on shore
within 1 minute.  I drag my deformed rig up on the beach and a crowd
gathers.  Bart exclaims "we saw that guy hit you man!"  Pam says
"you should get some money from that guy."  True to his word, the
guy sails in and we begin to add up the bill.  It was an old Ampro
Grey wave mast and my 1990 5.0 Trilite.  After some arguing, I agree
to accept $150 cash ($75 for the mast, $75 for the sail repair). The
guy that hit me, Andy, says no problem but he would need to go to a
money machine and he wanted to sail for a while.  I really wanted to
settle this immediatley and asked him if we could take care of this
now.  He pleaded that he had only just started sailing when he hit
me and he would really like to sail for a while.  I said ok, but I
really wondered how much fun he would have with the whole leading
edge of his fin layed open from the impact.  So off goes Andy with
everyone keeping a real close eye on his read Klickitat sail.  Luck
would have it that the wind died as soon as he went back out.  He
comes slogging back in, we de-rig and I hop in his car to go The
Dalles where there was a money machine.  He reluctantly hands me
$150 and we drive back to Dougs.  As we parted company, I ask him to
be more careful and look downwind when jibing in the future.  I am
convinced Andy never even looked when he jibed right into me.


The next day was a shopping day.  I dropped my sail off at NorthWave
and went mast shopping.  I ended up buying a NoLimitz Carbon Wave.
$220 for the 14'1" one piece at Dill.

9/8:  After two days of no wind, the east end is set up perfectly.
We drive back out to Rufus.  It was still cloudy and even raining a
bit at Rufus.  I talk to this guy who had just drove all night from
Colorado and he told me that it is sunny and windy from Arlington
east. I tell the California Crew about this place I've always
wanted to sail called Threemile Canyon.  So we go for it.  I had to
go 85mph to catch up to these guys because I needed gas in Arlington.
I ask the gas station attendent how many miles threemile canyon is
east.  She says it's about 3 miles east of the Hepner Junction.  20
minutes later, I see sailors out on a very windy stretch of river.
Once off the freeway, the road turns to dirt right away.
We get out of our trucks and this place is on fire.  Through the
blowing dust, I see big swells pounding the jetty that seperates a
boat-ramp, lake area with the river.  I rigged my 3.5 with no
camber.  I hook in and blast out through the narrow opening in the
jetty into the river.  I had died and gone to boardhead heavan.  3/4
of a mile reach and big swells all the way across the river.  Mark,
Russ and I sail up wind and find a big swell zone right off the
jetty on the Oregon side.  We spend the rest of that afternoon
shreading these big boxy swells.  Jumping was a real dream here.
The swells here have "box-ends."  The result is that you don't have
to point high into the wind to catch big air.  You just power off a
big box end and sail high into the air, all the while in a broad
reach posistion.  I got some real huge air and by the end of the
day, Russ had convinced me to try my first forward loop.  Now Russ
has only been sailing 2 seasons and the guy is already trying loops.
He's definatly tweeked, but I like his attitude.  The loop attempt
didn't materialize until our next day out.  One thing is for sure:
I'll be back to 3mile, it's worth the drive!

9/12:  Back at Rufus and back on my 3.5.  This was the windiest day
of the month for me.  I was way overpowered on my 3.5.  I rigged and
sailed my 3.1 for about an hour, but the wind dropped off ever so
slightly and I put the 3.5 back on.  Wilton was looking way powered
on his 3.4.  I did some amazing surfing down wind on this day.  I
also tried my first and second forward loop attempt.  I'm 0-2 but
still alive and not affraid of them anymore.  I've heard and read
lot's of "loop how to's" but one simple thing Russ kept saying kind
of stuck in my head.  He said all you need to do is extend that
front arm out straight, sheet in hard with your back hand and you're
half way there.  On my first attempt, I really tried to concentrate
on that.  I made it a little more than half way around when it came
apart.  I didn't get enuf air and a fast enuf rotation.  My arm
got spanked hard as I landed semi-upside down and my boom slammed
into my elbow.  My second attempt was about the same as far as
rotation percentage, except that my back foot came out of the
strap and I ended up bailing.  Later I was told it looked really
cool from the beach :)

9/28, Yesterday:  I had a really enjoyable time on a strong easterly
at Dalton Point.  I sailed on my 4.0 from nine to noon.  I stayed
off the sandbars and rocks too.

The easterlies continue today.  The numbers on the weather radio
sounded even bigger than yesterday.  It was probably good 3.0/3.5
conditions.

Sorry this got so long.  If you are still with me at this point, I
hope you enjoyed it.  See ya next month.

Ken Berger