Fall is coming

The Gorge season is winding down, and people are starting to part ways until next summer. I just got back from a trip to San Carlos, Baja. I went down with Casey Hauser, Ingrid Larouche, Wyatt Miller, and Josh Sampiero. We sailed 7 days straight, with conditions getting better each day. It started out with light wind, schlog and catch small waves, and ended in powered 4.2 winds and mast-high waves peeling down the point. We all had a great time, improving our skills in the waves. I don’t have any pictures downloaded yet, but I will post them soon.

I am getting ready to head back to Maui for the winter season, so there is plenty of excitement for me to look forward to. Here is a shot of my last good session in the Gorge. It was a big day at Arlington and my friend Courtney took the shot. I was on a 3.5 and going for a big stalled out back loop. I hope to get some more of those soon, in Maui.

I have the new Panther’s!!!

The sails are incredible. They have all the range you could ever want and are extremely stable. I recently sailed across the river powered up with no hands the whole way on a 4.7 sail. I have a couple coast days on the new sails as well. They feel very light in hand, making wave sailing even better. Sailing in the waves got me so stoked, that I just booked a trip to San Carlos for a long Labor Day weekend with some friends. I can’t wait.

A Busy Week

Well a lot has happened since my last post. The contest was put on hold for a few days, so a huge lot of us took the opportunity, and headed out to the coast for some epic surf conditions. The forecast was for 25mph winds and 8 foot surf. We scored the first day at Oceanside with logo high down the line wavesailing. There were lots of jumps and wave slashes to be had. The second two days at Newport produced slightly smaller waves, but bigger winds and higher jumps. It was slightly onshore winds, but still good enough to go down the line.

With a bad forecast for the gorge and the coast set to fire, about half of the Freestyle Frenzy competitors booked it a couple hours over to the coast. We left Monday and returned wednesday night after three long days of wavesailing. As forecasted, the Gorge lit up again thursday morning and the contest was on. We were all a bit tired and the 7:00AM wakeup call seemed really early. It was a fun contest, with varying conditions, from 3.5m to 4.7m winds. I personally didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but it was a good time anyway. My heats were particularly flat, which was bad for me, because I am more of an aerial specialist than a flatwater guy. Everybody had a good time though, and there was a good turnout to watch the event at the Hatchery.

The pics are a back loop sequence from Oceanside and a backloop during the Freestyle Frenzy. Sven Esslinger took the shots at the coast and Chris Boston sent me the contest pic.

That’s it for now.

Contest Time

It’s contest time and all the pros are in town. This makes the water super busy, but really fun because everybody is pushing their limits. We are on call for the first windy day. The forecast was good for today, but we woke up to clouds and light wind. Because of the lack of wind early, the event organizers called the event off for the day. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it became really windy in the afternoon. There were epic conditions with nearly 30mph wind averages. We can only cross our fingers that these conditions will return soon. Tomorrow looks promising however.

I stole the pic from Windsurfing Mag ed. Josh. I was testing an ‘09 Ezzy Wave 5.2.

Summer