Surfski Knowledge Base

Gorge week after action report
Reivers Dustin
06/30/18 #23325

Important notice from the Sturgeon General: the gorge is for paddlers who are comfortable on big waves. This is not a place to learn how to handle chop.

Report: We mostly did two-a-day. Usually Bob's Beach to Home Valley was one, then Viento to Hood River the other. Never disappointed with any runs. Even Home Valley run was plenty chunky. On our first run (home valley) several of us strapped on our skinny boats. It was nice, but near my limit for skinny. I think Dmow strapped his skinny on again for a run, but mostly we all shifted to phat boats. I like my S1-X for most stuff, but don't think I have the right power-to-weight ratio for the big time.
Duncan and Bob did most driving. I don't think we had to drop a set-car. for most runs there is quite a bit of driving for a good paddle, so the shuttle driver saves a ton of time and wet seats. I forgot that bridge of the gods toll is now $2.00. We were joined for one run by Peter M's old S1-X (owned and operated by local Larry Goodson). John R. came down for a couple days of howl. Gwen came down for one run and done. I noticed she had weeks of dust on her boat. There aint none now. The run she did with us was the pick of the litter. Thursday wind ranged from 35 to 40 as we put in at Viento and paddled like duckies to Hood River. Predictions were not big. Standing in Viento park seemed calm. First clue was Dean and Mark coming back from the beach saying, “Two man Carry”. I've never paddled water like that before. I had seen it big in Swell City, but those were more chaotic. Larry had mentioned that when wind speed averages over 28mph, it is a breakpoint for wave character. These waves were visually intimidating, but if you had the heart to power up, they were crazy rideable. I would sometimes bury the bow in chop, but not in the big rollers. The wave speed was such that I could maintain velocity. I was feeling “fleet”, but then I hear Gwen behind me yell, “Beep,beep: on your left” as she rips past like road runner. I mentioned before about John R, and Micheal M. doing side-surf on their V-8. That's a big wave and some great riding. Bob McB paddled his Aries OC-1 in that run and I could see the wind flipping the light weight boat around. John and Michael scouted out the inside passage of Wells Island and found good rides in there. There's also a lot of dead heads and barely visible pilings. I noticed where there's a shallow sand bar to the West of Wells, the big waves were foaming up. It was a wall of white water you could see from a long way off. At the end of the big Thursday run we're all standing around DK jumping from foot to foot asking him, “How big was THAT?… On a scale of one to ten?” Of course we want to hear him say “13”. He had that wry little smile he gets and said “Oh, maybe eight”. Then like a dad watching little kids excited over some new thing he smiles some more and lets us talk him up to eight and a half. I'll just tell you guys right here, it was a big day for little reivers. whooo haaww! If Carter gets a day like that on Race Day, he'll be picking up body parts all over the river.

Our last run on Friday was Drano to White Salmon. Everyone was a little ragged by then. We were treated to the view of a barge coming at us through Swell City. I couldn't tell what it was for a long time. I just saw large mass of breaking waves that mostly hid the barge. Most of us were mid-river, but I had seen Michael on the Washington side and wondered if he knew his future. I put my feet in to watch the show. He hugged Washington and later said he was looking for paint scrapings on the rocks to see how close the barge usually got. It turned out ok, but he got some fiddly bits where the monster bow waves and later stern waves played with the running swell. I think he likes the V-8 pro.

One of our days we checked out Carter's paddle-ranch. Like a lot of stuff he does, it's ambitious. Really looks good. Some great crash pads, gathering spots, well planned accommodations.

At the end of Friday's run we all crawled up the rocks at White Salmon and mostly headed East to avoid the Friday afternoon I-5 shuffle. Duncan did some kind of juke move to get onto Hwy 2 and avoid I-405. I did ok on 405, but got jammed on I-5 at Everette. We can't be sure which run North is best. Except Duncan schemed us to all meet at “Big Miner's Drive-In” in Yakima. That was a hoot. Really epic proportions. Afterwards I got about an hour down the road and had to pull over and lay out. Boom: out go my lights for some unknown period of time.

Kirk stayed down with a newer B'ham paddler - I've blanked on his name. They were getting good stuff, but it's good they paired up. We were lucky to have DK on over watch on our own runs.

Refer to the “sturgeon general's warning above”.

rd

Re: Gorge week after action report
David Scherrer
07/01/18 #23328
Edited 07/01/18

Every time I go to the Gorge with this crew, I say to myself, Donald, you should stop drinking so much rum, tequila, wine and beer! Thank goodness I'm not Donald…….
D.