I went to Hood River Oregon this week for the first time and had an absolute blast. The wind was blowing between 20-28 MPH. According to the locals, that is considered medium light wind day. I was fully powered up on my 5.3 sail and 115L Naish Starship. I was passing up a lot of windsurfers. Great, scenery, beautiful girls, kites all over the sky, windsurfers zooming by passing up kiters on every run. Epic!!

Photos?

Please post photos.

I have always wanted to go to hood river

On the Washington side of the river

They call this" bridge of the gods".

^ Because it goes up to the gods?

Looks good magic ride .too many kites.

kite mare

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Magic Ride said..

That one poor windsurfer must feel like a chip amongst seagulls I wonder if hes hearing sheep noises ?

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Imax1 said...

Magic Ride said..

That one poor windsurfer must feel like a chip amongst seagulls I wonder if hes hearing sheep noises ?

Pfft. That's The pond at safety bay on a week day.

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Magic Ride said..

Absolute proof that polesurfing is in decline. ^^^

Kite mare. Lol... you do have to watch out for those kites. Most of them launch at the event center on the sand bar. I launched further up where more of the windsurfers go. It wasn't as bad at Water Front park. There are still a lot of windsurfers there, but more kites for sure. It's really cool, every where you look in hood river, there is a board strapped to a car or truck. That's what everyone does their, kites, windsurfs, and Sups.

Hood River is terrific! I have stayed there many times. For some reason it's not well known in Australia. Worth explaining that in summer, the winds are westerly and the river flow is from the east so one easily holds one's position. There are great swells in parts (The Hatchery, Doug's, The Wall etc) and relatively flat water in other parts. The fresh water is nice and clean, though cool, and of course less buoyant than the usual ocean spots. It can be really intense when it's gusting to 50 knots in relatively narrow channels. There are some experts getting crazy air. A lot of top class sailors (like Robbie Naish) go there in summer.

If it's not blowing, there's lots of mountain biking, year round skiing on Mt Hood, whitewater kayaking, fly fishing, wine touring and plenty of other things to do.

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TheRodder said..
Hood River is terrific! I have stayed there many times. For some reason it's not well known in Australia. Worth explaining that in summer, the winds are westerly and the river flow is from the east so one easily holds one's position. There are great swells in parts (The Hatchery, Doug's, The Wall etc) and relatively flat water in other parts. The fresh water is nice and clean, though cool, and of course less buoyant than the usual ocean spots. It can be really intense when it's gusting to 50 knots in relatively narrow channels. There are some experts getting crazy air. A lot of top class sailors (like Robbie Naish) go there in summer.

If it's not blowing, there's lots of mountain biking, year round skiing on Mt Hood, whitewater kayaking, fly fishing, wine touring and plenty of other things to do.

mmmm , getting me thinking

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waveslave said...

Magic Ride said..

Absolute proof that polesurfing is in decline. ^^^

Absolute proof that kiting is visual pollution.

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waveslave said..

Magic Ride said..

Absolute proof that polesurfing is in decline. ^^^

No, proof that is was a light flat day.
When it peaks, classic Hood River is 30-40kn and over head hi chop against the wind, the teabaggers all go home.
Just as it gets good.

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waveslave said..

Magic Ride said..

Absolute proof that polesurfing is in decline. ^^^

Kinda like air vomit !

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Magic Ride said..
I went to Hood River Oregon this week for the first time and had an absolute blast. The wind was blowing between 20-28 MPH. According to the locals, that is considered medium light wind day. I was fully powered up on my 5.3 sail and 115L Naish Starship. I was passing up a lot of windsurfers. Great, scenery, beautiful girls, kites all over the sky, windsurfers zooming by passing up kiters on every run. Epic!!

are you saying you over took a kite

speeeed....can't get enough ...

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waveslave said...

Magic Ride said..

Absolute proof that polesurfing is in decline. ^^^

Looks like they're on light wind gear.
Not too many out when it looks windy

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To be fair , I'm a big guy and to be using my smallest 4.9 , I'm in ****ting myself territory. Only used it once and it didn't go down too well

This gives you an idea of what it's like in prime conditions. You can tell from the vegetation that this is upriver from the Event Site at Hood River. Rainfall rapidly declines to the east of the gorge proper. Dale Cook is amazing. I've seen him dismount like this when someone is in the landing zone:

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Magic Ride said..

This was during the annual Kiteboarding for Cancer even held off the Event Site in Hood River. All the windsurfers, bar the one in the picture, stayed upwind to give the kiters room for their event. It's not like this on a normal day. In the Gorge windsurfing still outnumbers kiting 2 to 1, the majority of kiters launch out of the event site whilst windsurfers are spread all along the river. There's room for everyone! The Gorge has been my home for the last 25 years.

Dale Cook is something! He maybe the highest jumper at this time their.

For sure, Dale is my hero. Especially as big as he is, and getting those airs he does.
Only Bruce Peterson and Mike Kitts regularly got that kind of air, almost 30 year's ago.
I'm tempted to buy one of those boards, Roberts fast waves with Tuttle box's and flat rocker, but around here in Berkeley, maybe used twice a year.

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waveslave said..

Magic Ride said..

Absolute proof that polesurfing is in decline. ^^^

Typical insecurity of a Teabagger, measuring the success of their sport through the prism of another