Received: from opus.hpl.hp.com by jr.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.24/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA226543554; Tue, 1 Jun 1999 20:19:14 -0700 Return-Path: <levb@accept.com-DeleteThis> Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP (1.37.109.24/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA174263547; Tue, 1 Jun 1999 20:19:07 -0700 Received: from hermes.accept.com (IDENT:root@hermes.accept.com-DeleteThis [207.104.1.91]) by hplms26.hpl.hp.com (8.9.1a/HPL-PA Relay) with ESMTP id UAA12583 for <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>; Tue, 1 Jun 1999 20:19:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from levb (caveat.accept.com [207.104.1.90]) by hermes.accept.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id UAA09334; Tue, 1 Jun 1999 20:12:50 -0700 From: "Lev Belov" <levb@accept.com-DeleteThis> To: "Vladimir Minenko" <minenko@kik-s.dfki.uni-sb.de-DeleteThis>, "Multiple recipients of list" <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis> Cc: "Lana Balakireva" <lana@tibco.com-DeleteThis> Subject: Pistol River report Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 20:14:00 -0700 Message-Id: <004101beaca5$f5a3da10$a300a8c0@accept.com-DeleteThis> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0042_01BEAC6B.49450210" X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-Msmail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 Importance: Normal X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
I've been promising my family a camping trip for a while, so come the long
weekend I finally delivered on that promise. We went up to Oregon, spent a
couple days at Pistol River, and then drove all the way down the coast.
Here's a sailing report.
Me: #200+, F2 Wave (254/82 l.) and The Air (260/93 l.), wave sails 4.2, 4.7,
5.2 and 6.1
Day 1 (Sat)
Got to Pistol River at about noon - it was already blowing hard. I mean
really hard. No one was sailing near the river mouth, there were 3 or 4
people out at Cape Sebastian and about 5 or so sailors sitting on the shore
waiting for the wind to come down a bit. The waves were between head and
logo-high, very nicely shaped. The wind was nuking. People who were
sailing were out on their 3.5s ad 3.7s, visibly overpowered. Lots of insane
jumps, big loops, very impressive waveriding.
I was stupid enough to go out (I felt like it'd be silly not to after having
gone that far). So I rigged my smallest sail, that happened to be a 4.2 Hot
Spider on the 254 wave board and went out. I couldn't hold the sail...
when I could hold on the sail, I'd get buried underneath the waves because I
was too chicken to get into the straps and start jumping. Then I put a hole
in my sail that immediately tore in 2 other places (I don't trust those
funky spider-looking Hot Sails reinforcements any more, much prefer X-ply
and vinyl, like the Zetas). The sail was trashed and the day pretty much
finished.
Day 2 (Sun)
Rented a 3.8 sail from the surfshop in Gold Beach. Same story - insane
wind, insane waves, way overpowered - I'd never thought I'd be ever OPed on
a 3 meter sail... The current was going downwind against the big rocks.
One guy actually broke down and ended up on the rocks, later rescued by the
CG - 2 choppers and a Zodiac. At the same time I got totally exhausted and
realized that I was in the water, quite a bit outside, trying to waterstart,
unsuccessfully because I was SO OVERPOWERED, and drifting towards those same
very rocks with every failed waterstart. I thought I'd play it safe, waived
at the Zodiac boat that was just passing by - they got me out and got me a
lift towards the shore. I got back in the water about 200 m from the shore,
waterstarted and made it back alright. They managed to put a couple minor
dings in my new board, but hey... no complaints from me :-)
Day 3 (Mon)
Drove back down the coast. Took a stop at Bodega Bay to observe how would
sailing be there (there was no wind to actually try it out).
Lessons:
1. Sailing Safety: big days in the waves require the skill. If you don't
have the skill, it really isn't a good idea to go out at all. It's bad for
the gear, dangerous, and you don't really learn much anyway. For me it's
back to the middle school, so to say... I probably won't be venturing into
the waves for a while now, unless it's a nice 5.0 wind and shoulder-high
swell.
2. Sailing Spots: I haven't had a chance to try the Pistol River mouth, but
it looks sort of like Wadell from the highway - a long beach, with
reasonably nice waves breaking rather far from the shore. But then what do
I know about waves :-) The other spot is Cape Sebastian, about a couple
miles north from Pistol River. Very nice waves - the good guys were doing
5-6 bottom turns. Sideshore wind funneling around the island. Seems to be
windier outside, but then it was so windy that it was really hard to
distinguish insane from even more insane. Cape Sebastian doesn't really
have much of a rigging area - there is a small protected cove big enough for
4 or 5 people to rig, otherwise rig in the parking lot and carry your stuff
down.
3. Equipment: Gold Beach has a surf shop called The Ocean Tribe that has a
limited amount of windsurfing gear, that they also rent. The choice is VERY
limited, but it's really useful to have them so close by in case something
breaks. There is another windsurfing store about 40 miles north of Gold
Beach, but we didn't go that far up.
4. Drive: it is possible to make it all the way up there in about 7 hours on
101, but it probably is a good idea to leave the night before, stay
overnight in Eureka, and then drive the rest of the way up in the morning.
For those traveling with families/significant others I greatly recommend the
Miranda Gardens (http://www.mirandagardens.com) as a great place to spend a
night or 2 in the redwoods.
5. Lodging: Gold Beach has nice motels, but the camping options are so-so.
Nowhere near to the nice camping that you can find in the Gorge. Most
campsites have dozens of RVs packed into small space, the crowd knows no
difference between a windsurf board and a surf kayak.
I am looking forward to go up there again, but probably not before next
year, after some more practice :-)
- Lev
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 10 2001 - 02:35:36 PST