Chasing Winds!

“It’s just another day in paradise!” an old man cheerfully replied after greeting me at a coffee shop on my last day of the trip. Oregon is definitely a watersport paradise that I try to get away to as much as I can! This trip had a very different feel to it since I went with a couple of my windsurf enthusiast friends on their old school camper van. That was my home for the 5 days we were on the road, on the road chasing the wind!

Our first stop after a long drive during the night was Hood River. We have arrived at 3 o’clock in the morning, pulled in the side of the dirt road, prepared our camper and fell asleep. Next morning after breakfast, we head to the river! Unfortunately the winds weren’t the best that day, it was either blowing so strong that I was being completely overpowered (which was scary and awesome lol) or the wind was very low that left me mostly frustrated. After a few runs across the river trying to find the most windy spot, we just came back and grabbed our beer.

The next day the water was flat with no sign of any wind, we headed towards Jones Beach that’s closer towards the Oregon Coast since the forecast was much more promising. Being sluggish and unmotivated, we took our time and only made it to Jones Beach around 7pm. There was still wind, and I quickly rigged up my sail and went in the water to windsurf until the sun went completely down, was an awesome experience! We found a spot to park around the trees by the beach, and I was happy that I didn’t have to unrig my gear, leaving it overnight for the next day. We were all excited about that spot and the winds for the next day were promising. I went to bed satisfied that night.

The next morning, we were woken up by an old man who turned out to be the beach property owner. And apparently we weren’t allowed to stay there overnight, and we were told that we had to leave by that following night. So our plan to stay the rest of the trip at that perfect spot was ruined, either way the winds didn’t turn out to be so great that day. But that spot would be amazing when the wind condition is good, it’s such a beautiful spot! I will definitely be coming back there!

That night we have stayed at a city park in Clatskanie, they have overnight 5$ camping with hot showers… It felt great to take a hot shower after a few days without having one! The next morning we went back to Jones Beach to find it completely windless, everyone was disappointed because it was our last day until we had to head back to Canada. Everyone just wanted to stay at the beach, drink beer and chill. But that didn’t satisfy me, so I pushed everyone to get on the road and head to the coast which was an hour way where I could at least do some surfing. Luckily I was successful at making everyone agree to drive to the coast, because right after we passed Astoria (little town right before the coast on Columbia River) the winds were heavily blowing! So all excited and full of energy, we were looking for a spot to launch from. We found this beautiful beach in Fort Stevens State Park, quickly rigged our gear, and jumped in the water. This session was awesome! It made the whole trip worth it! Haven’t had that much fun windsurfing in awhile… Unfortunately I ended up breaking my mast after a couple hours of windsurfing, luckily I was within 500 meters from shore, but it still took what felt like half an hour to swim dragging my windsurf and sail in the water behind me. It would have been a much harder to get back if it broke on me when I was a couple kilometres away from shore. Later on my more experienced windsurf buddy explained what I’d have to do in a situation if I was far away from shore, I’d have to take apart my sail and tie it all up on the board to create less drag, a lesson that perhaps will come in handy one day.

That night we had found a nice open field where we parked our camper and drank watching the starts! Was an awesome trip! Altho it wasn’t all fun, there was much of work that had to be done, mostly by loading and unloading our gear every time we changed location or were stopping to sleep, at the end of the trip we got very efficient at it and it didn’t take us too much time as it did in the beginning. We have also cooked most of our meals in the camper, which is very different from what I’m used to when I do my road trips. It was a different experience overall for me, which was great!

At the hook in Hood River

On our way to Jones Beach

My buddy chilling between windsurfing sessions at Jones Beach

Teaching a less experienced windsurfing friend how to beach start. Jones Beach

Windsurfing at Fort Stevens

Great Weekend of Rock Climbing, Windsurfing, and Freediving

Here’s one of my dilemmas: I love to catch up on sleep on the weekends, but at the same time I love to take a full advantage of the day. The two don’t go hand in hand. On Saturday I decided to compromise my beauty sleep for a day full of fun! Got all my gear ready the night before so as soon as I woke up at 5:45am I was out the door on my way to Squamish!

We started our day with climbing at Murrin Park. It was still chilli in the morning, but as soon as we started climbing, the clothing layers were slowly coming off. The whole morning we were glancing at the wind charts, and by around 1pm, the winds picked up high enough for us to head over to “The Spit” in Squamish to windsurf. It was my first riding session this season, and it was amazing! The wind conditions were just perfect for my level, it’s been awhile since I had my share fulfilled windsurfing!

As the winds slowly started to die off, we got all our gear packed up, another decision was waiting to be made: What do we do next? It was 6pm, we still had two and a half hours left of daylight, so why not go back to climbing! We climbed pass till the sun went down into the night! At that moment I was thinking: What a great day it was!

The next day, I decided to sleep in until 8:30pm. Being super sore from the day before, I wasn’t too prompt at leaving the house. My first stop was at the drop zone in Pitt Meadows, I was hoping to get one skydive in before I head to Squamish to windsurf. Unfortunately they didn’t have a load available any time soon for me to get a ride to altitude. So I decided to meet my buddy at his place where I met his roomies, and fortunately I came at the right time when they were making breakfast, I was served the best salmon egg benny ever!

After having my appetite filled with delicious food, we were on our way to Squamish! Unfortunately the winds weren’t as great as they were the day before, so I decided to leave earlier and go to Porteau Cove to freedive.

The freediving session went great. It was my first time freediving at that wreck diving site, the wrecks aren’t too deep (40 to 70 feet), but it’s still a little further than my comfort level. I got scared a couple times, specially freediving by myself and knowing that if I pass out underwater there would be no one to save me. It’s a little scary feeling to be dropping towards the darkness, everytime I keep on reminding myself to stay calm and not panic, it will not help to panic but only get you into trouble.

One thing that I found was interesting is having a couple murky layers underwater. The first time I dived, I had one of the layers confused with the bottom, later to realise that it was just the end of the murky layer underwater, and I still had to dive deeper to get to the bottom. Unfortunately I couldn’t record any videos because my GoPro froze right when I was already in the water (so couldn’t take it apart to get the battery out for it to restart).

Overall this week has been awesome! Looking forward for more weekends like this!

Rock Climbing at Murrin Park

Windsurfing at The Spit

Trying out different gopro attachments

Windsurfing at The Spit

The Spit in Squamish

View from our second climbing spot: Smoke Bluffs

This wall is called Neat and Cool at Smoke Bluffs. My partner second to rappel down after setting up a top rope.

Climbed until dark. Was a peaceful feeling!

Evening Windsurfing Session at Jericho

Yesterday while at work, I checked the wind forecast for Jericho, and noticed very promising wind that evening! I got all excited, and as soon as work ended, I bicycled back home as fast as I could, got ready and jumped on my bike to go windsurfing! Once I got to Jericho, I was disappointed to find that there was no wind… But I decided to be patient and waited around untill the wind finally picked up! I was windsurfing all the way until the sun went down… It was such a cool feeling! It was a bit scary being in the ocean in the darkness, knowing that the coast guards are off duty, but at the same time it was very peaceful! It was a very cool experience! Although on the way back home it started to rain very heavily, it felt a little sketchy to ride on the motorcycle.

3 Day Long Weekend = 3 Trips

Day 1 – Windsurfing in Squamish

I wouldn’t really call this much of a trip since Squamish is only an hour away from the city, but it’s a fun place for windsurfing. Saturday early morning, I loaded my equipment and headed to Squamish. Once I got there, I quickly assembled my sail (which is becoming easier these days, I used to really dislike doing it), put on my thick wetsuit and jumped in the water. Like always, I was having a blast windsurfing! It’s one of my favorite sports!

As the day progressed, the winds picked up to 30knots, and I was riding with a 6.0 meter sail, which is quite big for winds of that kind of intensity. I felt overpowered while riding, and was feeling a little nervous too, but I still kept at it as much as I could until I had no more energy left and my legs started cramping up. I came home in the evening exhausted and very bruised from all the falling, and I passed out to be ready for Day 2.

 

Day 2 – Flight to Campbell River for Skydiving

Last year I promised my sister to take her to Campbell River where she could take her First Jump Course (http://pacificairsports.com/learn.php). Early Sunday morning, I pulled myself out of bed, and headed to the airport to prepare the airplane for the flight. We took off from Pitt Meadows Airport and flew to Campbell River (a little town in Vancouver Island). It’s only an hour and ten minutes flight on the airplane, compared to having to drive and take the ferry (which is a hour trip), sometimes it’s worth being a pilot J. Once we got to Campbell River, my sister and her friend went to the classroom for the course, and I went off to start jumping. I did four skydives that day, and I even had time to finish writing an exam for my B licence. Overall it was a very productive day!

We flew back late that evening, and got home at 11pm. Feeling even more exhausted than I did the day before, I passed out once again for only a few hours of sleep till I had to wake up for Day 3.

 

Day 3 – Trip to La Push for Surfing

I had heard lots of good things about La Push, but never found a chance to go until that day. The Twilight movies had been filmed there, so if you’ve seen those, you’d know it’s a very beautiful place. I was very excited to go surfing there. So excited that it was enough to  get me out of bed super early on Monday morning.

 

The trip to La Push from Vancouver is about 5 hours if you plan everything well and reservations for the ferry are made in advance. Obviously for us it was a new experience, and a learning curve, too. We didn’t book the ferry (never making that mistake again). It took us seven and a half hours to get there, and I was even thinking of turning back before arriving because I didn’t think we’d have time to get back that night (I had to get back to work the next day). But then I thought, ‘no way! I’m gonna get there and get back no matter what! Even if it means not sleeping the whole night to drive back home the long way if I miss the last ferry!’ And we did, we got to La Push, and it was indeed a beautiful place! The waves weren’t too big but they were really fun to play with. I caught a few really fun waves that definitely made my trip worth it! On the way back we caught the late ferry, and arrived home around 1 o’clock in the morning. I was a walking zombie the next day at work, but that’s the price to pay if you want to have fun!

Windsurfing in Squamish – Learning to Waterstart!

There’s always that unforgettable moment when after a very long time of trying something and failing, and one day finally getting it! For me it was to learn how to water start in windsurfing. It was always one thing that was holding me back as a windsurfer, and now, thanks to my friend who showed me the proper way of doing it, I finally got it! Here’s my video from this Saturday’s epic day of windsurfing in Squamish!

Oregon Mini Weekend Trip Getaway

Ever since last summer, I fell in love with windsurfing. And like any other love story, there is always “the place” where that magical thing happens. For me, it was in Hood River, Oregon, also known as The Gorge. The gorge is definitely one of my top destinations for windsurfing, not only for its good winds, but it is also a very beautiful place!

 

We have left our home town, Vancouver, around 7 pm on Friday evening. After a long drive we have finally arrived at our hostel around 2 am. The hostel that we stay at is right across the bridge from hood river, called Bingen School Inn. It is literally an old elementary school that has been transformed into a hostel. It still has the whole school look inside, I find it very nostalgic being there. Reminds me of the old times when I was still a little boy in elementary school. It’s a very cool place!

 

Early morning, we woke up, had breakfast and head over to the windsurf rental shop. I rent all my gear from Big Winds since they got really good quality gear. The day turned out to be not the greatest for me for windsurfing, since the wind conditions were very strong and choppy, making it hard for an Intermediate rider like myself to ride. But I still had some awesome moments!

 

Later that day, we got a few drinks and head over to a very little lake (20 minutes east from the Bingen town). The water there is warm and it has a nice 30 foot Rock to jump from. It was a perfect way to end the day!

 

The following day, we woke up early after a late night of being out in the bar, to head to the Oregon Coast for Surfing. The beach that we have went to is called Short Sand Beach, recommended by the Seaside Surf Shop. It was a very beautiful place! And so was the drive along the coast, some scenery were very beautiful! Unfortunately the waves were very small, but they were still fun to play around with on a Standup Paddle Board.

 

On our way back, we drove along the coast which was a very more interesting drive than along the main Highway. The trip has been very satisfying , the only downside was a lack of sleep and the speeding ticket that I got on the way back 😦 lol….