If you want to learn to kite, you want to learn from the best, and around here, that’s Cascade Kiteboarding. Why? On-the-water lessons take place at the west end of Well’s Island, away from the chaos of the sandbar. Your lesson will be one-on-one, with radio helmet instruction, this year’s gear from Da Kine and Liquid Force, and dedicated jetski assistance. And let me point out that Cascade Kiteboarding is the ONLY school with those radio helmets, so it’s the one school where you won’t have an instructor yelling at you while you’re learning. One of you lucky people is going to win a two-hour kiteboarding lesson at the end of this week.
Isn’t it annoying when the wind forecaster decides it’s a good time to take a vacation and the Gorge decides it’s a good time to stop being on vacation? Hopefully all of you figured out that sailing east of the cloud line was a good idea yesterday, and hopefully all of you managed to throw your smallest sail or smallest kite in the car (I remembered my 3.2 Hot Sails Superfreak, but not my 2.9 Hot Sails Superfreak or 3.0 Hot Sails Fire – shameless sponsor plug).
Anyway, I just have to say that Oakridge is a mindblowing place to ride mountain bikes. Perfectly manicured, buffed-out rails careen through old growth, mossy forests. I felt like I was poaching the PCT on every ride, and I didn’t want to leave. If I could have rolled the Alpine trail up and fit in on the roof of my Scion and brought it home with me, I would have. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to do that.
The Clymb: free membership.
Access to super cheap gear including Trew, Zeal, Sierra Designs, and many more.
Anyway, on to the wind: After yesterday’s performance by Mother Nature, I think we can officially say the wind situation in the Gorge is fixed. At this point, it looks like we’ll see wind all the way through the weekend, so plan your fun accordingly.
The early gradient today was at .12, so we’ll start off with 23-26 from Hood River to Mosier, picking up to 27-30 from the Hatchery out to Doug’s by early afternoon, and filling in as far east as Maryhill and Arlington late in the day as a weather disturbance moves through. As always with these dynamic weather systems, there’s a decent chance the wind will turn gusty near Hood River, so get it as early as you can. There’s also a chance that the cloud line, now just west of the Hatch, will push in further today. If so, pack up and head further east, because you don’t want to sail under the marine layer.
The good wind setup continues on Thursday, with a little less marine layer. We’ll have 18-21 in the morning near Hood River, picking up to 23-25 from Stevenson to The Dalles in the afternoon.
Coming up on Friday, weak high pressure starts building over the northwest, but we’ll still have Gorge westerlies. Morning wind should be 15-18, picking up to 23-26 in the afternoon with the strongest wind near Hood River.
Coming up tonight, there are the regular Wednesday night events. There’s the sailboat races out of the Hood River Marina, which should be pretty exciting with all this wind, there’s the Kayak Shed’s shop paddle leaving Husum at 5:30, and there’s the Post and Pinot bike ride, leaving Dirty fingers at 5:30 with Pinot and other wines by Naked Winery after the ride.
Have an awesome day today!
Temira
p.s. If you find this report useful, entertaining, or just want to recognize all the hard work that goes into it, please take the time to make a donation by clicking on the link below. For a suggested donation of $10, I’ll add you to the email version of this list ‘til August 2012, putting you in the running for cool prizes donated by the weekly sponsors.