theDave kindly sent me a video from one of my rides on Grannies Wave on the Wenatchee. It’s a fun and bouncy ride. I loved making Grannies my home for a weekend, mainly because of the people I met there. This video was shot at about 6,000 CFS. Stay tuned for a summary video from two weekends of play.
Photo: Me on Grannies- photo credit to the Virostek Family
I thought that 2.8 ft at 16 seconds would give up good surf at agate. Although it sounds small, simialar conditions last week offered up double overhead for my friend Dale. One thing i didn’t consider was the southern swell. Waves were rebounding with force off the headland causing messy surf. Peaks were random and unpredictable and faces ranged 4-6 ft. I was dying to try out my new outfitting in my surfboat. I had some fun rides, getting in some bottom and top turns. Hearing the fins hum was cool and i was enjoying the speed compared to my playboat. However, I chose the wrong location to paddle out and I payed the price in closeout, shallow beach break- a fairly nasty place to flip, as Pete explained in a previous post. Alas, I joined the Agate Beach swim team. I was in 2-3 ft of water, and had 2 choices, roll the fastest I’ve ever rolled or swim and swim immediately, before the wave recedes and I eat a sand sandwich. Due to the nature of my surf boat, I chose the later. In 4 years of kayak surfing, I’ve only swum once before. Last night I had my arse handed to me. And the waves munched one of the foot tunnel outfittings that I’d lovingly sculpted the night before. At least it worked fine for, well, 6 waves. Humbled and ego bruised, I think I’ll take my playboat out next time.
Outfitting a surf boat is not for the faint hearted. It’s taken sweat, toil, an electric carving knife and rubber cement. Finally, after a year of experimentation, the boat is feeling snug in key places: (1) back, (2) butt, (3) thighs and (4) feet. How did I do it? For (1) I ‘fess up- I cheated- Brian @Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe (ACKC) installed the back band for me. For (2) I also cheated by buying a foam seat from ACKC. It had some hip pads that I glued to some sculpted foam that I previously glued into the boat. (3) Had me begging ACKC for some old dancer thigh braces. I chopped ‘em up and drilled some holes (yes, girls can use power tools) and after some cursing and additional foam additions they fit well. In addition I installed a Jackson happy “ram your thighs into the thigh braces” inflatable-bag-thing, which works really well. Finally, for (4) I spent many a midnight hour sculpting foam with an electric carving knife. I think i found the perfect fit in the form of feet “tunnels”. It feels good, now I just have to actually paddle with it to test it out.
I tested out my new camera mount last week. Click on this link to see a video-boating session from last Thursday. I need to go surfing with some friends so I can film them down the line.
Having ocean surfed the last 3 out of 4 days, I feel like I’m on a bit of a surfing safari. And I’d be crazy not to take advantage of the good weather and waves. The summer surf crowds appear to be staying away, most likely due to high gas prices. The waves have been peeling clean left and right, offering up some of the longest rides I’ve ever had.
Photo: a 3 ft swell at Agate on Thursday
On Friday I busted out my surf kayak, as the waves built to a clean 6 ft, during my session. Nice. The waves offered me my first “up and over the falls” experience. I survived, and was very happy the new outfitting I installed in my boat enabled a fast roll. Someone once described rolling my surf boat like rolling a door. I think thats a pretty accurate description.
Christina Russell and Heather Herbeck co-ordinated a very successful event on the White Salmon, WA last weekend. About 25 women showed up to compete and support the event that included a head to head extreme race through the Class IV Maytag Rapid and a women’s 8-ball competition from Husum to Rattlesnake. I’ll quote one of Jesse Coombs’ favorite sayings to describe the event, “…too much fun…”! Here are some Photos.
Photos (L to R): The Extreme Race; Heather, Lauren, Lindsey.
Of course there was the obligatory carnage during the extreme race. Great for spectators to watch! Here is a link to the official website
A bit of info that you may find helpful…As some of you know I recently had a JK Allstar stolen from the roof of my car, from outside my apartment. Luckily, State Farm paid out for everything I lost through my renters insurance (but with a $500 deducatable). This prompted me to look further into insurance and kayaks. State Farm offers boat insurance for $4/Mo/Boat (if you have home/renters and car insurance with them). For $16/ Mo I have $7,000 of boats and equipment insured, under the “boat insurance” policy. They cover theft (not dependant on location) and on-river loss. Deductible is $100. I did not check against breakage.
Wenatchee fest provides, along with a lot of fun, shuttle rides from Cashmere to Rodeo hole. Its awesome. Saturday, after eating breakfast provided by the Virostek family, I headed up stream to the start of the down river race. I borrowed Dave’s Nomad 8.1 and hauled arse paddling downstream. I liked the boat a lot, but felt sad when i glanced left and right and saw all the wonderful surf waves I was missing. Race over, I immediately headed straight to Grannies to get some practice in. The level had changed from the previous day and it took me 3 attempts to get on that wave, due to unexpected flushiness. I had about 1 hour to practice before the rodeo and scored an entry loop on my last practice ride, which was sadly unreplicatable in the actual rodeo. Oh well, I did okay. It was great to watch all the other guys and gals out their doing their thing! Bret Barton had a great entry loop and Darren Albright had a loop too! I’ll have some video up soon.
Photos (L to R): waiting for the shuttle; Blunt; Blunt.
theDave and I headed directly to Grannies to play. Unfortunately Dave got attacked by the lesser spotted Wenatchee River Monster that ripped the paddle out from his hand, while surfing the wave. 3 hand roll attempts later and a swim later, the paddle was no where to be found. Luckily we had a spare and we spend the afternoon sharing rides with Christina Russell and Josh Mckeown at Granny’s.
Photos (L to R): The Wenatchee River; Christina about throw big on Grannies; Josh blunts on Grannies.
A group of us attended the Wenatchee River Festival last weekend. I headed up on Thursday with theDave in the Momma van, packed with 5 kayaks and all paraphernalia required for a luxury camping trip, including 16 portions of pasta with tomato and roasted red pepper sauce, that i spent most of Wednesday cooking.It was a great drive up and some wonderful WA boaters- Renee and Alan- we’re kind enough to allow us to squat on their camp spot for the night. We exchanged kayak stories, beer and wine. We awoke to the sound of Icicle Creek running through our back yard. Ah, I love vacations!
Photos (L to R): The gorge and the bridge on the drive; Icicle Creek
