Windsurfing, surfing, Maui, The Gorge, and random rants.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Now where was I?


So we had just left Maui and arrived in Hood River, AKA "The Gorge" or "The Hood", as in "it's all good in the Hood".  Which does sum this place up pretty nicely in most respects.  But before I get further into that, I want to explain the recent absent of postings.  I do intend to post as often as possible regarding the awesome weather and incredible activities that infuse this area during the summer months.

However, almost as soon as we landed in PDX we took a quick trip back east to my old home town for a family gathering.  I had a great time and met relatives I hadn't seen in years, and if I can somehow find a way to weave that story into anything related to what I usually write about, that is surfing or windsurfing, I will.  But the bottom line is I didn't have much time to blog.  Then we got back to HR where all manner of tasks and chores (spring cleaning anyone?) ate most of my spare time.  Plus my real day job (which provides our great flexibility to live in HR and Maui) took on a higher priority as we are pushing out the next version of our suite of applications.  Yes I am a software developer in case you hadn't guessed it, so anyway, busy busy, and very busy.

But besides all that, another factor is at play here.  The weather in the great northwest has been truly awful so far this spring.  And by awful I mean cool, cloudy, and raining.  Often.  Which means we've had exactly one day of sailing and biking each since we've been back.  Ugh.  And as I write this there is a bona fide pineapple express aiming for our little corner of paradise that is promising a few more days of heavy rain followed by more cool and showery weather.

BTW - for those of you not from the NW, a pineapple express is a weather pattern where a large low in the gulf of Alaska sucks up a plume of moisture that originates from the tropics, often near a well known island chain famous (besides surfing and windsurfing) for growing pineapples. Yes that island chain!  It's like a big circle here, we are all connected and all that. So this plume of moisture is heading straight for us and about to drop 1-3 " of rain.

Now this does not make for great windsurfing, biking, hiking, or for that matter anything outside.  We usually get this in November or December.   Never in June, or Junuary as it is now known here.  Never!!  If you gaze at the graphic to the right (click on it to enlarge) you can see that there is a line of lows (storms) that in fact stretch from here to... eternity? Or maybe just the Philippines.  That's one huge pineapple.

[ Update 6/2/2010: I'm looking at the NWS discussion the day after I posted this, and it says...
THIS PLUME ORIGINATES NEAR THE PHILIPPINES WITH A MORE WINTER-LIKE JET STREAM CONTINUED TO BE POINTED TOWARD THE PAC NW.... now I actually made the Philippines plume of moisture part up because I had no idea where it was coming from and that was a wild ass guess (SWAG). A pretty good one though! ]

And these types of storms can alter landscapes. We had a famous one back in November 2006. It rained for days and daze - very hard.  The White River glacier on Mt Hood was saturated and unleashed a historical debris flow that  blocked the road from HR to Mt Hood (and access to all ski areas from HR) and flowed all the way to the Columbia River and created the extremely large sand bar now known as "the spit".  And also called Kiter beach.  So yes, all you kiters (al-Kitas) owe a big thanks to that particular express for giving you your launch site.

And as I read the current special weather warnings, well here, read it for yourself...


AN UNUSUALLY STRONG LATE SPRING PACIFIC JET STREAM WILL AIM A
UNUSUALLY MOIST BAND OF MOISTURE AT SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON AND
NORTHWEST OREGON TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.

RAINFALL AMOUNTS TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY WILL LIKELY REACH INTO THE
2 TO 5 INCH RANGE AT THE COAST...IN THE COAST RANGE AND IN THE
CASCADES. AMOUNTS IN THE INTERIOR VALLEYS WILL LIKELY REACH THE
1 TO 1.5 INCH RANGE...WITH 1 TO 3 INCHES INCHES IN THE COLUMBIA
RIVER GORGE. SNOW LEVELS WILL BE NEAR OR ABOVE 8000 FEET FOR MOST
OF THIS EVENT. THE HEAVY RAIN ON SNOW WILL CAUSE DANGEROUSLY
UNSTABLE CONDITIONS FOR CLIMBERS ON THE AREA PEAKS. THE
POTENTIAL WILL ALSO BE INCREASED FOR DEBRIS FLOWS FROM THE LARGE
AMOUNTS OF RAIN.

So there it is, a chance of debris flows - don't expect that in June now do ya?  But maybe in Junuary.  Now I wonder, since the whole spit/sand bar is nothing but a debris flow, could another one take that away?  Or pile onto that and create what, another island or something?  Hmmm, we'll just have to wait and see.  So I haven't had much to write about concerning the windsurfing or great weather so far, but now I got this to write about - the incredibly sucky weather!

About that board

Has it really been just three weeks since my little Hookpia incident?  Seems so much longer than that.  As I mentioned earlier, things were trending toward a good resolution.  My friend from NFAH sent a nice email to Pascal in the Quattro/Goya shop saying he was very sorry and intended to pay for all repairs.  I dropped the board off and was assured that I would have it back before leaving (dropped it off on Monday, back by Friday).  On Friday I returned to the shop to pick up the board and see the results.

If you've never been to the Quattro/Goya shop in Haiku and you windsurf, then you really should take a visit.  This is pretty close to ground zero for the windsurfing world. In this one shop you'll likely see Keith Teboul, Francisco and Lalo Goya, Pio Marasco (MFC), and Jason Diffon (Goya sail designer) working on the latest and greatest. Besides that there's an all-star roster of sailors constantly visiting.  We've met Levi Siver, Kauli Seadi, Jesse Brown, Camille Juban, Jake Miller, Pascal Bronnimann, Josh Stone, and Whit Poor, to name a few, at this shop.  Plus you can see and demo Quattro and  Goya boards and sails.

In the same building (old cannery) you also might bump into Mark Nelson, or Peter Thommen working on their latest designs in their own shops.


I expect that everyone knows that Keith Teboul is the main Quattro shaper (and influences Goya shapes to a degree).  A bit less known is that he is the most sought after custom board shaper on Maui (and perhaps the world).  Some of the windsurfers mentioned above might not exactly be Quattro or Goya team riders (though most are).  However they are likely to be on a custom Keith shape if they are sailing Hookipa (heck, even I am). And hint - the graphics on such a board don't mean anything.  Mine says 75 twinzer, which it isn't.

If you visit this shop you're likely to see not only all the above, but a wide selection of Keith's custom shapes.  And there's a good chance Keith will shaping one right there.

The pictures below show some Quattro production and custom shapes.

The Goya and MFC wing.


The very cool and advanced shaping room up close.


Keith working on the latest toys.


And now for the big reveal.  First go back and take a close look at this board before the repair.  Now check it out after the repair.


You might notice that there's one very tiny spot where the paint wasn't quite perfect.  They actually apologized to me as the paint job was a bit rushed to have it done on time.  Now I can tell you that the board has no more weight and feels exactly the same as before, which is how it should be.  I should also mention that a strong consideration for me when purchasing Quattro or Goya boards and Goya sails is knowing that I can have them expertly repaired right there if the need should arise.  Stuff happens as they say.  But all's well that end's well, as they also say!  Now the only question is, who exactly are they?

2 comments:

Catapulting Aaron said...

Bummer about the weather. The bay was rainy and weird last week for no good reason too. must be "The Nino".

if your board isn't a twin 75, what is it? Bigger or smaller?

(Ben) Jamin Jones said...

I guess I still need to write a post about this board. It's an 80l custom that Keith made for Levi. A pre-production Quattro quad made a bit shorter and lighter then the production shapes. Optimized for down the line wave sailing. And fun!

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