I'm back on the East Coast now, but I put together these two videos from windsurfing in the Gorge earlier this week. I will watch these and reminisce during Florida's doldrums. These and the pictures my dad posted on his blog.
Longboard Day- It was glassy when we got to the Hood River in late afternoon Monday 8/24. But I saw a windline approaching and rigged the "big" 6.5 Sailworks Retro for use on my dad's old longboard. The wind came up a bit and it worked out great. The Mistral Pandera, with it's adjustable mast track and "railing" footstraps, it quite fast and fun with the daggerboard up or down.
Shortboard Day- I got to put some good mileage on the Starboard Kode 86 I rented from Big Winds. The wind was "only" 5.0, but that was good enough for me. I really liked the board's combo of speed and slidey manouverability. The morning sesh was in Hood River at the new Waterfront Park. For the afternoon sesh we drove way East to Maryhill Park, out in the desert. The wind was erratic there, but the scenery was great. The beach was made entirely of river-sculpted "skipping rocks".
I'll post some pictures when I've had time to sort through them.
Tuesday 4 16 24 morning call
5 hours ago
3 comments:
Awesome video, James! It looks like so much fun.
Aunt MG
P.S. I want to try SUPing -- I bet I'd do well and like it. It seems like a cool way to observe wildlife.
James-a question for you unrelated to this post. What is it that causes the ocean water to be spectacularly blue one day at Assateague, then dark and brown the next? Is it the gulf stream just coming in closer one day for some reason? Granted the sun shining can give the water an appearance of being much clearer and bluer…but I’ve seen it also dark and brown on a sunny day. Thanks in advance for your response
Aunt MG- Thanks for the comment. Maybe we can try SUP in Edisto sometime, or one of the SC lakes.
George- The gulf stream usually veers far offshore once you get north of the obx, but there are lots of irregular eddies that swirl off the stream and could butt up onto the Assateague shore occasionally. The link below shows how patchy and dynamic the mixing water masses are:
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es2403/es2403page06.cfm
There is also irregular mixing of more coastal waters. The brown days may be when estuarine water full of river mud and stuff is lingering near shore, and the blue days could be when recently upwelled water, or surface waters from further offshore, sidle up to the beach. Besides where the water came from, how big the waves are near shore also affects the blueness or brownness. It's usually brown when the waves are big, because sediments from the bottom are re-suspended by the strong stirring action of the waves.
Here's another link that has some pretty cool ocean temperature images:
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/db_products/SST/
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