Hood River, Oregon, is a windsurf and foil town in the Columbia River Gorge. The wind blows there all summer. In October, four foilers from the Gorge came to Portugal to ride waves behind the jetski instead.
Maui, Jonny, Victoria and Doug. The week started on Monday, October 12, with lunch at our HQ and the first session at three in the afternoon.
Small and windy
The first days were small to medium waves and a lot of wind. Wind is not ideal for towing. It chops up the face, and for the first-time towers in the group it made everything harder. They rode anyway, on Armstrong gear from our quiver. Tuesday and Wednesday, two sessions a day: ten in the morning, three in the afternoon.
Gear-wise it was all Armstrong. Three setups did the week:
Then the wind dropped
As the week went on the wind dropped more often and the swell kept building. Thursday morning was the session we had been watching on the charts since Saturday: long, clean lines, hardly any wind, both skis out.
For Jonny, Victoria and Doug that was the last session of the trip. Maui stayed on for two more days.
Off the water
Between sessions there was the spa at HQ, pool, hot tub and sauna, and the cliffs above the spot, a two-minute drive away and the best place to watch from for the partners who came along.
Dinner was at a different place every night: Tasca do Celso, Ritual for tapas, A Choupana on the beach at Praia do Farol, the Riverside Pub. We had an incredibly good time together.
The video
Thanks, Maui, Jonny, Victoria and Doug. Hood River, you know where we are. October is the warm start of our season. December through March is when this coast is at its most consistent.
Train your waveriding
Wave after wave behind the jetski, October through May. More time on the face in a week than most foilers get in a season.