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DukeONuke
Since 24 Aug 2005
26 Posts
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 Thu Sep 11, 08 12:44 pm Looking 4 Windslither & Toby |
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This is Brad. I meet you guys out at Toby's X's Motherinlaws place out in Gearhart. Drop me a line. Wondering if you guys are rolling coastal this weekend. Looking to ride some surf.
Cheers!
Brad |
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Bettyboarder
Since 18 Mar 2005
1823 Posts
PDX/ White Salmon
XTreme Poster
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| Thu Sep 11, 08 1:39 pm |
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| Hey Brad - I think Toby (kitetele) is in Canada this weekend not sure if he will be back or not. |
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Wind Slither
Since 04 Mar 2005
2626 Posts
The 503
METAL
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| Thu Sep 11, 08 3:18 pm |
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Hey Duke,
You stole that handle from Bruce Peterson! (But only us old pole smurfs would reconize that!)
Yeah, just back from a biz trip and too long away from the waves....looking to sesh tomorrow if I can get away in time.
Check PM.
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TravisBickleRex
Since 30 Jun 2005
340 Posts
Taxi Driver
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| Thu Sep 11, 08 4:23 pm correction |
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| Wind Slither wrote: | | You stole that handle from Bruce Peterson! (But only us old pole smurfs would reconize that!) |
...My input here is arguably worse than correcting a misstatement concerning the drummer for Bang Tango...nevertheless, I must correct you. Duke O' Nuke was Pat Dougherty. ...From the Seattle PI archive dated July 14, 1988:
WINDSURFERS GORGE THEMSELVES IN OREGON SPORT BRINGS BOOM TO LOCAL ECONOMIES
By Greg Brown P-I Reporter
THURSDAY, July 14, 1988
Section: Sports, Page: D4
From all parts of the world, wind worshipers have gathered here in the pursuit of fun.
To boardheads, as windsurfers are called, the place is heaven.
It's called the Gorge. For about 100 miles of the Columbia River, from Roster Rock east of Portland to just before The Dalles, Ore., the wind blows almost daily as the deep river breach through the Cascades sucks air from the coast into the drylands.
"There is no other place like this in the world . . . It's like a wind tunnel," said Dave Cordell, 27, a five-year professional windsurfer from England.
This week the world's top windsurfers are congregating at Hood River for the Rainier Beer Gorge Pro-Am Speed Slalom Championships. The reigning gods of the youthful sport are here - Robby Naish, Alex Aguera, Phil McGain and Anders Bringdal.
AND THE WIND FOLLOWERS have made pilgrimages. Last year an estimated 55,000 flooded into Hood River for the week-long competition of more than 300 pros and amateurs. This year 60,000 are expected to bring an estimated economic boost of at least $600,000 to this riverside town of 4,520 and its neighbors.
The impact of windsurfing is far more reaching. A University of Oregon study says the sport brings more than $17 million a year to the Gorge, once an area of high unemployment. Washington-side towns of White Salmon and Bingen have been helped, but Hood River is the hub.
Resistance to the growth of windsurfing in the Gorge has been minimal. When people want to pay to be in the once-hated wind, who's to argue?
"At first they (locals) laughed at them," said Bobbi Davies, 21, who grew up across the river in White Salmon. "But it's gotten so big you can't laugh anymore."
Especially if you're headed for the bank. Davies is one of many locals whose job has been ensured by boardsailors. She works at the check-in desk of the Hood River Village Resort, which is growing to meet windsurfers' demands. The hotel is expanding from 64 rooms to 84 and this week has been filling rooms at $102 a night as quickly as they're completed. Other locals capitalize by offering bed-and-breakfast rooms for $55 a night.
"THE MAJORITY OF FOLKS want it to happen," said Don Baldwin, 38, a life-long Hood River resident.
Baldwin is admittedly biased. He's one of the few locals who put money into starting a windsurfing company. Many of the board shops and production and testing companies have been started by outsiders. Baldwin turned his dad's cabinet shop into Gorge Technology. The company develops and builds custom mast bases and is turning a profit in its first year of incorporation.
"It's a whole new attitude," Baldwin said. "Small towns are notorious for a non-progressive attitude. You see a real upbeat attitude . . . The town is alive."
Especially this week. Competition is focused off the shores of the Hood River Marina. A seven-turn downwind course is set up with spectators in mind.
"We heard this was the place to go so we came down," said Dick Mansfield of Burien who is retired and traveling with his wife, Jackie. "The colors are beautiful."
Explosive is a better word.
Thousands of sails cover open ground, creating a quilt of nuclear reds, bright limes, fluorescent oranges and radiant pinks. Hard-bodied 20-year-olds, with bronze skin and skin-tight wet suits to match their sails, make the sport an attention getter.
Once stopped, spectators see racing that is fast and exciting. The winds, which must be 15 knots for competition, push windsurfers to 30 mph into the first mark.
The competition has double-elimination heats with eight windsurfers in each race. The top four from each race advance until only eight are left. Yesterday finals were determined for 113 amateurs in men's and women's open, master and junior divisions. The 165 professionals started heat-racing yesterday.
Finals in both amateur and pro competition are set for Saturday with Sunday a contingency day. Pros compete for $30,000 and world standings, amateurs for $10,000 in equipment. There is no charge for spectators.
Even the pros, who travel 300 days a year, have noticed the difference in the town.
"This is my third time at the Gorge. The town is really going into windsurfing," said Axel Ohm of West Germany. "It's more commericalized."
Hood River windsurfers are starting to make their mark, too. In the amateur finals, five of the eight are locals.
"Finally the locals are producing," said Pat Dougherty, known as the "Duke of Nuke" because he sails in heavy winds. "It shows what we make here works."
Dougherty came through the losers' bracket and from last to second in yesterday's last qualifier to make the finals. Part-owner, designer and tester for Gorge Technology, he is one of many transplants. He came from Boise, Idaho, after getting an engineering degree.
Dougherty said resistance to change has eased as the sport has ripened an economy once based on timber and fruit.
"The gap is a lot closer," Dougherty said. "Certainly people questioned it until they realized what was going on, when they realized the average boardhead is 30 years old, is responsible and earns about $30,000. People who come are just interested in having fun."
The fun sometimes comes at a price. Safety on the Gorge and overcrowding of facilities are problems still unsolved. So far there has been only one windsurfing death in the Gorge.
That's astonishing considering there is no organized rescue program on the river. Windsurfers love to play chicken with barge traffic and break bones while jumping waves up to 10 feet. Still only about 35 percent of windsurfers wear required floation devices on the Oregon side.
But if the recent past is any indication, change will continue. And one thing everybody agrees on is that the Gorge will never be the same.
jm/ko
This article contained at least one photo or illustration as described below:
Type: PHOTOS
Description: (1)ROBERT DeGIULIO/P-I -- Windsurfers gibe around the first mark in one of yesterday's amateur elimination heats at the Rainier Beer Gorge Pro-Am Speed Slalom Championships in Hood River, Ore. The pro and amateur finals are scheduled for Saturday. The week-long competition in the wind-swept Gorge on the Columbia River is expected to draw an estimated 60,000 visitors to the area. (2)ROBERT DeGIULIO/P-I -- Amateur sailboarder Tom James outdistances his competition on a reach for the first mark during yesterday's competition. Amateurs and pros go through double-elimination heats to determine the finalists for Saturday's championships. The pros are competing for $30,000.
If you're still reading, you appear to need a lesson in Bang Tango as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMYniDANpw&feature=related |
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eric
Since 13 Jan 2006
1872 Posts
XTreme Poster
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| Thu Sep 11, 08 4:43 pm |
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TBR--you stole my thunder! We all remember Pat, THE "Duke of Nuke," from the late 80's/early 90's at The Hatch, and Gorge Technology Speed Inducers. I think he moved back to Boise and works for HP.
Eric |
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kitetele
Since 20 Mar 2005
121 Posts
Portland, Oregon
Stoked
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| Thu Sep 11, 08 9:44 pm In Canada |
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Hey Duke,
Ya BB is right I am chillin' with the Canucks right now. Hit the waves for six days through last weekend on the OC and it was all good. Getting some Squamish time in now for some new scenery. Beautiful place up here.
Have fun out there and I will let you know on the next outing. |
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Wind Slither
Since 04 Mar 2005
2626 Posts
The 503
METAL
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| Fri Sep 12, 08 8:00 am Re: correction |
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| TravisBickleRex wrote: | | Wind Slither wrote: | | You stole that handle from Bruce Peterson! (But only us old pole smurfs would reconize that!) |
...nevertheless, I must correct you. Duke O' Nuke was Pat Dougherty. ... |
GAAAAA, first I confuse Cascade with Chinook...then Dougherty with Peterson....
My premature senility is getting severe. The 80's are just a blur. Maybe I'll blame it on water quality, or the dirty taps at the Northshore. Thanks for the correction TBR...
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blowhard
Since 26 Dec 2005
2027 Posts
Windward
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| Fri Sep 12, 08 8:08 am Re: correction |
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| Wind Slither wrote: | | TravisBickleRex wrote: | | Wind Slither wrote: | | You stole that handle from Bruce Peterson! (But only us old pole smurfs would reconize that!) |
...nevertheless, I must correct you. Duke O' Nuke was Pat Dougherty. ... |
GAAAAA, first I confuse Cascade with Chinook...then Dougherty with Peterson....
My premature senility is getting severe. The 80's are just a blur. Maybe I'll blame it on water quality, or the dirty taps at the Northshore. Thanks for the correction TBR...
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Rememering tings is highly overrated  |
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windobsessed
Since 07 Aug 2008
120 Posts
Vancouver
Stoked
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| Fri Sep 12, 08 9:25 am |
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That brings back memories... Pat used to sail for Dave (Rushwind) at that time Bruce used to work with Dave. Pat was the original "Dale Cook" of that time, "Major Air". Gorge Technology, ya I still have one of the original "Flipper" mast bases that he designed. Talked to Dana (Promotion) sometime back and asked how Pat was, turns out he wiped out on his moto-cross bike and broke his back, doctors told him he couldn't walk anymore but after a ton of work was up and around after a year. Got back on his dirt-bike and crashed it again and now is permanently disabled 
I guess there are some sports that are even more dangerous than kiteboarding. |
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shred_da_gorge
Since 12 Nov 2008
1365 Posts
Da Hood & Da Wood
XTreme Poster
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| Thu Nov 13, 08 7:25 pm memory lane |
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Ah yes, harken back to the daze when wind sports were sponsored by beer companies not energy drinks. Back then you could drink AND vote legally! No wonder we've had such a long string of Republicans since then...
(and maybe if they shredded they could pronounce the word nuclear!) |
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