Dominik, his friends and family, Vanessa and her husband and family and I went to the Naish Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge in Hood River. It was great fun.

The first day (Saturday) was perfect for the course race. Flat water, no wind and hot. Lots of Camelbaks and water bottles out on the course. The surf class did 2 x 1.5 mile laps, the 12'6" class did 3 x 1.5 mile laps and the 14' class did 4 x 1.5 mile laps. 6 miles of paddling as hard as you can. Better stay hydrated.

Dominik placed 3rd in the Open Surf class, 17 to 49 year old division. Great job Dominik!

This was a great family event. Lots of vendors. Great food.

At 3:05 into the video watch Conner Baxter get an awesome hole shot at the start of the Elite class race. Baxter ended up winning with a narrow margin over Kai Lenny. There was only 10 seconds between first and fourth place. These paddlers, male and female, are definitely world class athletes.

Day 2 started out a little sketchy. The 8 mile downwind race was scheduled to start at 10 am. No wind! The weather report said the wind should start to blow a little later, so the race was pushed back until 12 noon. Fortunately the wind started blowing and the race was on. Eightyfive SUPers paddling like crazy, trying to catch "a glide from a bump". Downwind chop was on most of the course with a few sections of small swells. There were a couple of good glides on the small swells. More wind and bigger swells would have been great. Maybe next year. Same time, same place.

Next year Scott, Dominik,Vanessa, myself and anybody else we can drag along are going to compete. I plan on paddling all winter and developing a workout routine for the gym that will help my paddle conditioning.


Stand Up and Paddle!