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Gorge in April???
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tweeky



Joined: 19 Sep 2004
Posts: 256

PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I live in Portland, so the Gorge is where I do all my windsurfing. April? Hell ya, its great. The water is cold, but not an issue if you have a good suit. One thing I recommend is that you wear or carry a neoprene hat, in case you have an equipment failure.
Like others have said, the wind can be hit or miss, but its always like that in the Gorge. For temperature, go more by the air temp. The water takes quite a while to get to a comfortable temperature, but if it's 60 or above, and you're not spending all your time in the water, its great. Don't even need gloves.
The current can be strong, because the let the spring run off through the dam, but on westerlies it works in your favor, and creates some nice swell too.
I've already been out a bunch of times, water temp and air temp weren't an issue. No weeds, and no crowds. Come to think of it, why am I letting the cat out of the bag? Um, no no, quite right WAYYY to cold, come back in July! Smile
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tweeky wrote:
Like others have said, the wind can be hit or miss, but its always like that in the Gorge. For temperature, go more by the air temp. The water takes quite a while to get to a comfortable temperature, but if it's 60 or above, and you're not spending all your time in the water, its great. Don't even need gloves.


Ya gotta admit . . . April winds are generally FAR more gusty and shifty than summer thermals. Sure, Monday was windy as hell all day, but putting together a decent day of sailing required rigging a quiver of sails and a couple of boards, then mixing and matching rigs and boards as the wind ranged from 15 to > 40 mph over a very wide directional range (a sure swell-killer). Yeah, it was fine barehanded and OK barefooted, but it I can't recommend driving more than an hour to get to it. And good luck finding 60 degree water here in April; it's still 47, so dressing for air temp (it's peaked in the upper 70s) is very dangerous. Just ask the kiter who went out in that gusty crap and lost his new board, then his new kite, in front of a barge, nearly out of sight from shore and beyond most help. And dang glad I was wearing wrap-around shades and a helmet with a rigid visor when the extreme rainstorm went through, driving everyone else off the river. Overall it was so crappy I didn't bother going today (Tuesday), which by the charts looks like a mistake. But spending 12 hours and $60 chasing wind Monday for a couple of hours of extremely gusty sailing is a major PITA.

\m/
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spanker_jeep



Joined: 15 Mar 2002
Posts: 404
Location: Outer Richmond District.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:45 pm    Post subject: Risky, Reply with quote

Drove up last year (from SF) at this time and it was beautiful but no wind. Got some HUGE deals on equipment though. Weather was amazingly beautiful.
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