Gorge Water Temps

[quickrig1]

What are the summer temperatures in the gorge? Do they vary depending on the location?

[maxwellmaggie]

feels like 60s...you can sail in trunks and a rashgaurd. I sailed in a wetsuit top last week and it was way too hot.

[isobars]

Gorge water temps are limited by law to a max of 72 degrees to protect salmon fingerlings. Its not quite there yet (iWs Pressure Report lists water temp below the pressures), running about 70 last time I looked. You wont notice much departure from the posted temps except maybe immediately below a dam. 70 sounds toasty, and 90 air temp sounds hot, but we had to rescue a hypothermic sailor in mid-July whose gear blew away who was clad only in a shorty, leaving him in the river for 2-3 hours. He went back out in a full steamer after recovering his gear. (No wuss, hes an expert who lives and usually sails in the Canadian Great Lakes.) Im still more comfortable in a 2mm full suit than in a 2mm shorty on the usual 90-degree afternoon, because I crash a lot and face swims up to a mile or more.

Air temps range from 50s on a chilly July dawn to 110 some afternoons.

With Google Im sure you can find much more detail, including day-by-day Columbia River surface water temperatures at many spots.

Mike \m/

[melpel]

OK, Ill bite... How do you end up with a multi-hour swim on a river? Are you trying to swim upstream to the launch!?

[isobars]

This particular guy was trying more to retrieve his blown-away gear than get his shivering butt ashore. But then weve rescued several hypothermic sailors out east after their gear has broken or separated, and thats just in the summer. The guys who sail in Jan-Feb without hoods are on their own.

OTOH . . . its not hard to incur an hours swim out east. The reach can exceed two miles, I seldom confine myself to the rut in front of the launch (e.g., I often rip almost directly downwind for over a thousand yards if Im sufficiently powered), and I often swim or butt-sail many hundreds of yards, very often upstream, if the DAMNED WIND breaks as it often does around 9-9:30 P:M. How fast and far can we swim a board and rig, especially in overhead swell if something breaks?

Mike \m/

[quickrig1]

Theres overhead swell on the Columbia River? Are you measuring that standing on a board?

[cosmicharlie]

Considering how your body temp is 98, any water temp lower than that will draw energy from you. Of course you have your fat to draw from to generate energy in the long term, but hypo-thermia basically results from a lack of blood sugar. You can go into shock before your body fat supplies the needed energy. It can be life threatening depending on your situation. A hypothermic person without PDF can drown. A hypothermic skier or climber can freeze, suffering frostbite or other ailments that prevent the sportsman from optaining safe shelter. The Boston Marathon has developed a system of medical stations to deal with hypothermia. I suffered from this affliction while running it. I was able to continue my running after I put on a Tyvex jacket. You basically prevent your body from losing heat while it resupplies your vascular system with energy.

[isobars]

And even when we dont go hypothermic, sailing in the gorge sans neoprene costs us shred time we can never replace. One of the three principles of maximizing available shred time is energy allocation: use neoprene to maintain body temp and save our carbs for muscle contraction. Without neoprene, part of our pasta is wasted replacing heat energy -- CALORIES, many hundreds or even thousands of them -- lost to the water. Ive always chuckled when I see kids (people over 30 are usually wiser) standing on dry land getting warm again after a session on and in 70-degree water, and quitting at suppertime because theyve exhausted their fuel supply staying warm. (Tip: shivering = hypothermia, and thee hours in gorge July water temps sans neoprene can lead to unconsciousness.) Even when the underdressed stay warm, its at the expense of shred time theyll never get back. The same three guys at our local water hole consistently come off the water later -- often several HOURS later -- than the vast majority of sailors there. Two of them seldom sail in less than a full (thin) suit except on truly scorching afternoons in late July or early August.

Bottom line: neoprene increases shred time in gorge water temps.

Now, some folks brag that they never fall in. That begs two questions:
What fun is THAT?
How do they LEARN anything?

To the best of my knowledge, the gorges only windsurfing death (not counting a heart attack) was due to summertime hypothermia, in a young professional athlete.

Mike \m/

[isobars]

When I stand straight up and can see only sky or hilltops looking up- or down-river from the troughs, thats head-high in my book. Weve seen it while sailing 5.2s way out east, where its common on a good, long 4.2 day (it takes time to build); it usually requires more wind in the kiddie pool generally known as the Corridor.

Mike \m/

[pacspeed]

Enough of this tripe already. A full suit in July? Anything but sunscreen in August? You are either a reptile or a complete sissy.
My rule of thumb: Shorty by June 1st, Trunks by July 1st. The first couple days of those transitions can be a little nippy, but way over heated otherwise. Losing shred time? Whatever. That is one seriously thin thread of logic to say that if you overheat yourself, youll have better endurance.

As to these endless swims, if the river is 2 miles wide (thats a GENEROUS estimate for the Columbia, that is a maximum of 1 mile swim. If it takes you 2 HOURS to swim ONE mile, you got no business out on the water. Take up golf.

Oh, yes Ive seen overhead swells on the river too, hes right on that count.