myiW Current Conditions and Forecasts Community Forums Buy and Sell Services
 
Hi guest · myAccount · Log in
 SearchSearch   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   RegisterRegister 
Olde Skool Rufus
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    iWindsurf Community Forum Index -> Northwest USA & Canada
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
ericandholly



Joined: 20 Jun 1999
Posts: 292

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:28 pm    Post subject: Olde Skool Rufus Reply with quote

Looking for a Gorge seasoned windsurfer to post up with a legitimate "Dude you missed it" for Rufus swell. I'm talking big and smooth at 27ish mph. I'm not talking about the flat mess that I've seen this month. It's 26 there out of SW now, but the last three times I've been recently swell was much better elsewhere

Thx
Eric
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
isobras



Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 439

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know the wind criteria; now watch the current plots and thresholds discussed in the John Day Dam Release Schedule thread.

Mike \OO/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ericandholly



Joined: 20 Jun 1999
Posts: 292

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I want eye witness, not the current maybe needs to be x cfs, unless it needs to y cfs, or (x-y)^2*ln(e^-1) cfs.

I want John Akagi to tell me "it's on and you missed it." THEN, I can check the flow on that epic day that I missed.

Eric
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
garyagingrich



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I saw it good there in mid June. It's usually a touch better than the wall. The deal with Rufus is that if the swells are big, they aren't steep. If you're jumping, you'll want medium sized ramps. If you're swell riding, that's different.

The Maryhill sensor gets a bit strange. It's unreliable when blowing more northerly. If there's a bit of N, don't go unless it's showing 32+. If it's out of the S, it's ok to go around 28+. Anything below 28 is usually not worth the drive or trouble.

On other thing to consider it temp. It gets much hotter there, which makes the air thinner. While 15-20 degrees @ 25 mph can mean the difference between 4.2 and 3.7, the aggregate effect on swells is quite large. Thinner air rolling over the water will not create nearly the sized ramps you want. If it's hot and gusty, don't bother. There won't be enough fetch to get things going, the swells will get crumbly and disorganized.

If you look at windspeeds over the summers, you'll see it's often windy out there during July-August. You've also probably noticed it's rarely good. Temperature can make a giant difference. Most of those bad days out east don't have terribly different windspeeds. The Hatchery is better because it's on average 20 degrees cooler.

Humidity can play a role as well. But that's usually not a factor for Rufus.

Hope that helps.

Mitch (not my dad Gary as the username says, don't tell iWindsurf)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
brettn



Joined: 22 Nov 2000
Posts: 114

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 1:52 pm    Post subject: The Wall Reply with quote

Yeah, yeah, but when it's 90 degrees at The Wall, they're way likelier to be filming a Girls Gone Wild episode there.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
isobras



Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 439

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 2:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ericandholly wrote:
I want eye witness

The primary thing Johnny can tell ya is that it was great that day or during that session. Unless he tweets you and you get there quickly, that's not as useful as the dam flow trend. Every spot gets in in a few brief, good sessions or even days now and then, but if driving from any distance we are usually better served by both wind and current forecasts than by snapshots, especially in that stretch of the river. I see MANY people chasing hourly numbers, like the guy who stomped ashore at 3Mile because the wind had backed off, threw his board and rig onto the parking lot rocks, crammed it into his truck, asked me what spot was blowing hardest at that moment, and drove off to Doug's ... which tanked before even reached Arlington. Worse yet, he had sailed and left the Hatchery and Doug's with the same results and probably the same reaction that morning. Even worse, the wind soon came back to 3Mile for 3-4 marvelous hours. Overall, 3Mile won that day for the entire Columbia River, and he caught only an hour of it because he chased short-term data all day. The rest of us there rigged one sail, one board, and got roughly six hours of GREAT sailing for it.

There's a huge and very useful amount of information at our fingertips, including raw immediate numbers, trends, carefully chosen and heeded phrases in textual forecasts, radar, and dynamic wind speed waveforms. I use all those in choosing my first site each day and whether I change locations. The last session-sized data point I use in those decisions, especially the latter, is what's going on at some other spot for an hour or three. Stuff moves.

Do I ever err? HELL, yes. Do I err often, or regret an error? I don't believe so, and very seldom, respectively.

How about it, Punk? Do ya feel lucky?

Mike \OO/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ericandholly



Joined: 20 Jun 1999
Posts: 292

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I pulled the trigger today and went. Wind direction was good. Swell was better than last week for sure. Not there yet, however. All gates still open. I think we are close.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
philodog



Joined: 28 Apr 2000
Posts: 209

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The morning session was WAY better than afternoon. Swell was cleaner, bigger and longer than the junk in the PM. Wind was a bit steadier, started on 4.2 and had to go 3.7 by 10:30 or so.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
westender



Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 1288
Location: Portland / Gorge

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ericandholly wrote:

I want John Akagi to tell me
Eric



You only take advice from old short people???
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
isobras



Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 439

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A friend commented back in May that "there's a little nip in the air today". I looked out onto the river and responded, "Oh, is Johnny here?"

Sorry, Johnny ... couldn't let that one escape.

Mike \OO/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    iWindsurf Community Forum Index -> Northwest USA & Canada All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You can attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum

myiW | Weather | Community | Membership | Support | Log in
like us on facebook
© Copyright 1999-2007 WeatherFlow, Inc Contact Us Ad Marketplace

Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group