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Hood River, OR is the Aspen of windsurfing. It is literally one of the premier sailboard and kite boarding locations in the world. Why is that? The main reason is the unique combination of location, geography and weather.
The Columbia River Gorge has a unique weather pattern, in that strong winds blow up the river valley for much of the year. The sunny, hot and dry east side pulls air up the Gorge from the cooler and wetter west side. The winds are often strong enough to create whitecaps on the water. In extreme conditions, the winds cause lots of spray on the water, aka "Liquid Smoke" to Sailboarders, with really fast sailing, if you're good enough.
The river flows the opposite direction of the wind's normal direction. This provides windsurfers with a natural "ski lift". Instead of being blown away from their starting point, and then having to tack back upwind, which is difficult, especially for beginners, the current helps bring them back to where they started. It's also not so fast that they get swept downstream easily.
So the entire Gorge is well suited to Sailboards, and Hood River became the hotspot, since it's close to Portland while also being far enough east to escape the worst of the bad weather that the Gorge is also known for, yet still being in an area where the wind is still strong.
Board suppliers and manufacturers have located there, and it caters to boardheads from around the world.
So, what's all this have to do with photography? For years the beach at Hood River has been easy picking for photographers, providing sailboarders and kiteboarders for much of the year. There's convenient parking, and easy access to the beach. Lots of people there, and it seems like a safe place, though as with all public locations I wouldn't leave lots of gear easily visible in your parked car, just in case.
You do have to pay $5 to park in the close lot, but you can also park free a bit further out and walk to the beach. It's not far, and if you're not packing a sailboard it's no big deal.
I've visited there frequently, and got some nice photos. When we did our trip to the Gorge last summer, we had a couple folks sailing right at us, hot-dogging and doing tricks, making for great imagery.
Because the beach continues to get more and more popular, this year they've made some changes on who can sail where. This is a sensible move, and makes things safer for everyone involved. I understand the idea, and think it's a good one. Unfortunately, photographer lose a lot of opportunity with the changes. You no longer have easy access to the kite boarders, which are the most photogenic of the windsurfers.
Along with moving the kiteboards further away from the beach, they have restricted the speed of sailboards close to the beach. Again, this makes perfect sense, but reduces the chance of getting those high speed shots that look good.
A bit of windsurfing 101. There are two primary type of windsurfing gear these days, sailboard and kiteboards. The names pretty much explain how they work, but here are a couple photos to make it clearer.
Sailboard - A surfboard with a mast and small sail. These are the original windsurfer, and still the most common.
You can actually stand up on the larger boards and have them stay afloat, but they're more for lakes and areas with less wind. The smaller boards common in the Gorge have to be moving before they'll float with the weight of the sailboarder on them, sort of like water skis. They're harder to get started on, but are also faster.
Kiteboard - A newer design, with a very large kite attached to the person sailing by long lines and a harness. The kiteboard is fairly small, and attached to by foot harnesses. You can't stand up on a kiteboard unless it's moving, but starting is easier since the large kite helps lift you up. It's a lot like using a snowboard, both in how you use it, and what tricks can be done.
The big difference is that the kiteboarders can do far more tricks. Using the kite they can "get air", really "big air" and do spins and jumps and tricks like a skateboarder or snowboarder. They're a lot more fun to photograph, since most sailboarders look a lot alike when they're sailing, white kiteboarders are always trying something new.
Because of the crowds, kiteboards have been moved to the sand bar area. It would be a good place to shoot from, but I couldn't find an easy way to get out there. There was a small waterway between it and the main beach, not very wide but about 3 feet deep. I didn't want to risk tripping on rock or log etc and giving my camera a bath, so I didn't try that route.
It looks like it may be possible to get there from the other side of the small waterway next to the beach, but it was a long walk, so I didn't try.
I also noticed a lot of the kiteboarders were on the far side of the river. I went over there after leaving Hood River. There's no easy access there, not a lot of places to park, and the railroad tracks are fenced off and heavily posted with no Trespassing Signs. I parked at the end of the fence and used my telephoto to get a few shots, but none of them were worthwhile. Even if you ignore the signs and cross the tracks (and risk a ticket), you wouldn't be much closer and I don't think the shot would be much better.
If anyone finds a good way to get reasonably close to the kiteboarders, let us know!
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