WE LOVE WHAT WE DO WE USE WHAT WE SELL we do the research for you!
NEW & USED OPTIONS FOR EVERY NEED, EVERY BUDGET
The River City Saloon, above, on a no-wind afternoon in May 1985. A windmeter, opposite left, clocks upwards of 30 knots at Maryhill during Labor Day weekend, 1983. Bingen Bart Vervloet, at left in photo opposite right, poses at his windsurfing shop in June 1986 with fellow sailors Rob McCutcheon and Joe Beauguess. Bingen Bart’s morning radio spot, “Bart’s Best Bets,” gave daily wind forecasts through much of the 1980s and ‘90s. (Brian Sprout)
Spring Creek Fish Hatchery, with the trunk of his pink ’57 Plymouth full of spare parts because stuff in the early days is not designed for extremes. Help yourself, keep sailing, and pay me tomorrow, he says. When you finally get the sail, it’s an RAF, rotating asymmetrical foil, the best of the era. Gear evolves, rapidly. The harness vest is replaced with a seat like a diaper and then a strap for the waist. Boards progress from eight-footers to truncated round-nosed spoons to pointy flip tips. Epoxy hits the scene and everyone goes faster and higher. Colors mutate from fuchsia, chartreuse, and lime to teal, burnt orange and dusky rose. Masts are aluminum 15 footers; they morph to two pieces, then fiberglass, and then, years later, carbon, after which they transform again to skinny carbon. You become a team rider. A guy named Doug Campbell sails a place he thinks no one will ever sail because of the brambles he climbs over to get to the water. It eventually becomes a state park. A guy named Jeff Casper shows up with a funky helmet he invented and tries a back loop over and over until he lands one. Guys named Brian Carlstrom and Bruce Peterson start building boards and sails respectively. Carlstrom’s shop will still be in operation three decades later. So will Peterson’s. Windsurfers start doing front loops. And then double front loops. A guy named Tom Magruder shows up with the Wind Weapon—singlehandedly inventing a sport that will expire. A guy named Cory Roeseler shows up with a kite and water skis—nearly singlehandedly inventing a sport that will explode. You go windsurfing after work, at night, under a full moon. The stealth session is otherworldly.
202 State Street Downtown Hood River (541) 386-4464 2ndwind-sports.com
THE GORGE MAGAZINE : SUMMER 2017 57
Feat_Watersports.indd 57
5/25/17 4:44 PM