First Post from Guest Poster

Hello!  I'll be posting stuff with my Dad so that Dad can keep up with what we are doing.  We went SUPing last Tuesday at American Lake, Washington.  There were a whole bunch of the helicopters.

SUPing Without Daddy-O

La and the kiddoroosters made a successful SUP outing without me.  I am happy they did it successfully and had a great time.  But I am sad because I wasn't there, and they didn't need me (just kidding on this second point - now they can load up ;) )

Take a close look at the professional job in strapping down the boards!!! I taught La that ;)

Paddling Maze

Besides fishing Mason Springs, we made the drive out to paddle the Mattawoman Creek. We launched from Salvens Boat Ramp and went with the current and wind. Along the drift, we found a cut through - or at least we thought it was a cut through. We really wanted to be on the other side from where we were - but there were a tons of glitter boats (bass boats - they are all so sparkly) blocking access to that part of the water way. If this cut out worked, we would have been back up current and up wind of the launching point. Well - we got a big dead end. Fun nonetheless! On the way back, the kids got tired and a tow from La (Hooyah PT) I don't think I could get four paddleboards, lifejackets, rinsing water and fishing poles packed smartly on any of the other vehicles I was looking at a couple of years back. I'm glad I got the Surf Taco!

First Downwinder on island

After running errands, cooking and even stopping into work for a bit, I packed up my windsurfing harness and biked to the Marina. I bumped into George (Gesner), Jasper, Bob (Merton) and a few of the regulars. I talked about the kiting conditions yesterday, how strong the wind was early this morning (too strong for kiting - my opinion; by this time it had backed off a hair) and was going to rent a board and sail to practice windsurfing (another race in two weeks).

That's when George asked if I had done downwinders on SUPs before. Of course I said 'yes' and then he asked if I wanted to go today. Of course I said 'yes!' He let me use his Starboard Blend (and it was as comfortable as mine back home).

We launched from the base of the POL Pier and started paddling out towards the wind line. This is actually near the place I saw those two Tigers - but that's old news.

The wind was strong enough to keep us around 4.5 mph average. We paddled exactly 3.0 miles. I got a peak speed of 9.3 mph on an early runner. From that point forward, the swells were too close together and a hair small to be able to ride for long. I did get a few more runners, but not many.

Checkout the color of the water and the clouds in the sky - pretty awesome!!!

From discussing SUPing on island with George, this sounds like it was one of the first (if not THE first) downwinder.