Inside Big Winds Downwind SUP Foiling

Light wind Downwind Foil session at the Hatchery

Sam’s Takeaways

The “Off” season in Columbia River Gorge, cold, gusty and sporadic winds make good sailing conditions, for us, far and few inbetween. But who cares about all that when you have a paddle? In a lot of ways you can be far less picky about conditions when you are downwind SUP foiling here in the Gorge. I use the Gorge for an example because well I live here and it’s a great example for the point I am trying to make! However the same point holds true for a lot of other places too. Okay, what is that point? SUP Foiling makes traditionally “bad” conditions tons of fun!

We have all experienced a day on the water when the conditions aren’t great. There are just a lot of variables that need to line up to have one of those great days out on the river! When you have a paddle in hand instead of a wing, kite or sail the quality of the wind almost doesn’t matter to you. It really allows you to have an amazing session in 3-20kts or 13-33kts. That velocity range is really a non factor. Now of course there are better and worse days out there with a paddle just like anything else but the spread is much smaller.

The session above really opened my eyes to this. It was 5-15kts out at the river but I was determined to get out for a session… just one of those days. I showed up to that Hatchery and waffled on whether or not to even go out on the water. I ended up deciding to go for it on the Takuma Kujira 1440 and an Amundson custom 6’6 x 19 x 99L and it was a gosh dang BLAST of a session. The wind was at points 0 and gusting to a max of 15kts. HOWEVER, the swell was enough to get up and have fun making endless turns without it being a leg burner. For the majority of it I was the only one on the water foiling and sure I may be biased on this fact but I think I was having the most fun.

None of this is to say SUP foiling is ALWAYS the most fun because there are plenty of other scenarios where you can’t downwind SUP foil or the wing/kite/sail better suit the conditions. But in the case of winter time in the Gorge it’s one of the best avenues to fun consistent sessions!