Oregon coast in july august. What size board?

leglisseur · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 12

experioenced sailor, 160 pounds,
biggest sail: 5.2
Currently uses 84 liter naish wave board.
Will this volume be enough on the coast?

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5330 Location: East Bay

Been to S Oregon coast around 5 times, all short stays of around a week.
Floras, Face, Pistol, Cape, Florence.
I''m 150 lbs., we all needed 4/3 suits, booties, and harness, and a 72 liter wave board was perfect, which I also use on the California coast.
If the winds are lower than 24 in the gusts, of course a bigger board is better.
Winds vary, but plan on clear days and winds closer to 18-27 than any other windspeed.
Nowadaze, a bigger multi finned board is recommended for your weight, since they are shorter and don't slog as well as older 8'4" wave boards.

jingebritsen · Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3371

i remember faking out the locals at lands end, lincoln city one time. used a 5.7 phantom and 95 liter exo-wave. i too am above average in size, so everything looked proportional.... 3-4 guys tried to make it out with, average gear for there, they all got denied.

today's boards and sails allow lots of slop to the upper sides of their application. do not be afraid to go big. you won't suffer much in performance.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20942

I made the mistake of trying to use Gorge-sized boards at the coast. They loved the gusts but sucked in the lulls, and the impact/DTL zone offers little BUT gusts and lulls at my most common central and north OR coast sites. The wind at several venues fades as we go DTL/downwind, making getting back upwind against the rip current a challenge even on bigger boards. My most successful days there were in hammering conditions, most memorably the day my 3.2 was overpowered almost all the time. Why? NO HOLES; just windsurfing. IMO, it takes more of not just experience, but a lot of DTL-explicit experience/expertise in holey winds, to go DTL on most OR coast venues.

To put this in scale ... At 180-190# plus everything from a 5/3 steamer and bare feet to a 5mm drysuit over a 3mm wetsuit + dry booties depending on the venue and year, I was trying to use my usual 65-70 liter boards on the windy days. Overall rider weight can thus vary significantly, so 160# and 84L --- big for the Gorge -- sounds much more suitable for the coast.

I also never met a Naish wave board I didn't love.

Mike \m/

HatterasFever · Joined: 21 Jun 2012 Posts: 128 Location: Cape Hatteras

yeah..i agree..85 liter was my board of choice for the oregon coast.. i spent 4 summers out there...be sure to check out cape sebastian my favorite spot on the OR coast.. photo is from cape sabastian... summer 1998!..that's me learning how to do an air off the lip.. have fun its a great place!

jingebritsen · Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3371

cam's make conditions look about 15 mph less than what they actually are. that's windy. great pic.

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5330 Location: East Bay

Old bud Chris Wyman, about 6' and 185 lbs., always used the same sized sail as me, but maybe a 85 liter wave board. He used less downhaul most days.
We met on several S Oregon trips, and spent over 30 days sailing around Wads and Davs. He was a pro windsurfer.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20942

Chris once asked me WTH I didn't turn left and go DTL on the OR coast. My post above answers that; the price (walking back upwind) was just too big.

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5330 Location: East Bay

Walking back.
We rode right's at Florence until too far down the beach, then rode left's back, mostly in the whitewater, but as much wave face as possible.
Wish we knew about Shove it's then, but we did ride backside off the lips, heel carving to a stall, then allowing the lip to toss the nose of the board back into the wave. Only had to walk maybe 200' once in over 20 hours sailing there, and that was because the winds died.
We rode Floras Lake in the waves, with Will's OK, and had no problems.