Cold Water Thrashing

I went to the Oregon coast to SUP surf today. It wasn’t what I expected–at all.

Usually the Oregon surf is like a washing machine–short periods between waves that sometimes make it a struggle to get out. Today there was a decent swell–the weather report said five feet, but it looked like two to me. But the waves were reasonably well spaced and there were a few decent sets.

I heard there’s a fair number of SUP surfers at Pacific City, so instead of heading straight for Manzanita I went to Tillamook. I should have looked at a map–I recollected that Pacific City was between Tillamook and Rockaway beach–wrong, its quite a way south of Tillamook. So I wound up in Manzanita anyway. There’s usually a sandbar right in line with the main street of Manzanita: Laneda Ave. So I parked there, put on my suit and jumped in. Paddling out was really tough. I assumed I’d just paddle right out, but I guess four months in nothing more challenging than flatwater and boat wakes is long enough to lose your sea legs. I finally got out past the breaking waves and paddled around for awhile. I was the only surfer of any kind at Manzanita. I paddled down to the Neakahnie break expecting to find some locals, but there’s wasn’t anyone playing. Perhaps they knew something I didn’t. It was about 65 degrees and sunny, the water temperature was pretty mild. I caught a few waves but I don’t know the terrain at that end, and I know there’s some nasty rocks, so I bailed out almost as soon as I could.

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I paddled back to Laneda, and hung around trying to catch my breath. With the tight neck ring, the constant work to stay on the board, the extra twenty pounds and the long paddle I was huffing and puffing. I caught a good sized wave to ride in, but when I did the bottom turn my foot slipped off the edge of the rail and did a very clumsy dismount that culminated with the tail of the board smashing me in the goolies. Felt like someone shot me. I laid in the water with the leash tugging at me like a playful and irritating dog. Fortunately I hung onto the paddle while I was swanning about.

I got back on the board and paddled in, sat on the beach and contemplated nature for awhile. A long parade people came by, asking me what I was doing and how the heck it was possible to stand on that “little board”. None of them had seen standup. Wait until next summer.

I went out again for about an hour, caught a few nice rides, then got back to the bach, huffing and puffing again. Not good. Felt like a complete newb. Some of the waves even intimidated me–chest high stuff that would have been just a nice size last spring. I need to get used to the suit. It makes a difference, it constrains your movement more than a wetsuit, but I would have been miserable without it.

I went to check on my beachhouse, it doesn’t get much use these days. I used to be there all the time, especially when I windsurfed in Oregon and didn’t have a place in Hawaii. Manzanita is a great windsurfing beach. Kicked back, had a beer, double cheched that the water is turned off and the pipes drained. I spent a miserable three days fixing broken pipes after a hard freeze here about 20 years ago.

On the way back to Portland I stopped at Arcadia Beach. Quite a few cars with surf racks in the parking lot and about twenty people in the water. I saw a few surfers parked at short sands too. The tide was just turning on low tide. The waves looked okay, but not great. I was tempted, but not tempted enough, so I hit the road for Portland. I plan to go stay for a few days next week. Surf a lot, ride bikes, maybe catch a salmon or two. Dig some clams, catch a bunch of dungeness crab.

Here’s Short Sands. If you scroll north the next beach that highway 101 comes close to is Arcadia

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Here’s some shots of Arcadia. I shot these with my iPhone. Not bad quality, though the Nokia N95 I had previously was a ten times better camera. Click on the pictures to see them larger and page through as a slide show.