Sept. 13th Elk Lake Wind Surfing Race Course is a Fun SUP Paddle

Jerry Lear is running this weekend's Windsurfing race at Elk Lake (about 40 minutes from Bend, Oregon) and sent the following info. If your stand up paddle board had a past life as a windsurf course board, here's your chance to get out your old rig and take a spin. Entering the race is free. If you don't have a windsurf rig in your life, you may want to try paddling the race course before or after the race. I paddled parts of the course during the last windsurfing race and it was fun. The light, shifty winds that Elk Lake is famous for gave me an extra workout. Here's Jerry's note:

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Hi there windsurfers,

The last windsurfing race of the season will be this coming Sunday,
September 13th at Elk Lake. The changeable weather patterns this time of year will be a true test of who the real windsurfers are.

Randall will be away and has asked me to run the race.

We will meet at Beach campground as we have been. There will be a very
short skippers meeting at 1:30 with the first race, wind permitting,
beginning at 2 PM sharp.

(The race is FREE -- no entry fees, no prizes, no organization, just a few of us
getting together to race.)

In case you are late or just want to think about it here is the skipper's
meeting. Begin at 2 PM sharp and run 3 races. Depending on the wind
direction we will sail upwind to either the elkwnd or elkwnd2 mark (see
attachment), then leave the elkrch mark to port and finish in the usual way
below the 2 buoys at the start.

Someone has taken our starboard start mark which was too close to shore
anyway but there is still a second mark which we can use for the finish but
not for the start.

For the start there will be a 3 minute countdown and then we will start to
leeward of the start mark which is farthest from shore. We will use an
imaginary start line going at right angles to the wind from that start. We
will also pick an object on shore to be the pin end of the line but will ask
that everyone begin within 10-12 board lengths of the start and no port
starts please.

If you think you might be coming I would love it if you could respond to
this note, but you don't have to do this.

See you Sunday, Jerry
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www.StandUpPaddle Flatwater.com
Buy your SUP and windsurf crossover boards, gear and accessories from us. We appreciate your support.

Windsurfing on Elk Lake

Jerry Lear is one of the pioneer windsurfers in Central Oregon. He raced long boards for decades and was often king-of-the-lake. He sails regularly as soon as the high Cascade lakes open up for the season.

Elk Lake, is about a 35-40 minute drive from Bend, Oregon and though the Elk Lake Lodge is open year round, the lake and road are usually open from Memorial Day weekend til the first snows in the Fall. Typically the lake is flat in the morning and the winds kick in during the middle of the afternoon. Most windsurfing happens after 1 p.m. If you paddle and/or windsurf this lake, be sure to tuck some ice cream money in your board shorts and stop by the Elk Lake Lodge on the West side of the Lake (opposite Sunset Beach). The bouys are set up as a race course. It's fun to windsurf big boards or paddle.

Despite the snow patches that hang on the shore, Jerry is on the water. Here's his report from yesterday.
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I sailed at Elk Lake today. There are 6 buoys that I could locate as follows: 2 in Sunset Cove (one is the rock buoy). A buoy at about the usual location of the rock buoy. The upwind buoy which has moved a bit North and 2 buoys at the south end of the lake. I rigged in a thunder storm and sailed when it was over. I stayed out a bit too long and had to stay on the lake during much of the next T storm which was very dramatic with hail, rain and very close lightening. I could definitely smell the ozone in the air. Before I got off the lake I remembered the Bulletin article last week saying that any one individual has about 1/3000 chance of being hit by lightening during their lives. I thought that my chance while sailing in this storm might be a bit higherJ. Here is a question for the experts. What is the risk of a bad result from a lightning strike for a sailor with carbon fiber boom, mast and board but wearing rubber booties and gloves? Jerry
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www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com
Thank you for buying your SUP and windsurf crossover gear from us, we appreciate your support.

SUP Windsurf Crossover Boards

Here's the deal about SUP Windsurf Crossover boards. Stand up and windsurfing are two entirely different sports. Windsurfing is very technical, and compared to SUP paddle boarding, very difficult to learn. You can learn to stand up paddle board in about 20 minutes. Becoming comfortable on a windsurf board may take an entire summer. To become an accomplished all around windsurfer can take years.

Many stand up paddle boards are designed to be windsurfed. You'll know that they are windsurfer SUP crossovers because you'll see a mast track on the center of the deck. It'll look like a 10"-12" slit.
Experienced windsurfers that want to SUP on both flat water and surf along with windsurfing their SUP board will find that Amundson Aquaglide paddle board is perfect for certain conditions:

• Small wave SUP surfing (head-high and below)
• When the winds are too strong for SUP.
• When the winds get really high you need to be on a short board. The window that these WIndsurf SUP crossover boards work is between approximately 8 to 18 mph.
• The SUP windsurf crossover boards on a lake are good for close reaches, beam reaches and broad reaches.
• Amundson Aquaglide SUP boards are great in surf.

When you purchase a stand up paddle board from Randall he will guide you to the gear that suits your needs.
PHOTO: Randall rippin' it up on the Pacifico Mistral on Lake Yellowstone, in Mary's Bay.

www.StandupPaddleFlatwater.com

SUPs and PFDs

This is a follow-up to my post August 12,'08 "Hassled About PFD?"

The US Coast Guard recently made a determination:

"Based on the information available, the Coast Guard has determined that, when beyond the narrow limits of a swimming, surfing or bathing area, the device known as a "paddleboard" is a vessel under 46 U.S.C. 2101, and therefore subject to applicable regulations administered by the U.S. Coast Guard and its Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety, unless specificallly exempted."

In essence, if the paddleboard is being used for transport on lakes, bays, or rivers, a PFD is required.

I guess we're responsible for national policy on this. I doubt that
anyone making this decision has ever been on a paddleboard (maybe never
even seen one) and certainly didn't get any input from the paddling
community. If so, the paddlers could easily explain that the PFD
requirement will not increase the safety of the sport in most cases.
Granted, a paddler could get struck by lightning or hit-and-run by a
boat and knocked unconscious. But then, the PFD would only save them if
they were wearing it and the rule says it just needs to be on-board.
Paddleboards are unsinkable. A more common sense safety rule is to wear
a tether-leash attaching you to your board and this is widely practiced
without the need of regulation.

Paddleboarding is a healthy, low-impact and environmentally friendly new
sport. The enthusiasts do it because they are so un-encumbered by
standing on top of a board instead of sitting within a boat. The feeling
of freedom and experience of the outing is incomparable. Some paddlers
choose to wear PFD,s and my point is that it should be a choice. The
expectation is that it will not be required to have a PFD because
everybody knows a board is not a boat.

The reactions from the few people that were already warned by marine patrols were brought to my attention immediately, disbelieving, distasteful, even calling it harassment.

I'm requesting that the Board consider rule making and adopt rule
language to exempt "paddle boards" from the PFD requirement. I will be
glad to testify and could provide many others to testify if it would help.

Randall Barna

www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com Thank you for purchasing your SUP gear from us. We appreciate your support.
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Boards on Board

I just returned from a road trip to gather standup paddle boards and windsurfers for the standuppaddlebend.com stock.

This is what an almost full trailer looks like. The one empty slot was a backorder (darn). It would of been a nice trip except for the blizzard and treacherous driving with the studs off and towing the trailer.

Why do I do this? Other than being crazy, I love boards, the sport and getting people out to enjoy themselves!