A new filming technique on the McKenzie River. Beachballs rock!!! (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Being finals week here at the University of Oregon and at Lane Community College, Todd and I have been super busy studying for our exams. On Tuesday, we both had 1 left, on Friday, and decided to take the afternoon off to paddle... and the next afternoon..and the next.
This past weekend, Oregon and Washington were hit with two HUGE storms! It rained for three days straight, heavily, creeks went up 8,000 cfs overnight, ocean swells hit 45 ft, and winds hit 143 mph in places. Hundreds of people lost power, and the oldest Spruce tree in the world was BLOWN OVER!! That's right.. a spruce tree. BLOWN over. It was just a little stormy....
Tuesday:
After waking up to the gauges leveling off and go down a little bit, we decided we had to go paddle yet again. I took my Chemistry final in the morning, while Glenn, Capo and Todd took a few of theirs, and around 1:00, we all headed out to the McKenzie River to surf some big waves at a spot known as Clover.
Once again, the river was pretty darn high, but being the day after the gnarly part of the storm, most of the wood had been cleared out and already gone downstream. I think we were right...only one or two good sized chunks of wood came down over the course of our three hour sesh. YA!
Todd mid-kickflip (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
At high water, Clover is a set of three waves of which the first is a semi chaotic but super fun and bouncy steep wave with a nice pile on it. It's fairly sticky so you can throw some big tricks and still stick. The second wave of the set is in sometimes, but wasn't on Tuesday, and the third wave is a super smooth, steep wave with a good sized pile on it. Think mini-Skookemchuck and you got it!
From 2-5 we surfed and had an epic day after a by chance meeting with some old friends on the river! Props to my friend Aaron Goodwin for ripping it up with a torn rotator cuff in his right arm and a dislocated/seperated shoulder in his left!!! You rock!
Kim throwin an air blunt (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Todd doin' his thing (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Capo givin' er with an air screw (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Todd and Kim surfing... (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Blunting the Project 45, Sweet! (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Glen surfing the lower wave (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Todd getting up some speed (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Todd and Glen double surfing (Photo by: EJ Etherington)
Stay posted as we'll be posting an update from Hood River early next week! Hope you're having a good one!
Kim Russell
Team WaveSport
