Kiteboarding - From Calgary to MacGregor Lake Alberta to Hood River USA

Saturday marked the start of a trip, or you might say Journey. The day started in Calgary by packing up kites, twintip kiteboards, kitesurf boards, bars, harnesses, wetsuits, clothing and food to make a trip to the Oregon coast through Hood River Oregon.

First, a session was had at Macgregor lake. This kite spot happened to be the only kiteable location in southern Alberta. Wind happened at Macgregor but not the typical spots like keho, old man dam, Dalemeade, or Newell Lake. It was a great day trying out the RRD Kitesurfing Religion kite (8m), the RRD Shield harness, and moses hydrofoil. It appeared as the secret wind spot as only two of us foiled on the water. It turned out to be a challenging day with gusty wind conditions going from 15-20 knots.

Following the session was the start of the adventure from Alberta, Canada to the Oregon USA coast. Sunday was spent in Hood River Oregon USA meeting Gord a kiteboarder from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Wind conditions looked dire in Hood river and on the coast. Luckily, a marginal forecast appeared in Fort Stevens Oregon...

On Monday I set out for Ft Stevens on a hope amd a prayer for kiteable wind. When stopped at a McDonald's for a southeest salad lunch, I logged onto the free wifi to see that the wind forecast for Florence looked decent in the late afternoon/evening. The couse was set; Florence Oregon.

I arrived in the evening, the wind was not strong but it felt sufficient. One dissenting wind sports enthusiast asked what sze kite I had and guffawed at my intentions with the weak wind conditions.

I set up the RRD Kiteboarding Passion Lightwind model 13.5m kite on the RRD Global V8 4-line bar and had the 12m Obsession ready to go if the wind felt stronger in the air. It turned out to be great. The light wind was no match for the 13.5m Passion. Even when catching waves and increasing my downwind board speed the Passion remained stable in the air allowing me to make some aggressive turns on the wave faces.

I came in to shore at around 8:30 or 9 pm having had a good session, by myself! The weak and sudden forecast must have caught many off guard. 

For American visitors to Shredkiteboarding.ca remember the Canadian dollar is weak these days which means about 25% off on all our kiteboaring gear and equipment.  That's off our everyday low sale prices!

https://shredkiteboarding.ca/collections/kites/products/rrd-passion-mk9-kite