Endless Winter – Our Usual Misguided Attempts at Windsports
So seeing as we are wizened sage wind-gurus at this point what do our instincts tell us when we are looking for a late November thanksgiving trip to get our wind fix? Why head to the Oregon/California coast of course! Our conversation went something like this: Pierce: Hey Zach, it’s windy on the pacific coast in the winter right? Zach: Yea totally! Its gotta be windy right, that’s how nature works? Well our usual research didn’t lead us to much kitesurfing in the pacific swell, but we did have an awesome thanksgiving road trip along with some surfing and mountain biking to boot!
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Baja Again – More Margs, More Fun, and One More Man
Quickly becoming a tradition, the 2manventure studs exploited Southwest’s checked bag policy and escaped down to the southern tip of the Baja peninsula for some Mexican wind (and most importantly the famous baja Marg) powered fun. That’s right, Baja Vela, 2015 edition! The trip turned out to be better than the first, and we had plenty of margarita fueled shenanigans to keep things lively. We even convinced manventurer #3 Mike Bonicce to join in and give kiteboarding a try, which as always provided us with endless beachside entertainment as he supermanned out of his board time and again while picking up the sport.
Fruita Bound
With the infamous words of Mark Twain (or someone equally eloquent and insightful) in mind: “The best chance you have of getting laid is if you crawl up a chicken’s ass and wait”, we took off for a dudes’ weekend out of town and into Colorado’s High country.
Teton Sunrise-
Zach here.
Being legitimate rocket scientists, my other adventure buddy Jed and I felt pretty damn foolish for mis-adding how daylight savings worked. “Spring Forward” tricked us good, and we ended up wandering around the Jackson backcountry a full 2 hours in the dark before the sun came up, definitely not on purpose. But on the bright side (har har har), we got to play around and take a lot of night photos.
Hood River Once Again: Watersports, Beer, and this time The Milky Way
As usual, we decided that there is no better place to be than Hood River in August. This time, with Pierce living in California Zach had to make the drive up to Oregon on his own. After an overworked week, Zach piled the 4runner full of kite-surfing toys, enough camping equipment for a winter hunting expedition, and an expensive mountain bike hung precariously from the back. A new rocket box strapped to the roof with a few bungee cords definitely helped the 4runner’s amazing gas mileage as Zach blasted off through the headwind corridor of Wyoming. Worth it though, for Chateau Dischner was never more spacious.
Tour De Colorado
Solo 1manventure from Zach here.
What to do when you have a three day weekend and can’t decide which world class mountain biking town to visit? Go to all of them! Last weekend I took a little road trip through Colorado’s high country. From Boulder to Fruita, then to Telluride, then off to Crested Butte. Got a killer tour of each, and got to test out a new GoPro I picked up on my way out of town too.
Silverton Mountain. Nuff Said
Literally translated from its Mayan origins, “Silverton Mountain” means “Oh Fuck Yes” in modern language. It is a backcountry only, experts only, epic views and epicer lines only, ski resort. Okay, resort might be a bit of a stretch. More like “Mountain with a single lift, a school bus, and a couple of porta potties”. This was Pierce’s last 2manventure while living in CO, so we thought we’d make it count and spend a weekend catching the best skiing CO has to offer.
Jackson Hole: Epic Skiing, Epic Mountains, Epic Thai Food?
1manventure from Zach here. For a while, I’ve been convinced Jackson Hole might be one of the coolest places around. Its an epicly gorgeous area, and the Tetons are unlike anything I’ve seen statewide. And their skiing is known the world over. Mind blowing. Also mind blowing is one of the local Thai place/brewery, Thai Me Up. Skeptical. Good. Don’t go there. Don’t believe me. Absolutely don’t get there. Less wait for the rest of us.
Hood River Bound
Solo Zach post here. Pierce and I are at ends on most topics. I kiteboard, he windsurfs. I ride a Yeti, he’s on a Specialized. My 4Runner is a 2001, his is a 1999. Â Clearly, we’re toeing the line of incompatibility. But his shortcomings aside, there is one thing we both agree on. Hood River, OR is just about the greatest place on earth. Haven’t been everywhere by any means, but so far Hood River in August is simply the most astoundingly beautiful and fun place ever. Last year, Pierce was lucky enough to snag an internship out there. Whereas I had the luxury of spending a few weeks driving across the entire western half of the US in Chateau Dischner. My trusty rusty 4runner. See a pitstop in San Fran and a failed photo op in Oregon.
Baja: Lots of Wind and Margs, but no Funny Stuff
So for years now we’ve found ourselves driving/flying across the country in search of some two simple things: wind and water. But 3/4 of the time we get skunked. Like inexplicably, unbelievably, against-all-forcasts-ly skunked. But we figured as new college grads with shiny new Masters degrees in Aerospace engineering, maybe our luck would change in Mexico.
And it did! 2 weeks after the caps flew, and less than 24 hours after the Alpine Hut Trip Adventure, we got on a plane for a jaunt south of the border to the Vela windsurfing/kiteboarding resort on the lower tip of the Baja Peninsula in Los Barriles. We hoped for at least 7 of the 13 days there to be windy. That would be okay. But we ended up with 12 days straight of wind! Light days had Zach on a big 14 meter kite, but we still got out kiting! Better yet were the shrimp tacos fresh of the grill, copious games of baja croquet, and plenty of Big Lebowski references to keep things lively (Thanks Jerry and Janice!).
2manventure 