Austin Kalama just returned from a memorable Naish crew trip to Hood River, and in this feature, he gives us the lowdown! Bigger waves, longer hang time - he pushed his limits and had a blast! When the water was calm, he enjoyed fishing and joined the awesome community for downwind runs. He even showed off with a new wing and nailed a killer shoot the next day! Undoubtedly, Austin can't wait to return to Hood River and relive the excitement all over again! Read all about his trip right here.

I started going to Hood River in the summer of 2018 to compete in the Gorge Paddle Challenge and experience the different conditions that the Gorge has to offer. I competed and got 3rd. I fell in love with the place and have visited every summer since. When I first started going, winging wasn’t even a sport yet. The summer of 2019 was the first year I started seeing winging products on the market at AWSI. I tested out the first wings they had to show off and picked it up pretty quickly. I knew this sport would have a big role in my life.

Seeing the evolution of the sport has been awesome; fast forward to 2023, and the wing scene is bigger than ever; it’s becoming one of the most popular water sports in the Gorge.

This year was my second trip as a part of the Naish team, and with their support, I could stay longer to focus on my training and riding. I got to Hood River in mid-July when the strong winds and warm weather started to kick back in. I came here to get two new moves in the bag. I was working on my 720s and getting bigger, loftier frontflips. Maui is an amazing place for wave riding and downwinding, but it doesn’t compare to Hood River for freestyle riding, with a more dense scene and some of the top riders in the world being based there. The kickers are just so much bigger, and you get so much more hang time that you can learn bigger moves more easily. And you’re in a river and don’t have much to worry about besides the barges, which is pretty nice. 

There were a few windless days on the river that initially felt lazy. Usually, I just hang out at the marina doing dock starts, flatwater starts, or just floating around on the river. Until a friend told me about fishing in the river. I have no idea why I didn’t think about that sooner. There’s insane small-mouth fishing, salmon fishing, and a huge sturgeon! So that took up most of my windless days or in-between sessions at the hatchery. I’d wing for a few hours, come in, eat a snack, catch a few smallmouth bass and then hop back out. The very long summer days are making all this possible. It is quite different from Maui, where our days are almost the same length all year round.

My first few weeks were all winging, but after a while, all the impacts of trying 720s and frontflips started to add up. The best thing about the hatchery is that you can do anything there. Show up, and there’s something you can do. On days my body felt tired from winging, I could do step-offs from the wall at the hatchery or meet the crew of downwinders constantly running up and down the river chasing bumps. They have one of the best downwind communities I’ve ever seen. Everyone is friendly and inviting and wants to get out on the water. Seeing how many foil setups you can fit into one Sprinter van is fun. I once went on a run with eight people and full downwind setups in a sprinter van, and it was like a twister trying to get it in there, sitting on the ground and getting poked on the side by a tail wing. But it's worth it when you get into the bumps. Amazingly, the downwind scene that already existed in downwind SUP paddling fully transferred to downwind foiling. Having my Naish Hover DW in my travel quiver certainly paid off. Between Maui and the Gorge, I can not imagine many places in the world that are as perfect to do this.

One day, the wind was gusting up to 80mph, and that had to have been the best downwind day of my life! The bumps were so big I was down winding on Naish Mach1 foils, which I usually use for freestyle foiling, so I wouldn’t over foil. That was the fastest I’ve ever gone downwinding. My Strava app clocked me at 30 mph, going down one bump with swells close to 10 feet tall stretching halfway across the river. It looked like ground swells from the ocean. I ended up downwinding 48 miles that day with a few different crews going from Cherry Hill down the 3 miles. I’ve never had that much fun downwinding in my life!

The next day was our ADX N-vision shoot, and I was pretty nervous because of how windy it still was. All I had to ride was a 4-meter, but as soon as I hopped in the water, I felt locked in! The new ADX N-vision felt stiffer and more responsive and made it easier to control in strong winds. After a few lofty jumps, I went for a few flips that felt good. I landed a big front flip and went for some spins that felt good. That was, for sure, some of the strongest winds I’ve ever been winging in, and it was pretty intense. 

This year's trip to Hood River was, for sure, my best trip yet! Between all the amazing people I met and the unforgettable memories I made. Like the mayor of the hatch, Chris Anderson, showing up with a fresh watermelon and an electric attitude every day that gets you so stoked to ride and get in the water, or Trey and Walker Henderson, the two most frothed downwinders who were always so stoked to squeeze you in the van and go for one more run! Or spend the evening on the sand hook watching the sunset with a line in the water for sturgeon. Those memories in the gorge made me fall in love with the place and why I’ll return for as long as possible!

 

By Austin.Kalama

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