The Big Winds Weblog

Boards Tested: Aquaglide Amundson 11’3″, Naish 10’6″, Naish 11’6″ Paddles Used: Naish Stand Up, Werner Spanker Dates: Spring 2008 Location: Central Columbia River Gorge Conditions: Flatwater paddling Rider: Daryl Gender: Female Height: 5’2″ Weight: 120 lbs Skill Level: Expert windsurfer, intermediate paddler Rider: Andy Gender: Male Weight: 85 lbs Age: 12 Skill Level: Intermediate windsurfer [...]

A big thanks to spamark for risking life and limb, or at least his own personal warmth and the dryness of his camera, in shooting this nice video while balancing on a board over the frigid water of the Columbia. There are also a bunch of photos of the event that people have posted to [...]

Tons of people braved warm weather and blazing sunshine to join us last Saturday for our Naish Stand Up Paddling Demo, and we want to extend a hearty thank you to everyone who showed up! We also want to shout out a huge thanks to the guys at Naish for putting together this fun-filled afternoon, [...]

We here at Big Winds recently launched a new section of our website dedicated to stand up paddling. There’s certainly a ton of cross-pollination between stand up paddling and windsurfing, and a number of the boards we carry have mast tracks so you can use them for either sport. That said, stand up has its [...]

We have rescheduled our Naish stand up demos for Saturday April 26th. We had originally planned on April 19th, but the weather is forecasted to be quite chilly this weekend. Tell all your friends, and here’s hoping for warmer weekends in the near future! Visit this event at Upcoming »

Board Tested: 2008 Aquaglide Amundson 11’3″ Stand Up Paddle Used: 80″ Werner Spanker Dates: Winter/Spring 2008 Location: Baja California Sur, Sea of Cortez Conditions: Surf, small wind chop, and lightwind windsurfing Rider: David Gender: Male Height: 6’0″ Weight: 170 lbs Skill Level: Expert stand up paddler, expert windsurfer, expert kiteboarder In small on-shore wind chop, [...]

Join us on Saturday April 26th, 2008 to try out the entire stand up paddling lineup from Naish. Naish and Big Winds will be running free demos all afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00, sending people out on the Mighty Columbia River to try out some of this awesome gear. The river is frigid this time [...]

Board Tested: 2008 Mistral Pacifico Wave 11’1″ Paddle Used: Werner Spanker Date: April 2, 2008 Location: The Event Site – Hood River, Oregon Conditions: Flatwater paddling, 0-5 mph Rider: Dane Gender: Male Height: 5’5″” Weight: 135 lbs Skill Level: Beginner paddler, Advanced kiteboarder Along with the Naish SUP 11’6″ that I reviewed, yesterday I also [...]

Board Tested: 2008 Naish Stand Up 11’6″ EVA Paddle Used: Werner Spanker Date: April 2, 2008 Location: The Event Site – Hood River, Oregon Conditions: Flatwater paddling, 0-5 mph Rider: Dane Gender: Male Height: 5’5″” Weight: 135 lbs Skill Level: Beginner paddler, Advanced kiteboarder Yesterday evening I had a chance to get out on the [...]

One of the advantages of being located in Hood River is that many of the windsport distributors for all of North America are located right here on our doorstep. Thanks to this incredible proximity we now have the 2008 Mistral Pacifico Wave in our hands, before anyone else has even had a chance to see [...]

David Ambrose, our very own stand up paddling expert, just returned to Hood River after spending a long winter down in Baja. His feet have barely touched the ground, but he’s already put together this awesome video of him catching some small waves on the Sea of Cortez. The music is choros, performed by Peter [...]

We could go in all sorts of directions with this one, but we’ll try to keep it clean. Our latest shipment of stand up paddle boards arrived recently, and we’re all busy unpacking these glossy beauties. We now have no less than six different boards that will be happy to serve your every stand up [...]

David has spent some more time on the Mistral Pacifico since his first review, and he has some more thoughts on this board. David has now had this board out in a wide range of conditions, both stand up surfing and windsurfing, and it sounds like he’s still a huge fan! His words follow: Since [...]

David is our in-house expert on stand up paddling, and the other day he took a ride on the Pacifico, Mistral’s crossover stand up paddleboard and windsurf board. Here are his thoughts on the board: Board Tested: 2007 Mistral Pacifico Date: May 7, 2007 Location: The Event Site – Hood River, Oregon Conditions: Light wind [...]

Everyone is abuzz about the new stand up paddleboard phenomenon, and we have a number of people here at Big Winds who are completely stoked on the sport. Here in Hood River, it’s a great way to get out on the water when the wind isn’t cooperating, and even in light wind these boards can [...]