[I found myself catching up on my blog this morning, thought I would share. I am pasting part here, you can read the whole blog here.]
So what about the artery clogging? When you wakeboard, you are always searching for that great butter run. Butter is what you call the water when it is completely smooth, and your board edges through it like a warm knife through “butter”. Fortunately, Lake Oroville is a relatively not so busy lake, so finding butter is not too difficult. We usually go during weekday afternoons, we start anywhere from 2pm to 4pm. If we get there early, we swim or surf for a bit, the butter usually starts around 5:30pm when the wind dies and people start getting off the lake. Many people on Lake Oroville come from at least 1-2 hours distance, so want to get off and go home. We live right up the road, so we stay until it gets dark. Sometimes we don’t get home til close to 11pm. So we have butter from just before 6pm til dark. Its great. Well, my kids have gotten to be such die hards, they don’t want to stay away from the lake on Saturday. So I have been taking them out on friday night to one of our favorite hidden coves with a waterfall where we anchor and sleep. I set my alarm for 5:30am and we wake up on the water and hit it. MORE BUTTER. Since people come from a ways to oroville, we can board til 10am before we see other wake or ski boats. On July 4th, we saw a boat at 9am, so only one hour less on the busiest day on Lake Oroville. Pretty cool.
Now, with all these butter runs, the kids and I have started to classify the butter. Its gotten kinda funny, how we use these terms like second nature now. I figure, we are going to sound like tards unless I share our classification of smooth water, and more people use the same terms. Well, I doubt it will catch on, but I will share anyway for posterity. So here are our terms we use to describe the water conditions from best to worst.
1. Lando
Better than just “butter”. This is when the water is so smooth, that you can see your clear reflection in the water, and the reflection of the mountains and clouds. No Wind, no ripples, just glass. This is pretty rare, and amazing. It actually freaks you out sometimes when you are in the flats because you see things in the water and it spooks you. The term “Lando” comes from “Land O Lakes” butter. You know, the good stuff. Not the cheap generic butter.
2. Butter
Where it all started. Butter is SMOOTH water, but with some surface ripples due to a light breeze. It feels about the same as lando, but without the reflections.
3. Crock
Crock is ripples in the water you can feel. This is still great water, and excellent to ride on. The water is just ripply from a stronger breeze. No boat chop. This comes from “Country Crock” margarine. Tastes pretty good, but not butter.
4. Fabio
Fabio is what happens to the water when it is either windy, or the butter or crock gets a couple of extra boats. Surface chop with some crock or butter in between. Still ok to board on, but you usually have to wait out a wake or 2, find the crock or butter, do some tricks, then wait some more. This comes from the name of the spokesman for the product “I can’t believe its not butter”, Fabio. I have no idea what his last name is. But those commercials are so stupid, they stuck with me.
5. Toast
More boats on the water. Put away the wakeboards and get out the surfboards or tubes. Can’t wakeboard on this without total frustration. We surf on this stuff all the time. Its like eating dry toast. No butter, get it?
6. South
Get off the lake or go find a protected cove to swim in. The water has whitecaps and has gone completely south. This is what the water like most of the time when we lived in SoCal and ever tried to go out on Castaic or Pyramid on a weekend. Crazy stuff. Or Mead or Mojave in the large bodies when the wind kicks. The lake has gone SOUTH, get off. We rarely get this on Lake Oroville.
Anyway, those are our terms. Have any of your own?
So what about the artery clogging? When you wakeboard, you are always searching for that great butter run. Butter is what you call the water when it is completely smooth, and your board edges through it like a warm knife through “butter”. Fortunately, Lake Oroville is a relatively not so busy lake, so finding butter is not too difficult. We usually go during weekday afternoons, we start anywhere from 2pm to 4pm. If we get there early, we swim or surf for a bit, the butter usually starts around 5:30pm when the wind dies and people start getting off the lake. Many people on Lake Oroville come from at least 1-2 hours distance, so want to get off and go home. We live right up the road, so we stay until it gets dark. Sometimes we don’t get home til close to 11pm. So we have butter from just before 6pm til dark. Its great. Well, my kids have gotten to be such die hards, they don’t want to stay away from the lake on Saturday. So I have been taking them out on friday night to one of our favorite hidden coves with a waterfall where we anchor and sleep. I set my alarm for 5:30am and we wake up on the water and hit it. MORE BUTTER. Since people come from a ways to oroville, we can board til 10am before we see other wake or ski boats. On July 4th, we saw a boat at 9am, so only one hour less on the busiest day on Lake Oroville. Pretty cool.
Now, with all these butter runs, the kids and I have started to classify the butter. Its gotten kinda funny, how we use these terms like second nature now. I figure, we are going to sound like tards unless I share our classification of smooth water, and more people use the same terms. Well, I doubt it will catch on, but I will share anyway for posterity. So here are our terms we use to describe the water conditions from best to worst.
1. Lando
Better than just “butter”. This is when the water is so smooth, that you can see your clear reflection in the water, and the reflection of the mountains and clouds. No Wind, no ripples, just glass. This is pretty rare, and amazing. It actually freaks you out sometimes when you are in the flats because you see things in the water and it spooks you. The term “Lando” comes from “Land O Lakes” butter. You know, the good stuff. Not the cheap generic butter.
2. Butter
Where it all started. Butter is SMOOTH water, but with some surface ripples due to a light breeze. It feels about the same as lando, but without the reflections.
3. Crock
Crock is ripples in the water you can feel. This is still great water, and excellent to ride on. The water is just ripply from a stronger breeze. No boat chop. This comes from “Country Crock” margarine. Tastes pretty good, but not butter.
4. Fabio
Fabio is what happens to the water when it is either windy, or the butter or crock gets a couple of extra boats. Surface chop with some crock or butter in between. Still ok to board on, but you usually have to wait out a wake or 2, find the crock or butter, do some tricks, then wait some more. This comes from the name of the spokesman for the product “I can’t believe its not butter”, Fabio. I have no idea what his last name is. But those commercials are so stupid, they stuck with me.
5. Toast
More boats on the water. Put away the wakeboards and get out the surfboards or tubes. Can’t wakeboard on this without total frustration. We surf on this stuff all the time. Its like eating dry toast. No butter, get it?
6. South
Get off the lake or go find a protected cove to swim in. The water has whitecaps and has gone completely south. This is what the water like most of the time when we lived in SoCal and ever tried to go out on Castaic or Pyramid on a weekend. Crazy stuff. Or Mead or Mojave in the large bodies when the wind kicks. The lake has gone SOUTH, get off. We rarely get this on Lake Oroville.
Anyway, those are our terms. Have any of your own?
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