Believe it or not, I can still get on oroville. There is one ramp on the entire lake, one lane. Steel grate on the mud. It aint pretty, but it works. It makes during the week runs not really worth it. I have to drive 35 minutes to ramp, and launching takes a good 30 minutes plus with only 2 or 3 people in front of you, and the TRUCK gets FILTHY.
We got up at 7am and were on the lake at 9am. The lake is about 1/4 the usable size, due to forks having 5mph and noskis in them, but its still a huge lake. And only die hards are on it, so it still is like a maybe a friday afternoon. No where near weekend traffic, but busier than midweek. We planned to stay out all day, so as to be equivalent of 2 midweek visits for us, and plan to do this until we can't launch anymore.
So you remember I bought an epoxy MINI long board (8' long) from ISLE surfboards? Here it is if you don't:
I bought this for fat boy (me) to be able to get up, and so my wife could get up easy and cruise, she just wants to ride, and all of our other boards are a bit squirly. But I want to take this thing out all the time, so had to work out how. So I found the DBOT 5 extensions to my surfrack, which I posted, and it works great. We put the board up on the ramp, it works GREAT, and it is out of the way. It was windy in the morning, with a lot of chop in certain places, and it did just fine. I did have to adjust a couple of times when we were running to other parts of the lake, doing 35 mph in chop. But if you put it upside down, it holds it in the rack, and it didn't rattle in there much at all, with the good dbot straps. I am not sure how a normal longboard would do. This epoxy board I but just for this purpose. I think a big fiberglass board would be much heavier, and not as strong. The epoxy board is very light considering, and strong.
Only problem was that I wasn't thinking in my warehouse and put this rack on drivers side, and it hindered getting in and out of the boat at the dock. Not a problem, I will move to other side before we go out next, but here is a couple of pics so you can see how it works/looks. Just imagine it on the other side.
You can see that it doesn't obstruct any view out of the boat, and if I have on other side, it won't obstruct entry/exit of the boat because we ALWAYS dock on right.
Here is another image from the front.
Cool Huh? Oh, and that samson tower doesn't even care about all that crap on it, that thing is a rock, best thing I have every put on my boat.
Yeah, it floats me.
Amazingly enough, this thing floats me, but I went first and had RJ going the wrong speed. Once I let everyone else try, I got the speed and all just right. So I am not going to post pics of me yet for 2 reasons.
1. I want to free ride first.
2. When I was done, I asked whit if she got any pics, she said "You wanted me to take pictures?" Stupid kid. ;-)
But don't worry, I will. Still sore from pulling my large mass.
Ok, so I bought this thing just for me, and also thought my wife would like it. But the WHOLE family loves it, and it was a ton of fun, and great addition to the boat. When we floated, everyone was taking turns paddling on it, and even paddling with a small one like Jesse on the front of it. And then T-Bone and maddie both on it, on there knees paddling around. Much fun.
So here are some pics of whit and rj riding it, You can tell by whits face how much fun she was having.
This has got to be one of my fav pictures of whitney period. She is such a sweet bubbly kid, and is always smiling, and this just captures it for me.
And then there is RJ being a dork, like only he can. He just turned 13 on monday:
We got up at 7am and were on the lake at 9am. The lake is about 1/4 the usable size, due to forks having 5mph and noskis in them, but its still a huge lake. And only die hards are on it, so it still is like a maybe a friday afternoon. No where near weekend traffic, but busier than midweek. We planned to stay out all day, so as to be equivalent of 2 midweek visits for us, and plan to do this until we can't launch anymore.
So you remember I bought an epoxy MINI long board (8' long) from ISLE surfboards? Here it is if you don't:
I bought this for fat boy (me) to be able to get up, and so my wife could get up easy and cruise, she just wants to ride, and all of our other boards are a bit squirly. But I want to take this thing out all the time, so had to work out how. So I found the DBOT 5 extensions to my surfrack, which I posted, and it works great. We put the board up on the ramp, it works GREAT, and it is out of the way. It was windy in the morning, with a lot of chop in certain places, and it did just fine. I did have to adjust a couple of times when we were running to other parts of the lake, doing 35 mph in chop. But if you put it upside down, it holds it in the rack, and it didn't rattle in there much at all, with the good dbot straps. I am not sure how a normal longboard would do. This epoxy board I but just for this purpose. I think a big fiberglass board would be much heavier, and not as strong. The epoxy board is very light considering, and strong.
Only problem was that I wasn't thinking in my warehouse and put this rack on drivers side, and it hindered getting in and out of the boat at the dock. Not a problem, I will move to other side before we go out next, but here is a couple of pics so you can see how it works/looks. Just imagine it on the other side.
You can see that it doesn't obstruct any view out of the boat, and if I have on other side, it won't obstruct entry/exit of the boat because we ALWAYS dock on right.
Here is another image from the front.
Cool Huh? Oh, and that samson tower doesn't even care about all that crap on it, that thing is a rock, best thing I have every put on my boat.
Yeah, it floats me.
Amazingly enough, this thing floats me, but I went first and had RJ going the wrong speed. Once I let everyone else try, I got the speed and all just right. So I am not going to post pics of me yet for 2 reasons.
1. I want to free ride first.
2. When I was done, I asked whit if she got any pics, she said "You wanted me to take pictures?" Stupid kid. ;-)
But don't worry, I will. Still sore from pulling my large mass.
Ok, so I bought this thing just for me, and also thought my wife would like it. But the WHOLE family loves it, and it was a ton of fun, and great addition to the boat. When we floated, everyone was taking turns paddling on it, and even paddling with a small one like Jesse on the front of it. And then T-Bone and maddie both on it, on there knees paddling around. Much fun.
So here are some pics of whit and rj riding it, You can tell by whits face how much fun she was having.
This has got to be one of my fav pictures of whitney period. She is such a sweet bubbly kid, and is always smiling, and this just captures it for me.
And then there is RJ being a dork, like only he can. He just turned 13 on monday:
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