Cruising into Portland, no map, came to a massive spaghetti junction and of course took the wrong road and ended up....somewhere. Enter the first u-turn of the trip. We eventually found the hostel which was in the Hawthorne District. The area was real nice, a sort of artsy feel. The hostel even had green credentials with rain water tanks etc. we stayed for 2 nights then headed to Mt Hood. Its a beautiful part of Oregon and its snowboarding is world class but at this time of the season the mountain was closed, although there was still plenty of snow on its 11000ft peak. We stayed at at a nearby campground that bordered Hood river. Very idyllic, except for the patchy rain.
The next day we headed for Seaside which has a great left hand point break. Of course when we got there it was 2ft onshore and unridable. This stretch of coast is rugged and nice but lacks any real surfing opportunities. We stayed that night at Nehalem which had a great campground but no surf. After picking up Danielle's new board at Lincoln City we got our first surf in 2.5 months at Newport. It was in a protected spot just off a break wall. When my foot hit the water, holy fjuk! So cold! No boots, no hood, the locals thought i was crazy, at least Danielle had boots. I got a few waves but it was hard to have much board control when your feet feel like numb stumps! Danielle lasted about 30 mins, me about 45. Lets head south for some warmer water me thinks.
