OES Australia » Russ Faurot

Riding the Quad 75 Before the Tsunami

Pete Ross — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:30:39 +0000

This morning I was woken up on Maui’s North Shore with sirens blaring at 6AM. I checked the news and it said there was a Tsunami on the way, generated by a massive earthquake in Chile measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale. Thankfully, the Tidal Waves were rather small, and nothing serious came of it on the Hawaiian islands.

Yesterday, I rode giant waves that were much bigger than the Tsunami. My estimate from the biggest one that I caught would be double mast high! Conditions were very difficult with the wind blowing nearly straight offshore, and most of the waves were closing out across the reef. I was lucky to get out and catch a few before I got cleaned up by a big set. I had a long swim for my gear while I ducked mast high white water. Fortunately when I tracked my gear down, it was unscathed. I was pretty tired, but I wanted to catch one more. I tried and tried for about 30 minutes to get back out doing chicken jibe after chicken jibe, when the waves finally opened up to let me through.

Giampaolo stopped by and took a couple pictures of my efforts. You can check out all of his shots on his blog at www.mauisurfreport.blogspot.com. Check ‘em out and see the size waves we were out in. I was glad to return to the beach without any broken pieces, myself or my gear. Not everyone was so lucky. My friend Art broke a mast and tore his sail, but he made it back in safely. That was one crazy session.

Thanks again Giampaolo for taking these shots.

Oregon Coast Video #3

Pete Ross — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:50:07 +0000

Here is a video from Cape Sebastian on the Oregon Coast. The Cape is located on the Southern Oregon Coast right next to Pistol River. Jake and I had a great trip trying out a bunch of new spots along the Coast. This was the only day that we sailed the Cape, and it was a fun one. The conditions were very challenging, with some difficult to read waves and extremely overpowering wind. We were both on 4.2’s and should have been on 3.5’s. The locals said that this wind was typical, but the waves often get a lot better. I would love to try it on a big day with the proper size sail. The potential of this place is unreal!

Russ

A New Video

Pete Ross — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:19:21 +0000

Here’s a video from last July on the Oregon Coast. It is the second of three Summer videos created by Snakebite Productions of our trip. The first was the Pistol River video, and can be found on the video page at http://www.oesaustralia.com/videos/. The third should be out soon.

Russ Faurot

Quad Fin 75 Excels in Big Waves

Pete Ross — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:42:53 +0000

After time spent testing on Maui, we had a chance to ride the Quad Fin 75 in a good sized swell. Our big wave expectations were confirmed. The board rips with superior holding power in large choppy waves, without being penalized from excess fin drag. “We wanted to make sure that this design would not be over-finned.” Our Twin Fins have performed well, so we wanted to try a Quad with a similar amount of fin area. The desire to add control in choppy conditions, without losing the surf-style of the Twin, is where the quad design came about. We felt there was room for a wave board that was not as loose as a Twin Fin. The Quad offers amazing holding power, but still offers great top to bottom turning.

The Quad has evolved out of the design experience from the Twin Fin. The Twin Fin design offered a radical surf-style with greater holding power compared to the Single Fin. The fins are closer to the rail allowing them to engage harder into the wave face. We felt we could enhance this ability, by adding two small finely foiled fins in front of our standard twin fin setup.

Through our development and testing, we discovered small front fins are the optimal choice in quad design. We feel that the majority of Quad Fin boards available to the market right now are over-finned. Our Twin Fin designs are working great, so we didn’t want to add much more in fin area and drag. We have kept a thin foil large rear set, and matched it with a small thin foil front set. This combination added more drive and control, allowing sharper more vertical turns. It also added wave-riding confidence on choppy large wave faces, without the fear of the fins letting go.

The Quad’s holding power offers a great balance between front foot and back foot wave sailing. This gives a wide range of sailing styles more confidence to attack the wave face. Our Quad design will help you reach your goals in wave-sailing quicker.

Summer Waves

Pete Ross — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:33:30 +0000

I returned to Maui in August, and have been blessed with top notch conditions throughout the period. I have been sailing almost every day. There has been a steady supply of small windswell waves to play with, and more recently a large out of season North swell arrived. The North swell provided some really epic conditions with 4.2 winds and logo to mast high+ waves breaking across the reefs. It was nice to have good power in the sail giving opportunity for massive jumps and powerful waverides.

I was having a great time when I crashed on a pushloop. My foot got twisted and yanked out of the footstrap injuring some ligaments. Fortunately I do not have any broken bones and look to be back on the water soon. For now, it is a very sore foot and no sailing.

I did get a few nice pictures of sailing, prior to my foot injury on that day. The water shots were taken by Dave Baker. He can be found at http://hotsurfphotos.com/view_photog.php?photogid=3. The jump was provided by OES Australia Maui.

See ya on the water,

Russ

More Oregon

Har Rai Khalsa — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:05:34 +0000

As Promised, here is another good video from Oregon. This one takes place in Arlington, OR, located in the Eastern portion of the Gorge. It was an extremely windy day with some of the best Gorge sailors hitting the water. Also check out the pics from another spot just downstream at a site called “The Wall.”

See ya on the Water,

Russ

Windsurfing Oregon

Har Rai Khalsa — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:46:15 +0000

I am wrapping up a month long windsurfing vacation to Oregon. It has been very good overall, with some great days in the Gorge, and also up and down the coastline. Oregon has so many sailing spots, that you can pretty much pick and choose what kind of conditions you are after. For someone who wants a variety of conditions, Oregon is the place to be. I sailed an average of 4-5 days per week, and had everything from 5.0 freestyle to 3.5 pumping down the line wavesailing. The Gorge did not disappoint, offering some great 40 knot winds and glassy, rolling swells.

These pics are only a small sampling of the conditions we had. I also managed to get some quality filming done. Here is a coast video of Jake Miller and myself at Pistol River, produced by Jake Miller of Snake Bite Productions. I am riding Ezzy/OES, while Jake is on Goya/Quatro. Check back soon for an amazing Gorge video, and some good pics.

See ya on the water,

Russ

Windsurfing Pistol River- The Rock 7/23/09 from Jake Miller on Vimeo.

Russ Faurot New Video

Charles — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:28:44 +0000

Russ Faurot Promo from Jake Miller on Vimeo.

Kona Winds

Har Rai Khalsa — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:18:04 +0000

For the last two months, Maui has had some of the worst weather for windsurfing. I won’t dwell on that because the wind is back. With a little down time, I have been sifting through some of my pictures. I found some shots (not the best quality) of a Kona Wind day earlier this year. Kona winds are oppostie to Maui’s normal Trade Wind direction. The waves were huge that day, pushing double mast high. Only a few of us went out. Most of the pros passed and went to calmer waters down the coast at Kanaha. Myself, and a select group of hardcore sailors chose to brave the high winds and heavy water at Kuau. Victor Fernandez and Marcilio “Brawzinho” Browne were two of the bigger name sailors out. It was definitely a memorable day.

Check out the pics from the sesh.

See ya on the water,

Russ

My First OES Blog Post!

Har Rai Khalsa — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:16:23 +0000

Hello everyone. I wanted to share with you some pics of my most recent Baja trip. I went to Punta San Carlos in Sept. of ‘08 and scored truly epic conditions. I used ‘09 Ezzy sails 4.2 and 4.7 and my ‘09 OES WavePro 67L board. It was an amazing trip and I came back with lots of great shots. Enjoy the gallery, including the page I got in Windsurfing Magazine. Also check ezzyblog.com/russ for more on what is going on with me.

Thanks to Clark Merritt of SoloSports Adventure Holidays for the shots.

Russ Faurot

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