Pueblo's 3rd Wave @ 850+ CFS - SUP for the Soul

Earlier this season Erin and I made a weekend trip down to Pueblo in the RV. The flow had come up to just below 900 CFS, which last year was a great level. So we packed up the RV and headed south for the weekend.

We were greeted with a wave that was different than the big green roller wave we had seen at similar levels the year before. This year the wave was mostly whitewater, but every minute or so the whole thing would green up, build to waist high, and get completely smooth for 15 or 20 seconds. During those windows you could rip it up like an ocean wave.

Although the wave was different than last year, it was still great and perhaps even better. I am learning that river surfing is all about being in the right place at the right time. There is no Surfline to tell us that the wave is going to be good. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and hope for the best. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get skunked. This weekend we got lucky.

The wave was good. Super good. Probably best-in-the-state-right-now good. We also got lucky with our board choice, this wave was great for the Starboard SUPs. We brought the Impossible, the Rush and the Squirt. All of these boards surfed the wave, and some of them surfed it amazingly.

On top of all this, the photographer from the local paper just happened to be at the whitewater park that day taking pictures. I just happened to be the only goofy footer surfing that day, and the park only had good angles to take pictures of goofy footers. So as luck would have it, I ended up being on the front page of the paper the following day!

After a great day of surfing on Saturday with our buddy Daniel, Erin and I looked for something to do in the evening. We decided to stop by a coffee shop and hang out. As luck would have it, the coffee shop was having live music from some great local and out of state artists. Wow, what more could we ask for?

We surfed Sunday in some chilly weather, but the wave was too good to pass up. I convinced Rich and Bodhi Harrison to come down and join us. The four of us shared the best wave (so far) of the season! Here’s a little video that sums up the weekend:

So how did the boards surf? Well we had our whole Starboard SUP quiver, each which surfed the wave well. We also had the Glide Sesh, which felt slow and a little boring compared to the Starboards.

The Starboard Rush was a little long for this wave. It required a lot of foot shuffling to keep it from pearling, but was still fun and offered a different style of surfing than the other boards.

The Starboard Impossible was short enough to fit in the wave. When the wave greened out the board would rip, but while it was all whitewater it was pretty unstable.

The Squirt was perfect. Short enough to fit on the wave, and wide enough to make whitewater easy to surf while waiting for the wave to get better. When the wave got smooth, the Squirt surfed great too. It was almost as responsive as the Impossible. This was my first session on the Squirt this year. I can say I’m impressed and surprised it surfed better than the Impossible. I can’t wait to get back on the Squirt when we make another trip down to Pueblo, or to Glenwood!