Salmon River Surfing

October 9, 2006

By Devon Barker

I joined a great friend John Parten on Peace Wave at
Hippie Beach on the Salmon River Today. I met JP in
Costa Rica last fall at the World Championships.

The Salmon River near Riggins, Idaho has year around
surf waves. I have been surfing on three different
waves within 5 miles since my return to Idaho 6 days
ago. Not too bad for October. 🙂 Salmon Rapids
Lodge, www.salmonrapids.com, is located just down
stream of my three favorite surf waves. I am staying
there tonight where I can hear the river from my room.

At the end of our surf session today JP told me that
he ran into an old friend, Laird Hamilton, who is
paddling an 11 foot surf board in the ocean and just
paddled the Grand Canyon. JP is his own surfing
legend who spent 5 years surfing J Bay in South Africa
before I was born. He then turned to me and asked if
I knew who Laird Hamilton was.

Check out http://www.lairdhamilton.com/ to see the
photos of Laird tearing it up with a paddle in his
hand! JP also surfs kayaks but Laird told him he
needed to stand up with a paddle.

This all made my head spin as we had pb&J at his VW
Van with over 350 K on it. Just before I left, Titus
Cornforth, a local high school student came down to
surf, He only has a splash top, a protect helmet
without a headliner, and a welded kayak. I ran to my
recycled VW and handed him gloves, headliner, and a
drytop. He is game to surf through the winter with
me! YEAH!

Opening day for hunting is in the morning! I am off
to hunting camp.

devon