Historic Hood River
Big Winds
Notes
Rountree Rouse sent this image from October 2000. In the late 1990s Big Winds left their 5th Street location for this location on Front Street. They absorbed their sister store “Front Street Sailboards.” In October 2000 they demolished this building to build their current facility.
Rountree apologized for the resolution, saying this was taken with an early digital camera. These technology transitions can be really difficult for archivists. We have this 100+ year old view of this same location which actually has significantly more resolution than its digital counterpart. Fortunately Rountree made the effort to dig this up and share it so it has a chance of surviving past the life of his hard drive, but digital archive preservation is by no means a “solved” problem.
nels
A great picture that epitomizes the windsurfing days before the kites took over.
Big Winds and Doug's dominated the scene. The river would be covered with colorful sails looking like damsel flies covering the whole river. Once counted into the 60's the number on the water on a good afternoon.
L.E.
Labor Day Sale. The end of the season.
I love the contrast of the old and new “sails”. There is a sailboat in the old photo.
That intersection sure looks more peaceful and relaxed in the 1900's era. Can you imagine a milk cow out there now, grazing alongside the road?
JKG
Ahhhh… back in the good old days before every parking lot in town was filled with overpriced Sprinter vans…