The Columbia Gorge Windsurfing Association (CGWA) was Founded in 1987 as a 501c3 not-for-profit membership organization aiming to establish, improve & protect access to The Columbia River for The benefit of The Gorge Windsurfing Community. The CGWA was and continues to be instrumental in the establishment, development, and maintenance of many notable Gorge launch sites including Viento State Park, The Spring Creek Fish Hatchery, The Hood River Event Site, The Hood River Waterfront Park, The Hook, East Mayer State Park and Doug’s Beach. Since 2020 the CGWA has owned and managed Swell City.

For over 25 years, The CGWA has been providing access to low or no cost windsurfing and paddle equipment at The Hook via its “Gorge GROMs” youth & family program.

In 2019, The Columbia Gorge Wind and Water Association (CGWA) re-branded itself as The Columbia Gorge Wind & Water Association (CGW2.org) to better represent and serve an ever-broadening wind sport community of Kiters, SUP Paddlers and Foilers who use the very same launch-sites we’ve worked so hard to establish and improve.

In 2020, pandemic related restrictions on live gatherings caused significant impediments to CGW2.org’s legacy fund raising events and the operation of programs. The resulting financial challenges compelled CGW2.org to embrace an “all-volunteer” operational status – discontinuing the employment of its only paid role of Executive Director. CGW2.org also embarked on a strategy of partnering with and helping to finance other local orgs with aligned missions and greater resources.

These strategies have proven very successful. CGW2.org has emerged from the pandemic era stronger than it went into it and now is the time to update our Board of Director roles and organizational bylaws to accommodate the status quo.

As such, we are seeking new volunteers to serve on our Board of Directors. We’ll be holding our annual membership meeting at pFreim Family Brewers, 7070 Portway Ave. Hood River, OR on March 21st @ 6:00 pm. This will be a very informal meeting and an opportunity for CGW2.org members and those interested in learning more about CGW2.org to meet the current Board of Directors, chat about the current state of affairs, share thoughts and visions, learn about CGW2.org volunteer opportunities, and about Board of Director roles and duties. We will also be voting to adopt our new set of bylaws crafted to effectively forge our way forward.*

You can preview CGW2.org updated bylaws here: CGW2 Proposed Bylaws

* Please note that only those with an active CGW2.org membership will be eligible to vote.