By Emma Renly
For Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — Located at 708 Oak St. in downtown Hood River, Hydrocraft Systems is the newest wind sports business in the Gorge. Here, a small team designs and sells foils, boards and travel bags for wingfoiling. Along the building’s walls are carefully selected accessories from other companies to get someone entirely ready for the water — from helmets to wetsuits and sunglasses.
“There are lots of brand headquarters in Hood River, but there are no other brands in the foiling space that are owned by people who live in Hood River,” said Matt Elsasser, the founder and owner of Hydrocraft Systems. The storefront opened in June, though online sales for boards started back in January.
Elsasser said his connection to the Gorge began with windsurfing while still in his mom’s womb. As a teenager, he worked for Steve Gates at Big Winds in the summer, then moved to the Gorge full-time after graduating college.
“My whole life is in the water sports world,” Elsasser added. He now splits his time between summers in Hood River and winters on Maui, another wind sport location.
“What’s so awesome about Hood River, and why it’s become this mecca location for people to travel to from all over, is that the wind and the current oppose each other and create a river swell,” he said.
On foil, it’s possible to ride the rolling river swells on the Columbia for miles on a windy day — the longest section stretching about 30 miles. Elsasser said the technology they’re creating matches the area perfectly, which he says is “pretty much the best place in the world to foil.”
Both Elsasser and head of engineering Brodie Sutherland have years of experience working for larger brands in the wind industry. Sutherland specifically works in hydrofoil design, and was born and raised in Hood River.
“When we got to start from scratch, we wanted to sort of solve a lot of the issues we saw with other systems,” Sutherland explained. He developed a new connection system for how the mast, front and tail wings connect. It’s a proprietary design that took a year of tinkering, he added.
“Our main goal with the company was to make gear that makes people better foilers and bring it straight to the customer instead of through the retail sales model,” Sutherland said. This way, they can pass on price breaks directly to the customer instead of using a distributor model.
He emphasized that the Hydrocraft team wears multiple hats and helps each other out because it’s a small crew, but on the flip side, decisions take minutes instead of weeks.
“By running our own shop here, we’re able to have that one-on-one interaction with a customer to really get that direct feedback, and also help them get the gear they need,” Sutherland added.
The shop manager, Sam Shannon, agreed. “There’s a lot of foil chat.”
Going forward, Elsasser said they plan to expand in areas where they have experience and opportunity, such as surfboards and wetsuits.
“It feels like we know just about everyone here that’s doing water sports, and those people are wanting to support us and are willing to try the gear,” Elsasser said. “I don’t think we could do what we’ve done in the last few months in any other community.”
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