Re: [Paddlewise] my story is better than your story

At 09:06 AM 8/27/98 -0700, Dan, in defense of his undrinkable brine, wrote:
>Wayne wrote (in defense of his local pond):
>
>> Ok pal, thems surfing words. You've got two months to get ready for the
>> November gales. Unless they come early. Dont forget to bring your S*******.
>> ;-) I'm sure we'll see some 30 footers....
>
>You mean to tell me that you have to wait until November to get good
>surf?!? (Well I suppose that makes sense--it is just a lake, after
>all.)  Out here, in "sea"-kayaking territory, we have gale-force winds
>quite regularly along the west coast of Vancouver Island (even in the
>summer).  :-)  

Actually, this has been a banner year for surf. Thank you, El Nino! I've
been out at least 10-15 times and I missed a lot while I was out of town.
But Sept-November is usually the best (or worst). But I wouldnt have it any
other way. If we had surf-on-demand, there would be too many people running
around going "Yo, dude, that was really FRESH!" and we cant have that. And
our surf is rarely "clean". We had a few days this year with beautiful,
well spaced, clean, spilling waves with nice long rides but thats the
exception. Often they are dumping, converging, short wavelength, wind
whipped affairs especially when they get bigger. But that just adds to the
fun as far as I'm concerned. One of these days I'd like to go hit the coast
and see what its like to actually have recovery time between waves. BTW,
why do they call it the "Pacific" Ocean?


>
>Actually, from your descriptions of Lake Superior, I had better bring my
>whitewater kayak, helmet, and full body armor (the latter for protection
>against the bow of your Romany as it surfs wildly out of control--sans
>Wayne, of course).  :-) :-)
 

Well, I'm already sans Romany :( This fall I will be sans Sirius. :-)
There are usually a number of fully armored whitewater boats out there (or
whiteys, as we say, staring down our upturned noses) when it gets bigger.
They float over the waves as we flog our way through. Since I'll be
paddling a new boat this fall, I have an excuse to swim not that I need
one. I'm sure that an ocean paddler would never ever come out of their boat
in our wimpy fall surf. ;-) hehehe

But whitewater/surf kayaks dont count. In order to earn any points, your
boat must be as innapropriate for surf as possible. Any sit-inside sea
kayak at least 16 feet long qualifies. Its no fair to use boats that are
actually DESIGNED for surf. That takes all the challenge out of it, plus, I
dont have one.


Wayne
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