Re: [Paddlewise] Kayakers helping others

   OK, this isn't really a rescue scenario, but I think this story fits 
loosely into the category of kayakers helping others. Some years ago I was 
paddling along the local So.Cal. coast alone in the early morning. For 
whatever reason I choose to briefly land through the surf on a fairly 
deserted beach. When I again launched I was greeted on the water by a lobster 
fisherman.
   It would seem that the local lifeguard had returned several traps that had 
washed up on the beach to this fisherman, who wanted to return the favor by 
presenting the lifeguard with a large lobster. The only problem was the 
fisherman couldn't land through the rather sizable surf. Having witnessed my 
landing, he asked me if I could deliver the bug for him. "Sure" I replied. So 
he handed me a rather large "live" lobster, which was probably in the six to 
eight pound range. Without thinking I opened my sprayskirt and threw it into 
the cockpit with me, and then head to shore.
   I immediately became aware of the fact that I was in bare feet and shorts 
as this California "spiny" lobster let me know that it was not happy with 
it's accommodations. I paddled furiously to shore and drove the boat right up 
onto the beach where I sprang from the cockpit like I had springs on my seat! 
Then I delivered the lobster.

Scott
So.Cal. 
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