Paddlewisers, After riding my mountain bike on Saturday, I went ocean surfing in my whitewater kayak on Sunday. The surf was 3-5 feet, and I went to my favorite spot here in Southern California. This spot is actually designated for paddle surfing. Because I frequently surf in a sea kayak, which is rare for around here, I always enjoy seeing alternative surf craft. Today the alternative surf craft was an outrigger canoe. The paddlers in it did a pretty good job, but of course, the really ate it sometimes too. Once that thing broached, it usually flipped over and everyone was swimming. That outrigger seemed to get in the way sometimes. The outrigger canoe in the surf was rather dangerous. Since they didn't have a lot of directional control, it was best to stay out of their way. Once, they were heading right for someone and stopped by flipping the canoe over on the side opposite of the outrigger. This method was pretty effective. A few of the wave skiers, who sometimes act like they own the beach, weren't happy at all about the outrigger being there. They tend to dislike anyone else who isn't on a wave ski, and their argument this time was that the outrigger canoe was too dangerous for everyone else in the surf. My philosophy is that the surf is a dangerous place anyway, so whoever wants to come in it is welcome. Also, you have to watch out for yourself, and if you don't like the situation, there's the beach. After surfing a few hours, I rested on the beach and was amused by some whitewater kayakers. One was launching, and a dumping beach break wave flipped her backwards back onto the beach. She ended up swimming is 6 inches of water that was washing back and forth. Another one was on the beach attaching her sprayskirt, when a big wave came up and pulled her out. With her sprayskirt still off, another wave hit her, swamped her kayak and tipped her over. She ended up swimming too. I guess these whitewater people weren't used to waves coming from nowhere to throw them back on the beach or carry them away. Like I heard a Tsunami Ranger say, the river may be rock and roll, but the ocean is jazz! Duane Strosaker Southern California *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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