[Paddlewise] Surfin on the Lake

This weekend, my local canoe/kayak shop held a demo days at Flathead
Lake (NW Montana/USA).  In exchange for loading and unloading boats,
they bought food and gas, and I got to try all kinds of boats at my
favorite local spot.

The forecast called for rain and wind on Saturday afternoon.  Not good
for selling boats, but I was secretly wishing for some good gusts down
at the south end of the lake to start some good waves rolling
northward.  I got my wish.  The winds picked up in earnest about 4:00pm,
(the demo lasted till 5' so it worked well for everyone) and by 5:00
when the last of the customers left, we were ready to play in the big
wind waves.

The average wave was about 3' high and 40' long--just perfect for
surfing!  The winds had actually died down a bit before we got out, so
it was VERY pleasant.

I loaned my new Guillemot to my buddy who is considering building one
and paddled a Kevlar Greenland-style boat.  It was about 21"x17.5' with
a super v-ed bottom--very fast and fun!  I had no problem catching the
waves, but it did provide a very wet ride--the bow really buried in the
trough on the way out.

Two rodeo boaters went out before us, but we had no problem catching up
to them in sea kayaks!  Their boats were way too short to surf the
waves, but they were sure throwing ends!

I looked over, and Tom's bow was sticking straight up in the air.  I'm
no WW genius, but I know the sterns of those boats aren't so low-volume
that they "squirt" all the time!

We paddled over to them and asked them if they wanted a hand.  We rafted
up and had him pull his skirt and lay across my back deck/Ryan's
foredeck.  I tried pulling his boat out of the water, but those WW boats
have no bulkheads, and the water would run to the lowest end.  Nate, the
other WW guy said, "Just forget about it--you get him to shore, and I'll
tow the boat,".

We were about 300 yards offshore--I said,"Forget that!  Give me 30
seconds."

We determined that he forgot to put in his drain plug (that's how the
water got in).  By lifting the bow until just the stern was under water,
enough water ran out the drain that we were able to fully lift the boat
onto our decks so that we could alternately lift each end and fully
drain the boat.  We screwed the drain plug back in and got him safely
back into his boat.  I think he was so tired from playing with a boatful
of water that they headed right back to shore.  He said "Thanks for the
rescue," to which I replied,"Thanks for the chance for me to practice
doing it!"

Ryan and I turned back and swapped boats since he was uncomfortable
being in my narrow boat, so I jumped back in it, and he grabbed a wider
plastic boat.  I really had a lot of fun slicing out through the waves,
and then riding them back in--I think I'm going to have to start
watching for small craft advisories!!

When Ryan got back out with his other boat, a couple other people joined
us, and we started to cross the small bay at Bigfork.  The larger waves
had died down by this time.  A big 25' cabin cruiser was speeding in,
but turned and slowed down when he saw us.  He pulled alongside and told
us that he slowed down for us, to which we replied, "Thanks, but we were
hoping to play in your wake."  He asked if we wanted a wake, and we
said, "Sure!".  He gave us some really good confused wake to play in for
about 10 minutes, and then told us he had to take off so he could get to
work.  At this time, we realized that "work" meant either bartending or
holding down a barstool, and that he was probably far too drunk to
drive, so he took his boat to work.  Chilling for us to reach this
realization, to say the least.

After a much calmer exploration of the inner harbor, damp, happy, and
much more leery of drunken powerboaters, we returned to shore.

Shawn

A curious side note:
I have seen a lot of powerboats slow down for kayakers, but only on
Flathead Lake.  Most other places seem to give us a wide berth, but keep
the throttle open.  I believe that the Flathead boaters think they're
doing kayakers a favor by slowing down, but most planing hull boats kick
up a lot more wake at sub-planing speeds.  This actually makes the water
more difficult for a novice paddler.  I usually just give 'em all a
friendly wave.  I don't really care either way, as long as they don't
run me down.  Comments?

-- 
Shawn W. Baker          0                                    46°53'N
© 2000            ____©/______                              114°06'W
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\  ,/      /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
baker_at_montana.com    0        http://www.geocities.com/shawnkayak/
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