RE: [Paddlewise] Surfin on the Lake

I was out with my new white water boat over the weekend. Conditions were not
great so I spent most of the time teaching my 14 year old to roll his wave
ski. I did a 12 mile paddle along the Delray-Boca coast in the Nordkapp on
Saturday in perfect conditions. 

After goofing around a bit in the 2 foot surf, I decided I'd try a hand
roll, my first attempt. I tossed the paddle on shore, forgot to put on my
nose clips, blew the roll and got hit by a 2 foot "breaker". I was shallow
enough to push off the bottom but couldn't get oriented, started running out
of air and decided to wet exit. A wet exit in this boat is no easy
proposition in shallow water. I finally got out after being dragged along
for a while, and the boat filled with water.

I installed a drain plug when I bought the boat, a used Pyranha Storm. At
this point, it was too heavy to move or even tip up to use the drain plug.
It was too heavy to drag up the beach, too heavy to tip over, too heavy to
do anything! I felt like a complete jerk. Eventually, after 10 minutes or
so,  I was able to pry the boat's flat planing hull loose from the wet sand
and tipped out enough water to be able to drag it up on the beach and drain
it.

I don't think it would be possible to do a rescue in this boat. I may be
able to put two small float bags in the stern, but there's no room in the 8
foot boat for bow bags.

BTW, I was not attacked by any sharks, nor did I see any, nor did anyone
report any...

cya


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