Hi all, This trip report is a bit after the fact, but Mark's post about his trip to the area reminded me that I should post a trip report from Deception Pass. Deception Pass was something I'd heard about quite frequently, so I decided to take a tidal rapids class from P'wiser Andree Hurley of KIX, rather than attempting it first on my own. I have no affiliation with Kayak Instruction Excellence--I'm just a very satisfied customer....yadda, yadda, yadda... August 26, 2000 On Saturday, I got up at 6:00 am and drove from my friend Pete's house in Renton, 90 miles north to Anacortes to get the wetsuit I would wear for the day. I have a drysuit and short wetsuit, but I needed something more in-between for the heavy paddling I'd be doing in cooold, fast water. I thought my tidal rapids class started at 8:00, but the rental shop didn't open until 8:00, so I knew I'd be cutting it close. I got the wetsuit and sped out of Anacortes. I headed to the south side of the Pass, since I thought the group would be meeting at "the" campground, but after seeing quite a few empty beaches and parking lots with a few vehicles with no roofracks or kayaks, I cruised across Deception Pass bridge to go check out the north side. I turned into Bowman bay first, and ran into a fellow student, named Pete, who told me the class didn't start until 9:00am. Whew! Turns out there are 4 campgrounds in the Deception Pass area. Our instructor, Andree, arrived, and told us the rest of the class was up at the bridge parking lot and that we'd cruise up there and walk across the bridge to look at the pass from above and be able to view the currents from a bird's eye view. The Pass was flooding, and we were able to see it at almost peak flow of 6.5 knots. There were good eddies on both sides, but the eddylines sure looked big and seamy from above. I saw a 21' cabin cruiser speed through and it looked tiny. I got butterflies thinking about being down in that stuff in a 21" wide boat! We returned to Bowman Bay for some dry land training on tides and currents, then we paddled out into the bay for rescue and brace training. I feel that I have very good bracing skills, but Andree and our other guide, Bill McKenzie (also a P'wiser) really critiqued my bracing--it is effective, but not my movements are not pronounced enough for a student to be able to model my movements. I was glad for the constructive criticism I received that day--I think it's better to take a class where the instructor takes a very active role in fine-tuning your technique, rather than just saying, "good enough, now let's move on." We paddled out around the point and into the pass at slack. Earlier on shore, Bill explained to us that there would be a 20-minute window when the currents in the pass would be 0.5 knot or less--outside of that, it's hauling butt 22.5 hours per day! We paddled through Canoe Pass, around Canoe Island (sometimes called Pass Is), and around through Deception Pass. We pulled up on shore just below Canoe pass to take a pee/water/food break, and to let the currents build. We hit Canoe Pass when the ebb was up to 4.0 knots, and then a big onshore wind came in from the Puget Sound--3-foot standing waves were stacking up just outside the pass, and they were building!! We did some eddy peelouts and entering practice, and practiced ferrying across the current. Bill got out and surfed the standing waves, and I was fairly convinced he was crazy. I ferried back into the big onshore eddy and built up some nerves to paddle into the current and shoot the standing waves. Piece of cake (I love my new Guillemot 18!!!). I eddied out and did it 2 more times. Now for the moment of truth, I built up some guts to peel out of the eddy and back into the wave train. All I could hear was the roaring of the waves behind me, and sometimes foam would blow past me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the first big wave 20' "ahead". I slowly braced and pointed directly upstream. I felt my bow begin to plunge, and I leaned forward and was suddenly surfing!!! I broached rather quickly, but got straightened for the next wave, and had a stern rudder ready for when I started surfing. We played until the ebb peaked at over 6 knots, and the group was tired and ready to turn back. They headed back toward Bowman, but I talked Bill into paddling through the waves below Deception Pass proper. The wind had died a bit, so the standing waves were gone, but there were big seamy boils and whirlpools all over. I felt as if I was dancing across all of them. I had a similar experience 3 months ago in a 9' whitewater boat on Class IV rapids (in Montana) and was somewhat terrified-this time I really felt "in the zone". It was one of those "life-defining moments" for me. I absolutely loved every minute. Now I'm back at work, sitting in front of a computer 500 miles inland of the salty seas--definitely a stark contrast--I want to go back! -- Shawn W. Baker 0 46°53'N © 2000 ____©/______ 114°06'W ~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ baker_at_montana.com 0 http://www.geocities.com/shawnkayak/ *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Oct 02 2000 - 14:21:47 PDT
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