Paddlewisers, Today, Sunday, it was a beautiful, and exciting, day in the surf in So Cal. The surf was glassy and a nice and safe but fun 3-5 feet. Ellen, who was new at surfing, met me and a couple of my friends on the beach. I told Ellen this day was good for starting, because the only way you can get hurt in the medium size surf is if you collide with someone else. This comment from me was foreshadowing. The rides to the right were awesome. We were getting 100 yard rides every few minutes. It was a blast racing the break and cutting back and dropping back down in my whitewater kayak. The fog added a special touch to it all. (It's not foggy all the time in California). It wasn't long before Ellen was swimming and lost here boat. Joe Kramp went after her boat and I towed Ellen. I know that swimming is exhausting, so I always offer to tow a swimmer whenever I see one. A little later, Ellen collided with Joe. She got broached on a wave that Joe was on too, and the bow of her kayak speared him on his back and head. Fortunately, Joe was wearing a PFD and helmet (as I always do in the surf) and he wasn't injured. However, the shock of the hit prevented him from being able to roll back up and he went swimming. Ellen towed him in and I pushed his boat in. After resting a bit, Joe was back on the water. On a side note, there has been a lot of talk on this list lately about intermediate paddlers and the surf zone. I feel that if you are an intermediate paddler, your bracing skills should be good enough that you almost never capsize while coming in or out of the surf. Playing in the surf is another story. However, today I played in the surf about 3 hours and didn't have one capsize, but I did do a hell of lot of bracing. I consider myself an advanced sea kayaker. On another side note, I wanted to let everyone know that I designed and am building a surf zone sea kayak. I am building it stripper style and it is about 1/3 stripped right now. It is 14 feet long, 22 inches wide, and has a flat, planning bottom from bow to stern with a lot of rocker, more up front than in the rear. The seat is well behind the center to keep the bow high. The ends sweep up slightly, and the front deck is peaked to shed waves while the back deck is low and flat. I went for the longer length to give it more speed for getting through the waves, as well as for catching them. It is a surf kayak for a sea kayaker. I have built two kayaks before, a plywood one and a skin boat, but this my first stripper and my first design, and it's like exploring new territory. I can't wait to try it. I'll let you know how it turns out. Duane *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:19 PDT