Everyone, The last thing I planned to do on Memorial Day weekend was go kayaking at popular San Onofre State Beach here in Southern California. I wanted to, but I knew that with the usual holiday crowds, I'd have to be there at 5 AM to wait in line for the gate to open at 6 AM, and the gate would close again shortly afterwards once the parking area filled. With a new job where I work evenings and nights, getting up that early just wasn't doable. I could launch much later from the harbors, but I really wanted to go to San Onofre. When I woke up Sunday morning, I saw that it was drizzling outside. With the drizzle and small surf forecast, I saw my opportunity. I knew that most of the surfers would be staying home. I packed up my plastic, plastic, plastic sea kayak, rod and reel for fishing, and helmet and dry-top for surfing. When I arrived at San Onofre at 9 AM, I was able to drive right in, and there were plenty of parking spots right up on the beach. Small surf and drizzle can be a wonderful blessing on a holiday weekend. After talking a bit to Bill and Pam Schlotter, surf kayaking friends from Oxnard, I surfed my sea kayak in the small waves, which were about three feet high and uncrowded. These small waves are a lot of fun in a sea kayak, still my favorite craft to surf in. Anybody can surf a short whitewater kayak or surf kayak, but it takes some real skill to keep a 17 foot long sea kayak on a wave. After a couple of hours in the surf, I did a rolling, sculling and bracing practice session, and then I had lunch on the beach. While having lunch I saw that there were a half dozen sport fishing boats about 2 miles offshore. I got some touring in by paddling out to these boats. The clouds were thick overhead, but the water was perfectly calm, and it was beautiful out there. I fished for a while and caught only one small fish, but like the saying goes, a bad day fishing is better than a good day working. I just love the versatility of sea kayaking and taking advantage of a situation when I can. It was nice to be able surf, practice skills, tour and fish all in one day. It was also nice having the small surf and drizzle keep most people off the beach on a holiday weekend. Duane <A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/pirateseakayaker/index.html">Pirate Sea Kayaker</A> *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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