[Paddlewise] Veterans Day Trip Report

Fellow Paddlewiser Mike Brown and I had organized a Veterans Day Paddle with
the two local clubs that we belong to. Our intention was to have everybody
flying an American Flag and we were going to launch from a gentle surf beach
just down from  the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, CA. Santa
Barbara is about a 90 minute drive for Mike and a 60 minute drive for me. It
was a rainy, cold dreary day when I awoke this AM. The following is the trip
report that we sent to the two clubs.

.........
I woke this morning at 6:00 AM to the sound of pouring rain. When I looked
out, all I could see was wet ground, rain clouds, and more rain coming down.
I waited until 6:45 to call Mike to see if he had a contingency plan for
rain since I hadn't made one.

We decided that there were too many people whom we didn't know how to
contact to call it off. We figured that most everybody else would have
better sense than to come out in the rain and worst case scenario was that
Mike and I would both drive to Santa Barbara for coffee at Starbucks.

I arrived at 8:30 and by 8:45, there were nine of us on the beach. Chris,
Gregg, Lee, Len, Tim, Frank, Pete, Mike, and I were all looking at the 3-4
foot surf that was coming in from both the Southeast and Southwest. It seems
there was a 4 foot swell from the Southwest and 2 - 3 foot wind waves from
the Southeast. The comments were that it was going to be an "interesting"
launch. We fastened the flags to the boats and Mike thought that he and I
should launch first because of the size of the flags we had on our boats.
Both of us thought that if we capsized with a 2 1/2 foot by 3 1/2 foot flag
flying from broomsticks on our sterns, that we would need some serious help.

Mike launched, stopped and waited for a wave to break in front of him and
did an effortless launch (in spite of the fact that he feathered his paddle
backwards). I then pushed off using the rip tide to give me some speed. I
stopped paddling to let a large wave break in front of me, but the speed of
the rip carried me out too fast, and it broke over my deck from the port
quarter. I thought I was a swimmer, but fortunately, a reflexive brace again
saved my butt from getting wet. Tim tried launching using his Greenland
stick and decided that he should have used his Euro-paddle after his third
brace failed and he went swimming. Everyone else made it off of the beach
without incident.

We then rafted up to re-attach flags that had been knocked over. Mike really
outdid himself with the flags and holders that he made for everyone. We then
started the 2 mile?, 5 mile?, ???mile paddle to SB Harbor. Nobody really
knew the distance. Both Mike and I found that the large flags really
interfered with boat handling. Mike had his rudder down and I had my skeg
fully down to keep from weather cocking and we both were fighting a losing
battle.

We paddled into the harbor, past the restaurant on the pier and waved to a
small boy as we were surfing the waves into the harbor. I felt like I had
just completed a 1 mile surf landing by the time we were inside the harbor.
We toured the harbor and then found a small beach to land on and have our
pot luck.

A tarp was laid out and submarine sandwiches, crab salad, roasted peppers
with cheese, Cajun chicken, fried chicken, etc appeared. Chris brought the
perfect item. He had a backpackers stove and apple cider and soon everyone
was drinking hot apple cider to warm up.

The photographer from the newspaper arrived and shot some pictures of us on
the beach and then as we got back on the water. He followed us in a skiff
for a while and took some more pictures. The ride back was uneventful, but
against the wind.

We arrived at the beach and presented Len with his very first Kelp Award.
Although he has been known to swim while trying to launch in surf, no one
has ever seen him miss a landing until today.

All in all, for a rainy, hazy, cool day we had a great turn out. Mike and I
expected to be the only ones and we actually had nine single boats out there
today. One SOT and  eight closed decks. The ages ranged from early 40's to
70, and the experience level was from five months to over 20 years.

Come join us on one of our next trips if you couldn't make this one.

Steve Holtzman



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