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 *************************************************************************** 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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