[Paddlewise] So Calif Whale Watch Paddle & Lessons Learned

I figured this morning's whale watching paddle was going to be washed out
because it was pouring rain at my house when I woke up this morning. A quick
call to two fellow paddlers confirmed that not only was it not raining in
Oxnard, but it looked like it was going to clear.
One paddler, suggested that we re-think paddling to Oil Platform Gina (3.75
NM off shore) because it was really rough out there yesterday when he was
doing a solo paddle. We decided to make the decision when we were on the
water and could better assess the conditions.

I had put off loading while I determined if we were going, and as a result,
I was the last to arrive at about 0845. Since my wife did not come today, I
was unable to shift the blame for being late ;-)

There were 10 boats and 11 paddlers this morning. We had one "new to the
group" paddler and a few that occasionally paddle with us. All were good
strong intermediate paddlers or better. We headed out of the harbor and
quickly decided that although the conditions were do-able to get to Gina, we
didn't know if they would hold. It was getting cloudy and a light drizzle
was starting. Looking out, Platform Gina was invisible as a squall was right
over it. We decided to paddle West into the wind instead of South to Gina.
We stayed about 1/4 mile off shore and paddled non-stop to the Edison power
plant 3.7 NM away. The weather continued to clear and I remarked, "where are
the 6-8 foot swells that the weatherman forecast. The conditions were light
winds that gusted to about 10 knots and the seas were only about 2-3 feet.
Shortly after my comment, we started to hit the 6-8 footers and the wind
picked up. We also had about a 2 foot wind chop which made it difficult if
one didn't pay attention. We took a short break at the power plant and then
decided to paddle out towards the Channel Islands before heading North-East
back to the harbor. This would put the wind and swells directly astern of us
and eliminate having to paddle with stern quartering seas. We paddled out
about 1 1/2 miles off shore and then turned towards home.

The swells kept getting bigger and about 1/2 mile from the breakwater,
another paddler and I were just laying back as the 2 sweeps. Suddenly, I got
hit by a big swell. My boat started to broach and I reached out with a rear
rudder stroke to straighten myself out and made a foolish mistake. Instead
of trusting my instincts as to my paddle blade's orientation to the water, I
watched it, instead of what was coming. Another big one seemed to come from
no where and I started to go over. It was too sudden for me to say or do
anything. Peter, the other sweep, who was about 15 feet in front of me,
looked and thought--Steve doesn't have a white deck. He quickly turned and
started paddling towards me.

By this time, I had wet exited and was holding my paddle, but my boat was
blowing away. I soon realized that I couldn't reach the boat with the paddle
holding me back and if I didn't get it NOW, I would never catch it. I
dropped the paddle, caught the boat and the paddle drifted back to me. Peter
called the others quickly on the radio to let them know I was swimming, but
they couldn't hear him. I heard him fine on my radio, so I don't know what
the problem was. We watched my pump float away - I keep saying I'm going to
get a tether tied on it but haven't. Peter then came up to the bow, and I
moved to the stern and together with him lifting and me pushing on the
stern, we emptied the boat and righted it. Peter then moved to a bow to
stern position, but this put me downwind of the kayak. I knew this would
make a rescue attempt difficult, but we decided that it would take too long
to switch positions. As I started to swim up onto the back deck of my boat,
the wind was pushing my kayak into me and causing my legs to go under the
boat. I failed on my first attempt to get up, and Peter asked if I would be
able to do it on a second attempt. We both knew that the longer I was in the
water, and the more attempts we did, the weaker I would be. Peter then asked
for my paddle float and he put it on my paddle that he was holding. As he
stabilized my boat, I did a paddle float re-entry ( I guess I would call
this a modified T-Re-entry) and I easily got up onto the back deck and into
my cockpit. I put my skirt on but did not pump the 2 inches of water in the
boat, because we still had not gotten my pump back. Peter couldn't see it,
but I spotted it and he suggested I keep the paddle float on until I got
behind the breakwater and he went after the pump.

I felt pretty stable and told Peter that and I removed the paddlefloat and
paddled back. Just before I got to the breakwater, my co-host for this trip
called me on the radio to see where I was, but with the 2 inches of water
sloshing back and forth in my boat, large swells and my adrenaline rush
wearing off, I couldn't stop paddling to use the radio.

I finally made it back in, and we continued to our put-in at Kiddee Beach
and then over to Daddy-O's where as is the custom, I was required to buy
Peter's lunch.

We learned several lessons today:

    1. Rough water rescues are MUCH harder than practice sessions

    2. Always have 3 people as the sweep. If my boat had drifted away, we
would have been in a lot of trouble with just the 2 of us.

    3. Practice sessions are imperative. It took Peter and I about 8 minutes
to complete this rescue. If either of us had not been practiced in these
skills, I would have been in the water a lot longer.

    4. No matter what the weather, dress for immersion. I was wearing a
short sleeve rash guard underneath a full length farmer john, neoprene
booties, a hat, and of course my PFD. I did not feel any cold at all
although I did have a paddling jacket in my day hatch that I could have put
on if needed. Air temp was around 65 deg F and the water felt like it was in
the high 50's.

    5. We also realized that it has been about 2 months since we held a
practice session for rescues, rolling, and surf launches and landings. In
the past, we usually hold one at least monthly. We will be holding one next
Sunday. We have also invited any SOT kayakers to attend our practice
sessions too. Too many of them don't realize that they can do assisted
rescues just as well as a closed deck boat.

    6. Although I have been paddling for several years and have missed a few
surf launches and landings, I have never done an unintentional deep water
capsize prior to today. Just goes to show that sh*t can happen any time you
are not paying attention.

Did we see any whales? Not this time, but there was a harbor seal who
followed me back into the harbor. Aside from a few birds, that was the only
wildlife that I saw.

Steve Holtzman

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