Surf Fest 2003 Labor Day Weekend Event Report In short.short but sweet! Our 4 day Surf Fest lasted only one day thanks to the Tropical Storm Grace warnings. Had great Friday night and Saturday, and then came Tropical Storm warnings out of nowhere.first forecast to land at Port OConner Sunday evening with over 40 mph winds and over 9 foot waves. By early Sunday morning it had changed to faster, closer and stronger.early Sunday afternoon at Port Aransas. So I called down to the beach to cancel the event for Sunday and Monday.only to find that everyone camping on the beach (on Padre Island just south of Bob Hall Pier) had gotten washed out from the pre-storm surge and high tides. Most went home, but a couple went to motels, and one unlucky fellow who had his truck and kayak impounded (due to a supposed unpaid parking bill which he maintained was an error) was forced to move his tent up to the state park parking lot away from the rising water. And as things turned out (hindsight is so much better than foresight) the storm came in much further north closer to Galveston and Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny paddle day here with mild winds. Only problem was the high water that flooded out the area where we were holding the kayak demo and instruction (Packery Channel) so there would not have been any place to park. AnywaySaturday was a blast, thanks for Mark White from Austin Outdoor Gear & Guidance, and Rafael Mier Maza from Mexico, who brought lots of new kayaks for us to try out. There was lots of drool over many of the kayaks being demod. That morning the group enjoyed guided trips to the Dunes and Shamrock Cove, followed by an impressive rolling contest at Packery Channel that noon to see who could do the most different rolls. Mark White was the winner with 11, closely followed by Steve Walls with 10, Chris Kuhlman with 9, Juan Luis Del Valle with 8, and Mark Arnold with 3. Later had some good roll instruction by Mark White. Several had a great time surfing in the waves at the beach. For dinner the group had a great pot luck spread on the beach that night just before becoming inundated by the waves and tide You can see pictures of all this by looking for the newest album entitled Surf Fest 2003 at http://community.webshots.com/user/johnsonkw1 Sunday morning my phone rang off the hook with newspaper journalists, photographers, and intrepid paddlers who wanted to know where we were (Friday and Saturday papers had good articles with pictures and schedules of events). I was feeling very guilty about having canceled due to the storm that didnt really arrive. Mark Arnold went down and found some stray paddlers who wanted to do a trip and he guided them around some of the neat areas that are normally to shallow to paddle. They saw several large schools of skates, and Gretchen who likewise showed up for the Lighthouse Trails paddle that is normally very tricky to paddle because of shallow water, took several paddlers out and they had a great paddle with some good dolphin encounters. I ended up paddling later that day in Corpus Christi Bay which was beautiful, and bumped into several paddlers who had left the coast, stayed in a motel, and were on their way up to Canyon Lake to paddle. Here are some interesting play backs from various people who attended: Winnie: I had a great time with the kayak group. Went on two paddles where I had not been before. At the hottest time of day there was shade set up at the packery channel and we all sat and talked there and I tried several of the demonstration kayaks plus a couple that individuals were trying to sell. I really liked the Slipstream kayak which is made in Canada, it handled nice and I could lift and carry it. I am very limited in what kind of sea kayak I could use in 10 or 15 yrs down the road. The heavy ones are out for me. British kayaks are really nice but all are made strong and heavy, I am sure they last a long time and can withstand heavy weather but I could not load and unload them by myself. All of them are expensive and a new Slipstream costs $2,600 dollars and the other ones I like are similarly priced. There is a Mexican engineer designing and building some cheaper ones and I like them but they weigh in at 55lbs which is just a bit heavy for me. I had better choose the right one if I get one. I am enjoying the plastic one and I am not in any hurry. Will try to go to for sale sites on the web and if I saw a used Slipstream in good condition for sale I would take a drive even interstate to get it if the price was right. The kayak groups are very friendly and nice people. Simple, enjoying nature and not into money and possessions except I guess for their hobby stuff. Most of them like boating and hiking like I do. Many of them have white water kayaks also and go down river rapids in them but I am not going to get into that aspect at all. Real kayak enthusiasts have 5 or 6 different kayaks but I only plan to have 2. The yellow plastic sit-on-top for fishing, rivers and surf and places that have shallow water with shell like barnacles and oysters. I would like to get a good sea kayak too. they are long and narrow and cut through the water much better than my sit upon for long paddles. I am a strong paddler so I could keep up in mine on the paddles yesterday but I doubt I could keep up and paddle all day with a group in sea kayaks. Yesterday I was the only one not in a sea kayak doing the 4 hr paddle to Shamrock Island and the flats. I will take Shirley on that paddle one day when it is not windy. Our kayaks are the same and we paddle at the same speed, neither of us are in any hurry. Today there are small craft warnings. I drove out to Bob Hall Pier but did not see any of the group. The tropical storm is in the gulf and expected to make landfall at 9pm today just north of us. The waterline is way high and I am wondering how the campers on the beach did last night and if they could drive up the beach okay this morning to get out onto the road that goes to Bob Hall Pier. They all camped way down the beach at the 250 marker. When I did not see anyone I came home and unloaded my car and took it to the carwash for a pressure wash to remove any salt and sand. I doubt anyone will be meeting at Sea Island Italian tonight for the planned farewell dinner. I think everyone who came really enjoyed the activities yesterday. Nature has cut the weekend short for all boaters. They are forecasting thundershowers for the next 3 days. Chris: Marilyn and I both packed up and drove home. I got back to Seabrook about 3am. I hit a hard rain near my home and found out we have had almost 7 inches here in Seabrook. Today, Sunday, has been a nice day for washing down the sand from all my camping gear, but I was thinking it might not have been so bad in Corpus and I should have stayed. Don't feel bad about the weather, I feel like I got plenty of paddling in and enjoyed the trips and dinner - social time. Marilyn: Chris and I came home after looking at the difference in the height of the tide. I think everyone left except the Cocoons. Great plans - and fun first day. Now we need to find someone who can take care of the hurricanes. I think the good news is that we mostly all left before actually getting flooded out. The only guys left were the Cocoons. Hope they were O.K. They assured me they understood the danger and would leave in time. Ellen: It was great to meet you all for our first Surf Fest. Really enjoyed the chance to demo boats and the great guided paddle Sat. afternoon out to Shamrock Island. Delicious pot luck too! We were still camped on the beach Sat. night/Sun. morning at 3am when the water started lapping at our car tires and tent. We jumped out of the tent, warned a few others still on the beach, ripped everything up, through it all in the car just as the police came by to warn us, and hightailed it out of there. Images of our car serving as the base of a new sand dune still haunt me. Spent the next hr looking for a motel to ensure a good sleep. So we missed the group of you that went out for a paddle Sun. morning. But caught up with others (Kathy and Kevin) Sun. afternoon and had a great afternoon of surfing, though a bit rough. Packery Channel was back down by then but no one around. Monday morning was another fantastic couple hours of surfing with just 4 of us left. Warm water, cloudy sky so no sun, and nice waves. Then an amazing 1.5 hrs stuck in traffic to get off of Mustang Island! Chip & Donna: I cant express my gratitude any better than Chris did. Although new to the sport I very much enjoyed myself on Saturday. I can readily see, too, where you and Marilyn had invested a considerable amount of your time in facilitating this event. The threat of storm notwithstanding it was all worth it. Thanks Gretchen: planned a fantastic and very appreciated event. You sure can not control Mother Nature though. I have worked my butt of for many bicycle events that nature took south. Just part of the risk in the game I guess. I missed the Sunday morning planning session and showed up at Lighthouse Trails at 4. Another couple that showed up due to the article in the paper (great article by the way!), and we had a very nice paddle. Event had a dolphin escort on the way back - can't ask for better that! Thanks so much for all your hard work. Donna: I would just like to take a moment to thank you for your efforts and hard work involved in hosting last weekend's events. We had a great time, and even though this trip was cut short, we look forward to coming back for more fun on future trips! Jean: Thanks for posting the photos, & thanks for guiding the trip to the dunes. It was a great pleasure to meet you & I hope I'll have the opportunity to paddle w/ you some time when the weather's cooler, more birds are out, & there aren't any approaching tropical storms. Rafael: The Mexican gang wants to thank Marilyn Kircus and Ken Johnson. We had a great time and we think it is worth it the long trip from Queretaro and San Luis Potosi. Marilyn. You were such a good organizer and managed to warm up the event with previous planning, web page, notes in e-mail lists, etc. Ken. You did an extraordinary work in scheduling events, trying to satisfy all tastes and paddling abilities. You are as usual an excellent host and we had a great time at your place. We learned a lot and you can count on us on any future event to attend with growing numbers of Mexican kayakers that will be more skilled thanks to the exposure they get in events like this. Partly we owe to you two what we have learned in kayaking and the relationships and friendships that we have acquired. I hope we get to be worthy of it some time. Please, keep doing this events, and as a retaliation I would like to organize one event in a town in Mexico, say Tampico or Veracruz and invite you all for a Mexican kayaking party. Just suggest date and place and well try to organize some nice, free, event. We were so impressed also with the quality of the kayakers attending, and their skills and unpretentious knowledge. What a strong motivation to keep up improving. Kathy: Sunday was a beautiful day, Monday we had the beach to ourselves. Kevin and I left the camping beach in our truck camper about 9:45pm Sat after being told that most others were doing the same. We decided to try Mustang Island State Park (with campsites on the back side of the dunes) and got there as the ranger was closing the gate, but were allowed to park in the day use parking lot overnight, which is on the back side of the dunes. We were allowed to stay Sun night as well. Folks camping on the Mustang Island beach were roused at 2:00am Sat night/Sun morn to move to a spot on the back side of the dunes. They were also allowed to camp in the day use area Sun night. As far as the rest of the weekend went, the weather was GREAT! We found a few other folks looking for kayakers on Sun. Christy Long, Linda Day, Gay Culbertson, and Ellen Prediger & Demir all showed up and surfed on Sun. Some of those waves were BIG, although a little disorganized and we all had a lot of fun. The 4 of us surfing Mon had the beach to ourselves on a wonderfully overcast day. The waves were very nice in the morning, big and in sets, but got a little disorganized toward noon. We only saw a few sprinkles, no real rain and no lightning. It was a great weekend. Thanks for organizing it Marilyn and Ken. Fred: As a non-kayaker, I want to say I enjoyed the kayak fest anyway. I learned a lot about the sport. Looking at the kayaks and watching the rolls at Packery Channel was really interesting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get 10MB of e-mail storage! Sign up for Hotmail Extra Storage. *************************************************************************** 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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