[Paddlewise] A Lollypopsicle Day on the Water

Today could best be described as a lollypopsicle day on the water to quote a
famous BCU coach from across the pond.
 
Five of us showed up at our launch site in Carpinteria, CA, with an eclectic
assortment of boats. Peter was paddling a British made Valley Pintail, John
(of Shaman SOF Kayaks and traditional paddles)  was paddling a West
Greenland Style SOF he made, Lee was in a US made Wilderness Systems
Tempest, Chris was paddling a Mexican made Mayan Sea Performa, and I was
paddling a British designed and Canadian built, Nigel Foster Shadow by
Seaward.
 
BUT all of us were paddling with GP's. Not only that, but all of the spare
paddles were storm paddles. This is the first time I've been out on the
water without anybody having a Euro style paddle.
 
The launch at Carpinteria is usually an easy one and the beach is advertised
to be the safest beach in the US. When we got there today, it looked
intimidating from the road. All we saw was "huge" dumping waves. When we got
to the actual beach, we found it wasn't bad. The super high tide let us see
the entire wave from the road and that made the 2 - 4' dumpers appear a lot
bigger to us.
 
We did have a few problems launching because there was a very strong rip
current on the beach and as soon as you got your boat to start floating, you
were sideways.. Peter got turned around several times and decided to finally
launch backwards. As he did this, a bigger wave broke on his back and pushed
him backwards (or is that forwards?) back into the impact zone. He then
turned the boat around and went out normally. The rest of the group finally
got out on the water. I had the cleanest launch and only had one wave break
onto my chest. Everybody else had multiple waves breaking on them but once
we were out, the water was relatively calm.
 
We paddled to our half way point, and the other four all made nice straight
in landings. As I came in, a 4-5 foot wave started to break just behind my
boat. I did a high brace turn and rode the brace to shore in a mountain of
spraying white water. After I exited my boat, a woman walking by came up to
me to say that my landing looked very exciting and fun. I agreed with the
fun part and my paddling partners just smiled  as she commented how hard
that must be to do. If only she knew how easy it really is!
 
When we launched, our friend Dumpy was there waiting to try and catch one of
us. I was the first off the beach and my timing sucked to put it mildly. I
thought I was launching into a lull, and instead I got hit by four different
breaking waves. Each of the first three was powerful enough to push me
backwards into the impact zone. By the time I got past the fourth one that
hit me right in the chest, I was breathing hard and really needed the break
of just watching the others launch.
 
Chris, Peter, and John all had perfect timing and just climbed over a few
smaller waves. Lee tried my timing and got hit by two big ones. From my
vantage point on the water, I thought the last one was going to knock him
over as all I could see was a bow coming through the back side of a wave and
the boat was on a 45 degree list. Lee's bracing skills worked and he came
through just fine.
 
We would have all made straight in landings back at Carpinteria, except
Chris got caught in a rip right as he was about to get out of his boat. That
caused me to have to stop my landing approach just long enough for a wave to
decide I should be broached. Again, another side surf landing, but I always
say that if your head remains above the water at all times during your
landing, it was a good one.
 
The day was very hot with inland temperatures in the 90's and temps at the
water were approaching 80. The 65 degree ocean water was very refreshing and
we all did a lot of rotary cooling on the way back.
 
Just a perfect day on the water, even if everybody was using a lollypopsicle
stick for a paddle.
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