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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Nice write up. Thanks for sharing your adventure. ~~mark Steve Holtzman wrote: [sniparoo] > 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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Steve wrote: - >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. G'Day Steve, Nice description, got me wondering if being knocked sideways in shore dumping surf is a common problem. Larry Gray taught us how to turn our boats back into the waves within 2 or 3 seconds of being knocked sideways without getting out of the kayak. The method is carried out while the boat is partly on the sand, and partly in the water. The technique is to edge the boat onto one side on the sand, while using the paddle as a "walking stick" support at about 45 degrees on the kayak's other side, to help support the edge. Its then very easy to turn the boat into the waves by swinging your legs and abdomen inside the boat. It needs a bit of practice in easy conditions before trying it for real. If you adopt this method and launch from shelly beaches you might want to stick protection pads on the side of your boat where it would swivel in the sand/water slurry, to protect the gelcoat. Sandy beaches not a problem. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On 11/10/06, PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_iprimus.com.au> wrote: > > > Larry Gray taught us how to turn our boats back into the waves within 2 or > 3 seconds of being knocked sideways without getting out of the kayak. This is a clever solution. My problem is getting out of the kayak quickly. Some of you know that I walk with a cane to support a left leg that doesn't operate properly. Specifically, it doesn't bend enough. This really hampers my ability to get out of a kayak quickly. In fact, I made a compete fool of myself one day at Northwest Outdoor Center in Seattle trying to exit a Necky. I thought I was going to have to capsize and wet exit. Even on a nice day it can take me quite a while to exit the kayak on a beach landing; surf of almost any size makes it much more difficult and knowing that I'll have these problems on landing makes me reluctant to go find bumpy water. This sounds like a great idea. Getting old seems like it's a continuing series of giving things up. I gave up toy cars, comic books, teen-aged girls, sports cars, 20-something girls, mountain climbing, 30-something girls, bicycling... and then I had to give up sports cars and teen-aged girls all over again. :) Craig Jungers Royal City, WA *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
[Please remove all old content that is not pertinent to your reply including old headers and footers. It's list policy.... this post was modified to meet policy] Quoting Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com>: > Getting old seems like it's a continuing series of giving things up. I gave > up toy cars, comic books, teen-aged girls, sports cars, 20-something girls, > mountain climbing, 30-something girls, bicycling... and then I had to give > up sports cars and teen-aged girls all over again. :) Don't despair Craig. You still have comic books and a head full of experience and common sense. That's a lot more than a lot of us have. And in the immortal words of Jon Stewart, you understand things. Brad Crain *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Peter O wrote: > Larry Gray taught us how to turn our boats back into the > waves within 2 or 3 seconds of being knocked sideways without > getting out of the kayak. The method is carried out while the > boat is partly on the sand, and partly in the water. Peter, This is pretty much the technique we also use. It seems that this is a fairly common problem when launching through dumping waves here. The problem this day, was that as soon as we started to float, the boats would be turned sideways. It happened, just as we started paddling. The rip was extremely strong and ran a full 90 degrees from the direction of the waves. There really wasn't much time between the waves so we wound up just turning with alternating sweep strokes or as one paddler did, just launch backwards. Fortunately, our beaches are mostly sand so we don't have the problem of tearing the gel coat up on the side of the boat while turning. Steve Holtzman Southern Calif *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Steve wrote: - >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. Then PeterO asks: - >Nice description, got me wondering if being knocked sideways in shore >dumping surf is a common problem. Yep, this is a frequent problem for less experienced surf paddlers. You will find that a "long shore current" is a pretty common occurrence along shorelines that are exposed to surf. The technique is to first establish if a current exists, and approximately how strong it is. You will then factor this information into your launch by angling your boat on the beach into the current. What happens is that as your boat clears the beach you will reach a point where most of your boat is in the water but your stern is still dragging on the sand. This is where your boat is most susceptible to getting turned sideways. But if you launch at an angle, and your timing is right, then as you clear the beach the current will be straightening your boat out, rather then turning it broadside to the beach. BTW, a "rip current" is a whole different animal, and while they will also produce long shore currents to their sides, if you launch in the center of a rip current, where the water is being "sucked" off the beach and drawn out to sea, then you can often get a fast and easy launch from it, frequently avoiding the surf altogether. Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** 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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