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From: Mark Sanders <sandmarks_at_ca.rr.com> subject: [Paddlewise] Serendipity Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:44:07 -0700 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:46 PDT

My plan this morning was to join Steve Brown's rock garden party in Palos
Verdes
to broaden my horizons and try something new. Steve was going to let me
borrow a boat,
but when I talked to him this morning, I decided I needed a little more gear
before challenging the rocks. I didn't want to miss paddling the high tide
though, so I took off on my usual paddle.

As I wound down to the island, I could see the fog had really socked in the
harbor. At least there'd be something a little different on this paddle! One
of the things that had me worried about going rock gardening was which
paddle to use. I didn't think the GP would be the best choice and I didn't
want to chance mashing up Duane's paddle. I had decided to dust off my last
rec paddle from my double, another aluminum shafted 240cm brute. At least
with a paddle that long I shouldn't have to worry about doing an extended
paddle roll. So I decided to use that, but for some reason, decided to strap
my GP on to the front deck anyway.

I was overdressed with my farmer john and long sleeve wetsuit top, but I was
planning some wet play. I'm tired of pussy-footing around BAR and with the
hide tide I decided to put in some major Arch time. At least the fog was
keeping things cool. This was the foggiest day I've ever paddled in; at
Pirates Cove you couldn't see the end of the jetty--in fact, you couldn't
see the beginning of the jetty! I made the turn out of the harbor to the
comforting sound of the fog horn and used the faint outline of a fishing
boat as watermark for my path to BAR. Demmed inconvenient of him to sail off
and leave me with no visuals! I paddled on figuring I was on the right path
and with the fog horn sounding behind me, I'd be OK. But this was the first
time I've ever been completely out of sight from any landform and as the fog
horn got farther away, I wondered if I could be sure to find it again. For
all I knew, I could have been heading to Catalina. Finally, after over 5
years, I figured out why some people carry a compass! Even the swells were
so small and gentle that you couldn't hardly tell which direction they were
traveling. I decided to head straight in the direction that I thought was to
shore and after not too much worry found myself just short of BAR.

There were a large contingent of pescadors on BAR as I made several passes
through the arch in both directions. With the small swells, I was able to
just hang out in the arch and play in the swirl. With the high tide and
small swells, I figured I'd try some rolling practice in front of 75 Million
Dollar Beach. I was feeling confident and tried some sculling and high
braces to get into the swing of things. But I guess rec paddles weren't
designed for high bracing and I found myself upside down with two new
aluminum canoe paddles! The aluminum shaft had cracked right through! I have
to say, I had decided I wasn't going to be happy today unless I ended up
upside down, but I really didn't expect it to happen in that manner. I was
really glad I had  made the strange choice to carry my GP with me too.

A mild set back, I was happy to be wet and decided to try a reentry roll
with my GP. I was 50/50 with rolling with it the other day, but I had hopes
I could do it. After several failed tries, my audience on the rock were
wondering if I was OK and I'm not sure they believed me when I said I was. I
decided to give up, but rather than doing a paddle float roll, I decided to
punish myself and swim the boat to shore. I wanted to land anyway, so it
seemed the thing to do. But punishment it turned out to be. It being a small
cove, any current heading in also headed straight out making getting to
shore a chore. The waves were too small to help and it was surprisingly deep
even as I got closer. Of course it didn't help that my bootie zippers had
opened up turning them into sea anchors and swimming in a PFD really only
seems do triple your chance of having a coronary. Now the pescadors were
ready to call the Mexican Coast Guard. I used my paddle to help push me past
a rather difficult spot and finally got a tippy toe hold on the shore. All
the while I was thinking of the story in this month's Sea Kayaker of the
couple paddling in the Aleutians. I wasn't in that kind of trouble, but the
length of time it took to get in might have bruised my ego.

It was nice to rest on the shore. Had I something to eat, I would have made
a party of it, but my orange was heading out somewhere on the tide; I
settled for half a bottle of water. I had to reflect on my good fortune,
though. I'm much happier to find out my crummy paddle couldn't handle  a
high brace in familiar territory AND with a backup paddle on my bow. That
wouldn't have been the case had I joined Steve this morning and I didn't
have to mess up the day for other paddlers. I woke up this morning hoping
for a new experience and found one in my own back yard.

Mark
www.sandmarks.net
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