Kayakers, Monday was too windy for more oil rig crossings, and with the surf up, I felt the need for beatings in the sea kayak. San Onofre was running 6 feet, with long period south swell and wind swell from the west, making for messy, consistent surf a quarter mile out with rare and brief lulls. I hadnbt been in the surf for a while, so I had to warm up to it. I took lots of hard hits punching out and had to do some roll unders. Once I had the guts for the outside break, I took a few rides and was thoroughly thrashed each time. After enough water up my nose, I stayed a bit inside where smaller waves were breaking. At first only three other guys on waveskis were out there with me. Then a couple guys in SOTs with lots of fishing gear were trying to punch out. At first I thought I must be a whimp or those fishermen were hardcore. It turns out neither was the case. The fishermen were trying hard and constantly getting knocked off their SOT, but theybd hop back on and keep trying. I figured they give up. Then during a rare lull in the waves, I decided to go outside for a quick coastal paddle to get some exercise. I was surprised to look over and see one of the fishermen made it out during the lull too. When I looked back, I saw his buddy was climbing back on his SOT way inside. On the way back in from my coastal paddle, I saw the one SOT guy fishing outside the break. I landed and saw a bunch of lifeguard trucks with their red lights flashing and lifeguards scanning the surf with binoculars. I asked them whatbs going on. They said they had to rescue one of the fisherman and his SOT before they washed into the rocks in front of the nuclear power plant, and now they were looking for his buddy, who they assumed washed up past the power plant. I told them I just paddled by his buddy, who was fishing outside the break. They sent a lifeguard out on a paddleboard to verify it was him. She was able to talk him into coming back in. As he came in through the surf, he whipped out and lost his SOT. At that point, he hopped on the paddleboard with the lifeguard to avoid a long swim, and another lifeguard on a paddle board got his SOT for him. As it turns out, his PFD was his seat cushion. I think the rescued guys were cops. They had that look, and one was wearing a T-shirt that said Culver City PD and the Vegas to Baker run. These guys did a lot of things wrong. But I think most profoundly, the buddy system between these two guys failed. I donbt know how one guy could be out fishing without knowing where his buddy was. After everything calmed down, I went for a barefoot run down the beach and found a full size fishing tackle box washed up on shore. When I took it back to the fishermen, they asked if by any chance I saw a fishing rod too. Duane Southern California www.rollordrown.com *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:53 PDT