When I read that Jacqui Stone, a paddler from Down Under, was coming to town and was looking for advice on where to paddle, I was happy to offer some help. As a kid I had lived in Australia for a year and hoped to hear about life and kayaking there in the modern era. Perhaps it was our Australian connection, or just my offer of free gear, but either way she said she'd love to come down and paddle in Newport. Over the last few years I've had the privilege to paddle with a few people from coast to coast and in between through connections with Paddlewise and other kayaking links. Those experiences had me looking forward to sharing my favorite waters with someone from a different county and hearing about their experiences. Jacqui's emails were also assuring as they seemed to show an easy going person ready for an adventure. Jacqui was flying in to bring some post production materials for the movie "Legends of Guardians". Arriving on Friday, she was spending the night in Venice and would come down to Costa Mesa sometime Saturday. I offered to come and get her to drive her down, but she declined saying she discussed transportation with her hotel desk and was assured that it was a straight forward process to make it down. Oh, the eternal optimism of novice, foreign tourist to the US! The twelve+ hour flight from Sydney could only be a warm up for the horror of trying to make the endless connection on our public bus system to wind her way from Venice to Orange County! It was 6pm when I got the call from Jacqui that she'd made it to the motel close to my house. I offered her a quick tour of the town, although I was thinking she'd be ready to call it a day after her travails, but she was happy for something to do. Jacqui is the out-going editor of the New South Wales Sea Kayak Club's magazine, one of which she presented me with as a gift--an impressive publication. I took her on a drive down to the Balboa Peninsula to show her our paddling area from a land based view. After turning around at the Wedge, I stopped to show her my Geocache hidden at a public dock by the bay and then we wondered back with light starting to fade. I dropped her off at an El Pollo Loco near her motel to enjoy some fine American dining. In the morning we joined Debra, Barb and Sharon at the Secret Beach. Debra had brought her Tempest 165 for Jacqui to paddle and we had a wide assortment of various kayaking gear to get her ready for the water. At home, Jacqui paddles a ruddered Shearwater that looks quite a bit like a Tempest, but her new boat took a bit of getting used to. In my readings, I've come to believe that rudders are more accepted by kayakers in Australia than they are here in the US, don't know if that has something to do with there conditions there or just some local influence. Australian kayakers also seem to embrace electric bilge pumps as well, something I've always recommended and sure enough, Jacqui has one on her boat at home. It would have been nice to paddle under clear blue skies rather than the unusual overcast we had, but we at least didn't have to worry about getting too hot. We decided to head for the back bay to give Jacqui a nice harbor tour. The water was flat except for the wake of a little more boat traffic than usual due to the holiday weekend. We had fish leaping out of the water on both sides of us as we paddled under the PCH bridge. The back bay is always pretty and we had enough tide to keep it smelling fresh! Wild life seemed a bit scarce, but we saw Blue Herons, White Egrets and various other water birds, however no sign of the hawks you can sometimes find basking on a signpost. One small fish skittering over the water leaped from one side of Debra cockpit to the other with just a brief touchdown on her spray skirt! Heading back out to the main channel, I promised to show Jacqui Keven Costner's old house on the water. I'm pretty sure I had the right one next to the Duke's old house. Only one of the giant yachts that usually inhabit the docks was there, one dock was completely empty. A big ol' giant sea lion decide to take a sun bath and jumped up as we hung by. Surprisingly, Jacqui says that seals are quite rare in Sydney and she was eager to get a closer look. We warned her not to get too close, but I did want to get a good photo, so we didn't stop her too soon. The brute got tired of the attention and perhaps realizing the history of Australia as a penal colony, decided Jacqui wasn't someone to be trifled with. We paddled home along side the Balboa Fun Zone which Jacqui said reminded her of Manly Bay in Sydney. We dodged the ferry and the increasing boat traffic as we passed the Pavilion and meandered among the boats on our way south. We crossed the channel to show her Pirates Cove where we play so often. Barb was eager to give her a rolling demonstration, but we all begged her to let us head off to get lunch and she relented. Ken and Carol joined us for lunch at a rather deserted food court and we all noshed on various cuisine. Barb couldn't bear the thought of Jacqui leaving without doing some shopping with her, so we dragged her to SouthWind to show off our superior kayak establishments. Jacqui was able to come out unscathed, but Barb left with a dented lady bag. That was the end of our kayak adventure and the group left Jacqui with a hearty G'day Mate! http://www.sandmarks.net/JacquiUpOver.html http://www.nswseakayaker.asn.au/ *WARNING!!! The Remainder of this report contains nostalgic reminiscing and virtually no kayak content!!!* Now I'm not suggesting that the Vagabond Inn Costa Mesa isn't a excellent example of American hostelry, but I was glad to convince Jacqui to avail herself of and extra room at my house. Turns out Australia, unlike America, doesn't have a Mexican restaurant on every other corner, so Jacqui wasn't real familiar with the cuisine. I could think of no better reason to take her to one of our favorite example, El Matador Restaurant. Our descriptions of enchiladas and tamales were enough to tempt her to try them and I beamed with pride as an American when they placed the over abundant plate of food in front of her! She even got to experience the joy of burning her finger on the plate!! Back at home we talked a lot about Australia. She was quite familiar with Dee Why Beach where I had lived for a year as a boy. I was able to ask her about the area and I was glad to have someone to verify all the memories I had that I was beginning to wonder if were true or all fantasies. DY has become very popular and we got on Google Maps to check out the area. With the Street View, I was amazed to find my old apartment building still standing after 45 years, although the fish and chips shop underneath has become a Surf Snack shop. The beach and park are just as I remembered as well as the tide pools and the ocean fed pool built into the rocks--something I've never heard of anywhere else. To the north were still the hills and lagoon area where I used to play with my sisters. It was nice to hear the area was still so similar despite the changes over the years. Via Google, we left DY and Jacqui showed me many of the routes she has paddle through the immense Sydney harbor. She told me stories about how active the NSWSK Club is and about their training and seminars. Dues are quite high, but there club sponsors a lot of activities and much of the dues goes to pay for insurance. They bring in a lot of presenters to give talks and lessons, such as Nigel Dennis and others whom I'm afraid I've already forgotten. Anyway it seems like a great place to paddle with some challenging conditions to be had. In the morning we took off to take her to the Banana Bungalow, a Hostel on Fairfax in Hollywood. I gave her the 10 cent tour of the downtown shopping area of Beverly Hills. We drove down blvd.s Sunset and Hollywood crowded with Labor Day tourist. We found the neat, if unassuming Banana Bungalow and I went in to check the place out. In my very limited dealings with hostels, it seems the people who work there are required to be perfunctory and aloof. But this girl had an accent and Jacqui asked her if she was Australian. She was, which seemed pretty amazing to me and she offered that she was actually from Tasmania! I asked her if she had a bit of devil in her and I'm not sure how she took it!! Loud obnoxious American that I am, I admitted to her it was hard for me to tell Kiwis from Aussies which she seemed to take mock offense to. She said "that would be like me telling you you sound Canadian!" I told her I wouldn't take any offense to that and asked her what she had against Canadians!!!! She said she liked THEM!! Despite my presence, she seemed softened by Jacqui's presence and allowed me to go up to see her room in the Ladies Only dorm. Seeing the pictures on the hallway bulletin boards, I couldn't help to think the the mostly young people inhabiting this international travelers only hostel might tend to ignore such restriction. Still, they seemed to provide many services and entertainments for their visitors. Being still early, Jacqui and I went and visited the Page Museum, better know as the La Brea Tar Pits! As museum go, this is one of my favorites--cheap, short and sweet and chock full of flesh ripping saber teeth! We stood for a while watching bubbling ooze belch from the depths of the greasy water. Inside the complete skeletons of saber tooth tigers, mastodons, camels, sloths and lions always amaze me with our history. Outside, I tossed a buck in the bucket of an old busker with guitar in hand. He belted out a ballad and then Jacqui asked him to play "that other instrument there"--a banjo! I told him she was from Australia and was unfamiliar with the English language and the excellent busker that he was he went right into an Australian drinking song that had Jacqui singing along! I was surprised he'd know their national anthem! Next he brought out an old bowl shaped mandolin and told us the history of the instrument and played us another song--good enough to make Jacqui break out another buck! We were starving--the animals at the museum being nothing but bones--so began searching for some place to eat. Thankfully, Jacqui being a foreigner, I was able to convince her Sub Way was an exotic delicatessen and after she ordered from what could only have been the sandwich version of the Soup Nazi, we luncheoned on turkey and wheats. Sadly, that was the beginning of the end and I abandoned Jacqui on the steps of LACMA to finish her LA adventure alone. Having been to Australia, I often think I'd like to go back, but having been to Australia, I know that just about any thing that crawls there will kill you if you give it a chance! Now she tells me they have ticks!!! Ick! But the exotic waters, enthusiastic kayak community and now a friendly face for the future, I might have to reconsider it. I give thanks to Jacqui for the visit and my kayaking endeavors which always seem to provide me with great new experiences! Mark Sanders www.sandmarks.net *************************************************************************** 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 Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 11:16 PM, Mark Sanders <marksanders_at_sandmarks.net>wrote: > When I read that Jacqui Stone, a paddler from Down Under, was coming > to town and was looking for advice on where to paddle, I was happy to > offer some help. > Jacqui was lucky to have run into you and the rest of your pals but I'm stunned to learn that there are few Mexican restaurants in Australia. Someone should start a chain immediately. Why should they stay happy? I must admit that your yen to visit Oz struck me as strange considering that we can't get you to visit the PNW; a place you could actually drive to!!! Of course we don't have any youthful memories you can tap into visiting up here so perhaps that explains it. She really *did* get close to that sea lion, didn't she? Nice photos. Good on ya! Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net PS: My grandparents lived in Santa Monica in the early 1950s and I remember them taking me to see the La Brea Tar Pits. Of course, back then there were still real saber tooth tigers running around but it was still a place that remains vivid in my memory. That and their buckboard filled with flowers in the front yard of their little stucco house. And the sunshine (pre smog). cj *************************************************************************** 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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