Here's my paddle report from yesterday, I though it might originate some discussion on towing divers and paddle indexing! Sunday: It's surprising I went out for two paddles today, considering I was ready to give up the sport on my first outing! Seems it's been a rough 2011 for me, at least starting with the symposium. But I'm over my cold and trying to get a bit active again, so I thought I'd join John C.'s Crescent Bay rock garden paddle this morning. There was an 8am and a 9am starting time, actually, and I even chose the early one, because I planned to join K&B on an afternooner! For those of you that have never been there, Crescent bay has a lovely, steep hill to navigate with your boat and gear, so you get a workout even before you get on the water. For those of us with a firmer grip on gravity, it's not much fun! The shore break wasn't real big, but it can give you a bit of trouble, but I didn't really give it any thought. I launched into one of the bigger waves thinking it would be a nice way to warm up and although I got through OK, my throw bag got dislodged from my bungees! As I tried to stow it, another wave came sending me upside down and then rudely back to the beach high and dry on the sand. I had to get out to point the boat in the right direction, but I was a little too far down the beach this time! Before I had time to put on my skirt, a wave sucked me out sideways right into the next wave and I was window shaded back to shore! Now me and my boat were filled with water and mud and I was already tired before the paddle started! The third time was the charm and soon John, Jack and Lenora and I were checking out the reef on a high tide. The water was infested with scuba divers everywhere you looked, so you had to watch where you paddled! Out past the point, I saw a couple divers who seemed to be trying to communicate with some other friends! They were waving, but when they started blowing a whistle, John and I thought we better go check them out! Turns out they were both in trouble, too tired to make it back to shore and very happy we were there. We had each one grab our back toggles and started towing them back to shore, but I wasn't sure I was making any progress! Perhaps we were in a bit of a rip, but I think it was mostly a case of these guys being just so loaded with gear, they were like a giant sea anchor! We told them to try and kick, but they both seemed too tired to help much. Getting them up on our boats with all that gear seemed to be more trouble than it was worth! John was starting to make headway, but I called to Jack to come give me some help and we had the guy hold on to both our sterns. Even with two of us it was an evil slog! He lost hold of my toggle, but Jack was able to get him close enough into the break to walk to shore. They both spent time on their hands and knees in the sand trying to recover from their ordeal. John and I were both surprised at how unsure we were that they needed help! I only heard one short whistle and I wasn't sure that wasn't some way divers communicate with other divers on the water! Seeing some divers later on the shore, I was amazed at how much gear the wear now, all of it being the kind of stuff to cause drag for someone having to tow them in. So it's time for the CKF crowd to come up with a towing solution for this situation. We were lucky it wasn't too far of a tow, or we'd have had to jettison some of their gear, or at least have another person try to carry it separately! Finally it was time to have some fun in the rocks and waves, but I was having another problem!!! I had just repaired my Patrick Martin Frankenstein rock garden paddle except for one detail! He had a long piece of foam taped along the shaft to serve as an index. I'd taken it off and planned to epoxy on a new one, but thought I could get through the day without it! Now the shaft was twisting through my hands and every brace was an adventure! I rode over a reef and went to brace in the white water on the other side and over I went. As soon as I got up, I got broached all the way into a rocky reef fighting crappy braces at every turn! This paddle has very heavy blades and they tend to turn to a strange angle if you don't keep a death grip on the shaft and it didn't take too long before I decided I didn't want to brave some of the more challenging water with it! Still, others were having fun, Lenora had made a nice combat roll in some nasty stuff and we'd been joined by Blake and Louai. I left them heading down the coast so I could start my next paddle on the day. I had time to get home and clean some of the sand out of my gear before my next launch. I decided I'd had enough of the Sapsucker on the day, so for the first time I paddled both the Sap and the Lollygagger on the same day! At the Secret Beach, Barb and Ken and I launched into the teeth of a nasty head wind and battled the chop heading into the harbor. Outside, things had picked up since my earlier paddle and we were definitely into conditions Barb doesn't enjoy too much! We decided to settle for a pass around the buoy where the call of the seals greeted our arrival. I decided I'd follow K&B however far they wanted to paddle, but after a pass by Big Corona, Barb had had enough and we headed back. The wind was our friend on the way back and I caught a couple nice swells to propel me down the jetty. We were happy to find an empty dock back at the SB and celebrated at a local coffee shack. Mark _______________________________________________ Info mailing list Info_at_list.ckf.org http://list.ckf.org/mailman/listinfo/info *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Mark, Another great story. And an interesting dilemma about a) how to be sure divers really are in trouble; and, b) how to get them to shore. I have noticed that they seem to be carrying a lot more than they did when Sue and I were doing the sport in Puget Sound. I think the next step is a personal submarine. They should have been able to inflate their buoyancy vests and just lay around in the water 'til they had some strength back. Seems easier to me than crawling through the surf only to spend time on your hands and knees. I've been so tired I couldn't move, myself, however. It was after an especially taxing rolling session. In a pool, no less. Would you explain the Frankenstein paddle? Is it a GP? Anyway, sounds like two great adventures in one day. All I did was ride a bike. :P Craig :) On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 6:01 PM, Mark Sanders <marksanders_at_sandmarks.net>wrote: > Here's my paddle report from yesterday, I though it might originate some > discussion on towing divers and paddle indexing! *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Yes, I grew up with Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt! He didn't need all this gear! Just a speedo, a tank and an old garden hose! The guys yesterday looked like they were going to the moon! I'm sure their dive computers were a thousand times smarter than the computer on any Apollo mission! My Frankenstein paddle is just an old Seda paddle I bought from my friend Patrick Martin. It was a one piece feathered to 90% with a blue shaft and orange blades. It weighs a ton, but seems pretty indestructable, aside from my repairs! I cut it apart and glued it back together with no feather using a wood dowel to connect it! It worked for a while, but the dowel broke in the surf one day. This time I added an ugly, bulky FG wrap around the connection, which should stand up to anything, but makes for a rather ugly repair! Mark On 4/18/2011 6:25 PM, Craig Jungers wrote: > I have noticed that they seem to be carrying a lot more than they did > when Sue and I were doing the sport > Would you explain the Frankenstein paddle? Is it a GP? *************************************************************************** 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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