Alicia after a good day with a new rescue under her belt.
Another good week on the water brings me to a quick post on my blog. As all are aware we had some wild water out there of which I had to partake in Monday night. (More about this later.) Ok, I know, by Monday it had died down considerably but for the beach I surf it certainly was quite enjoyable and the water was still wild enough for a boy in his long boat. I was going to head out on Saturday but received an invitation for some rescue practice with a student from UCLA's Marine Aquatic Center which I gladly accepted.
Alicia had been looking for a partner so I joined in as I needed to practice a new style of the old T-rescue and I have now adopted into my recovery skills quiver. Jen Kleck from Aqua Adventures taught me this rescue last month and I promised I would practice it and spread the word and that is exactly what I'm doing.
Alicia and I started out at Mother's Beach in Marina Del Rey so we could get the fundamentals of it down in calm water then headed out to the Venice pier for the real deal. Halfway to the pier I capsized and Alicia had me back in my boat in record time leaving us both asking the question "Why doesn't everyone teach this?" Don't ask me to explain it but believe me, once you learn it you'll never turn back. The great thing about this rescue is that the person being rescued is no longer some passive stranger hanging on the bow of your kayak doing a bunch of nothing but becomes very active in the rescue and is never more than a couple feet away from you. If you want to learn it I see that California Kayak Friends is having a "get wet practice day" at Channel Islands Harbor on 9/25 and I'm definitely going to join in so I can share this so be there or don't get rescued! As for Monday...
It started out as the usual workout paddle afterwork but once I saw the action at the beach I just had to have a peek. (It seems like I always have to have a peek and so much so I'm considering a surf kayak so if you have any suggestions let me know.) I paddled up to the Venice pier and worked the surf on the way back. The waves weren't monstrous like earlier in the week but they definitely had some punch to them. Twice I got pitchpoled, which isn't hard to do especially on a dumping surf beach, but this time they were a little more explosive than what I'm use to yet I held my own rolling back up and going at it again.
A little while after the sun had set I was about halfway down the beach and it was getting dark so I figured I could play a bit more then head for home and just then a wild bunch rolled in so I just had to finish off the evening with a couple more wild rides. I then turned my soggy self towards the harbor and called it a night. As usual I picked up a few pieces of garbage here and there honoring Gordon Brown's request to pick up at least three pieces of garbage after each paddle just to give back a bit. (This is a request he made in his latest book on sea kayaking. Saturday I picked up a few pieces of trash as well. See photo below! lol)
Saturdays haul!
