Monticieto Paddle
I met Tim, James, and David at Butterfly Beach this morning for a 9:00 AM
launch.
Directions:
- 101 to Olive Mill Road in Montiecto.
- Exit Olive Mill Road and turn left.
- Follow this road past the Four Seasons Biltmore.
- A short distance later you'll come to a stop sign. Your there now
and look for kayaks or cars and trucks with racks on them. Park
and paddle!
I have paddled with them all several times and they're all very good
paddlers. We all decided that this paddle was too tame for Beth and she
decided not to make it. There wasn't any 15 foot swells like last weekends
15 mile paddle we made together. Grins, just teasing you Beth.
I stayed on the beach and helped launch James and Tim before climbing in my
boat to make my own launch. A small wave turned me sideways and I started to
roll in only two or three feet of water. I quickly performed a brace on the
high side of the wave and uprighted myself. See, it's starting to sink in
Wayne H.
David paddles a Looksha III and I've been considering it for my next channel
crossing boat. We paddled down to Santa Barbara Harbor and I tried his boat
and then gave James's Current Design Extreme boat a try. David's boat is
extremely fast as it's 19.6' and 21" wide. You just think of making a paddle
stroke and the boat starts to move it seems like. It's a bit more tippy than
my Looksha IV but not really that bad. I wasn't real crazy about the way it
tracks without the rudder being down and that's the same thing that David had
warned me about. James's Current Design boat actually felt more stable than
my boat feels. The cockpit and seat were very comfortable and I really
enjoyed the way it felt to paddle. It does take a long time to make a turn
though and it's a high volume boat which I really don't need. For now I'll
stay with my Looksha IV until another boat catches my attention.
The water had really been very smooth and calm on our paddle to Santa Barbara
Harbor.
There were gentle rolling swells and otherwise that water was like
glass. As we were departing the harbor I decided to shoot through the pier
on my way out. Boy they have a ton of pylons under that pier compared to
Ventura Pier. Those Santa Barbara folks plan on keeping that pier up. They
were so close together I had a hard time making my way through them all. As I
came out the South side of the pier the winds and chop had picked up
considerably. We all decided that it would be foolish to paddle beyond
Butterfly beach and head further south. It was only 10:00 or 10:30 and the
winds and chop had kicked in pretty early today.
We paddled back to Butterfly Beach and prepared to make our beach landing. The
tide was still at high tide and we took our time timing the swells and sets
before entering the break. About a month before John reported hitting his head
on the bottom during a landing roll, I too had almost the exact same experience.
I was wearing a helmet and heard the same crunching in my neck as my head was
pushed backwards. God that's an ugly sound and it hurts alot as well. I was
dazed and confused for about 20 minutes after I had hit my head. I had never
mentioned it as it happened during a certain event and I didn't want to shed
a bad light on that event. Before I started to make my beach landing today,
I placed my helmet back on. All of us made a great beach landing today in the
3 to 4 foot waves. We all loaded our gear and headed for Paddle
Sports in Santa Barbara.
Today's paddle wasn't a particularly long paddle at all. The conditions
weren't extreme or in anyway exciting at all. We were just four guys that
have paddled together often and got out on the water together for another
beautiful day in paradise. If I could figure out a way to make a living at
this I would jump on it in a heart beat.
Gregg Remer
Submitted on January 27, 2001