Butterfly Beach
The participants:
George Miller
Carol Miller
John Ernst
Patrick Martin
Tim Werner
Len Goodman
Peter O'Sullivan
Chris Wood
Steve Wilson
Steve Holtzman
The statistics
18 successful surf launches
15 successful surf landings
12 NM miles
Ten of us launched from Butterfly Beach in Montecito this morning at 9:30.
It was a pretty uneventful launch and we all turned North to paddle to
Hendries Beach 6 miles away. Our normal paddling speed of 3 1/2 - 4 knots
was not maintained. We had two walking wounded (John Ernst who had wrenched
his back bicycling a couple of days ago and myself who had slammed my hand
at yesterday's surf practice with Anneli Kynar). This coupled with a 15 knot
head wind, really slowed our pace and it took us about 2 1/2 hours to arrive
at Hendries. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife---2 sea lions and
some pelicans.
When we arrived at Hendries, George and Carol opted not to land (smart
decision) and they headed back to Butterfly.The rest of us started in one at
a time. While Pete was waiting to go in, a monster wave caught him and he
braced and started speeding to the shore. Pete thought the wave wouldn't
take
him all the way in, and the rest of us all thought we were going to see Pete
crash--no such luck. He rode the wave beautifully all the way in and exited
his boat. When it was my turn, John was guiding me in and held his paddle up
in the stop paddling signal. As soon as I stopped, a wave came and broached
me.
It looked huge from only 18 inches above the water but in reality was
somewhere between chest and head high. I remember thinking as the wave hit
me, "why did you tell me to stop, John?". I did a half hearted lean and
brace
because I knew I was toast. Well I capsized towards the beach and was helped
up by John and Pete. I asked John why he signaled a stop and he said he was
signaling for me to paddle. John usually uses just his hands and I think we
are going to go back to that system. Any way, we have two new awards to
present.
Pete, Chris, Tim and several others draped the bow of my boat with kelp and
officially awarded me the "Kelp Award" for the most spectacular crash and
burn. We also awarded John the new "Semaphore Award" for excellence in
signaling.
We then went and had some hot coffee and some outrageously expensive clam
chowder (extremely small cups), and a few of the younger paddlers had
tri-tip sandwiches.
We then launched almost without incident but it was rough. All of us got hit
with 2 or 3 breaking waves as we left the beach. We then paddled back to
Butterfly in about 90 minutes (the tail wind and following seas sure
helped). We then landed (7 of the 8 of us made good landings and one person
NOT ME crashed).
All in all, it was a great day on the water, everyone in the group met Steve
Wilson who has asked to be a regular member of the Sunday Kayak Follies even if he
does live 2 1/2 hours away from our normal paddling area, and we all just had a blast together.
Directions: View
Street Map.
- 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!
Steve Holtzman
Submitted on September 9, 2001