At about 7:00AM we paddled over to Bluff Cove, which was already being used by quite a few board surfers. Don and I were in WW boats, so we cautiously surfed the edges until they got accustomed to us being there. Eventually, we pretty much mixed in without any problems.

Richard has a longer SOT surf kayak that is very fast, but not very maneuverable. He kept more of a distance since board surfers usually resent being run over. It didn't matter, because he was able to catch almost anything in that boat. Several times I was struggling to catch a wave and would fall off the back. I could look to my left and see Richard rocket by on the wave.

Most of the waves were in the 2-to-4 foot range, but sets were coming in at 5-to-6+ feet. Richard got blown off his SOT a couple of times, but recovered without any problem. Don and I frequently had to roll over and allow a large wave to break over the hulls rather than in our face. On separate occasions after rolling over, the waves were large enough to back-flip us back right side-up. In may case it unfortunately back-flipped me back up-side down immediately. In Don's incident, which I saw, he was upside-down one second, then an instant after the wave hit he was right side-up again, paddling away. Very cool!

Don suggested before hand that we could offer to "trade" our kayaks with a surf board for a while in order to facilitate good relations. I decided to try it. The response was: "I would prefer to put out my eye with a hot poker". I struggled for a moment trying to figure out what to say. Eventually I said "Well, I bet my surfboard is warmer than yours". This somehow degenerated into a short but friendly discussion of what thickness of wetsuit everyone was wearing. I paddled in to shore quickly on that good note (quit while I was ahead).

We all took a little break on shore where Richard surprised us with some hot coco. That was a nice surprise. The cobble/boulder beach landing was very steep because of the high tide, so Richard just left his boat in the water and swam in. The boat eventually found a nice resting spot at the south end of the cove. After the break, Don and I each did an exhilarating rocket launch down the smooth rocks into the water, then did a little more surfing while Richard retrieved his boat.

In the course of the day we all caught a lot of waves and got some really long rides. Somewhere about 9:30Am we headed back to Malaga cove to end the day.

Great day surfing with more to come this weekend.

    Steve Brown