The ocean looked flat, but there was a wicked shore break at Surfrider today. Usually, you can launch right next to the pier and the water is almost totally flat. Not today--the waves were coming up about 2 1/2 feet with little or no warning. After watching the surf, I decided to take my deck bag and camera because it appeared that I shouldn't have any problems. Almost everyone made it off of the beach without a problem but Tim started having difficulty. He wiped out 3 times before making it out. Finally we were all on the water and underway. The water was totally flat with no wind. We had a good strong bunch of paddlers and we paddled non-stop to Dan Blocker. From the water we saw there was a nasty shore break and we decided to paddle on to the next beach to land because it should be calmer. It was. All landed without any problems. Right after we landed the shore break came in with waves that were about 4-5 feet high and extremely steep. They were completely perpendicular to the surface of water.

We watched the waves for a while and decided that the big ones were coming in about five minutes apart. When it was time to launch, I waited for a big set to end and received a helpful push off of the beach from Peter. Just as I started paddling a big one rose up in front of me and I leaned forward, speared my paddle through it, and immediately braced and started paddling again, but I had lost most of my momentum. A second wave came up in the same place, but my momentum was almost totally gone. I dug in for all I was worth and again leaned forward and speared the wave with my paddle. A quick slap brace and I was still upright but standing still. At the same time Kiran tried to launch and he got hit by this wave and went over for a swim.

Then the "mother of all waves" rose up in front of me. I did not stop paddling because I did not want to surf it backwards. My boat did a vertical pirouette as I tried to paddle up this wave. Everything behind me was completely under water and everything in front of me was completely free of the water. The boat then fell over backwards as this wave broke on top of me and the paddle was ripped from my hands. At the same time, I found the reason for wearing helmets on surf launches. The waves were being caused by some huge unseen rocks. The only reason I know they are there is because my head found them. Before I could remove my skirt from the combing and do a wet exit, the boat was ripped from my body and I came to the surface and saw 1/2 of a paddle go by. I felt certain I had broken my paddle. But then my Toksook floated next to me and I grabbed it because I was having trouble getting back to the beach and I thought I might need it to help swim in.

Peter waded out to get me as I swam in and Patrick waded out to help Kiran and get his boat. The half paddle we saw was one of the 2 halves of my spare paddle. The force of the wave tore the deck bungee in half that secured it to the back deck. My deck bag was only being held by one of the four clips and we didn't notice until we landed at Surfrider that the bag had opened and my camera was gone.

After sitting on the beach for about 5 minutes I was able to launch without any problems. We had a totally uneventful paddle back until we got to Surfrider. The shore break had increased in size again and I saw Lee go in and go over and when he came back there was considerable blood coming from his scalp. It wasn't too serious, but head cuts bleed A LOT. Then I watched Peter land and as he got out of his boat, it was sucked back out to sea before he could grab it. It looked like it was going to get pounded against the pier, but Peter managed to get out far enough to grab it.

Tim made it in without mishap and I did a straight in landing that offset the terrible launch I did. Then Patrick started coming in. I was guiding him and he refused to believe me when I kept telling him that there was nothing behind him and to keep coming. He even stopped to let this wave he was imagining pass him. When nothing lifted his boat, he finally did decide to paddle in.

After we got to shore and loaded the boats, Peter noticed that there was a nice gouge of gel coat missing from my stern and a small crack in the fiberglass that I will need to repair before going out again.

    Steve Holtzman

Directions:

1 1/2 miles south of Malibu Canyon Road on PCH. You can't miss the Malibu Pier.

View map.
View picture of Surfrider Beach.
View picture of Dan Blocker Beach.