Bluff Cove
You missed it! Surf was very sporty at Bluff cove on Sunday afternoon. Don, John, Vickie and I met at the Malaga cove parking lot. John drove to bluff cove and carried down the hill. Vickie, Don, and Launched at Malaga cove and paddled over. We launched through 3-to-4 foot surf at Malaga, caught a couple of waves, then mostly just slogged straight through to bluff cove. Since the north and south breaks in the cove were really crowded and the corner (Flat Rock Point) was really going off, we decided to stay in the corner for a while.

Check the map: www.brown-web.net/kayak/Places/pvpen/bluffcove/bluffcovemap.htm

Rides there are fast and scary, but really fun. Like a wild roller coaster ride: when your ridding it, you may wish you weren't, but once its over, you immediately get back in line!

In between sets you couldn't really catch anything, but when a set came in they were at least 7 feet for the first beak (much bigger than the main cove). They would reform into about a 5 foot break for the second, and the final break and run out was about 3 feet. A paddler in the right place at the right time can get a great ride and then turn out and over the lip before getting thrashed. That requires being right at the steepest takeoff point when the main break has just started to spill.

We didn't do that too often. The more usual scenario is a takeoff from a sub-optimum spot, barely getting over the falls to take off (they’re fast!) and then surfing in, alternating between being in and out of control.

Watching someone surf in was a little nerve wracking because you would loose sight of them for a very-very long time. Finally all the chaos would subside and they would appear way in by shore. Don was the first one to do it and I had already started to wonder what I was going to tell his family by the time he finally appeared.

Big ones are really sticky, and once you get caught in the break there is no getting away until it reforms. The soup is 3-5 feet high and very fast moving. Flipping to escape is out of the question because there are submerged nastys waiting to tear your head off (or at least give you a very bad head ache).

On the other hand, once a wave re-forms, who wants to escape? On several different rides I turned to get control on the re-formed wave, had a blast surfing it, then greedily hung on too long and got caught in the second break ,and then again on the third break. Kind of like a monkey trying to pull three bananas out of a jar at the same time.

Getting back out was a chore, but very good exercise. Anyway, we took 3 or 4 rides (and thrice as many attempts) there each before decided to go surf in the main cove. Although there is some question as to whether we caught the waves, or they caught us, it was fun anyway. Over in the cove we linked up with John, did some more surfing (in much smaller waves), took a long break, and headed back to Malaga cove. At Malaga we surfed until closing time (sundown) and then called it a day.

    Steve Brown

Submitted on October 22, 2003