Things didn't start well, because as Kent pointed out in his email, I called the paddle too early. There were a lot of sad faces for the first couple of hours. Quote of the day from Cate at about 11:15: "This is kind of boring". At about 11:30 I decided to do my waiting on the jetty while mumbling about how a watched pot never boils. Some had already done so and more would follow. Meeting 2 hours after high tide is probably best (A lesson for the future).

Diane and another paddler (Dick?) stuck with it. The other paddler was catching a few right on the corner of the south jetty and he seemed to be the only one able to do it. Finally (12:00?), a set of five footers filled the channel and Diane shredded all three. There were cheers from the jetty. I turned in time to see Duane jumping off the jetty and running to his boat. Let the games begin!

We all followed Duane and conditions heated quickly. Long rides on 3'-to-5' waves were the norm, punctuated with occasional waves of 6'-to-7'. There were multiple boats on every wave. Some said they counted 10 on one wave. I have pictures of at least 5 or 6 and I know I missed shots of the most crowded waves.

As the day wore on, the current continued to increase, the tide continued to drop, and the fun continued to increase exponentially. Soon the break outside the cannel started going off and some were able to catch those on the outside and surf nearly all the way to the bridge. It was almost constant action with virtually no wait between catching waves - exhausting.

The waves steepened and began to pitch over on the outside. Several of us had the pleasure (?) of dropping through 4'-to-5' of air to hit green water below. On several of those I wasn't really surfing, but my Bliss wanted to surf and was skipping like a stone across the water. Eventually, I could regain control and get on it.

Even after a wave broke there was still plenty of fun because they would either re-form, or in some cases maintain steep green water face on the wave front with whitewater on the backside of the wave. I think that later condition was cause by the current which peaked at what looked like 4-to-5 knots.

There were numerous combat rolls. I don't thing anyone escaped flipping at least once (if you did, let me know so I can push you over next time). There were also some missed rolls which resulted in a few swims. The drill was for the swimmer to swim his boat to the middle of the channel and let the current carry him outside past the outer break. Then get an assist with dump and pump (yes, a few wise paddlers brought pumps).

There were very few collisions because everyone was doing a great job of controlling their boats. No serious injuries as far as I am aware. With that many paddlers surfing in a 50 meter wide channel, it's a wonder there weren't more collisions. Next time if there is this many paddlers we should probably agree on some "rules" in advance to reduce the possibility of collisions.

Future? The next big tidal exchange Saturday is November 22 and I already have it marked on my calendar!

    Steve Brown

Directions: Take the 5 freeway, get off at Tamarack, and turn toward the ocean. When you reach the ocean, you’re there.

View picture of Tamarack Beach