I had arrived in LA a week ago and the water was cold. The powerplant in the background bellowed white steam and I parked my silver Protégé next to Kinga's small clone silver car. At least her kayak wasn't blue...And so began my second attempt at surf kayaking. My first had been in 6-8 ft sand break in Malpais (bad country?), Costa Rica about 3 weeks ago. The results there left a lot of skill to be desired. Rolling someone else's unoutfitted playboat left me nearly fully swallowed by the boat...beached on the sand.

Despite the inauspicious landscape, I had a grand time today with Kinga. Her name is fitting. She ruled those waves. She also taught me the surf brace, and gave me tips on speed matching, and techniques for dropping into waves without being chundered (my word). I had taken my river runner - an RPM which I can handroll - in the hopes I wouldn't be beached again. I found I can easily roll in surf when I have footbraces. Next time, I'm bringing MY playboat since it is a lot shorter, less likely to perl, and faster than the RPM.

The waves were a mixture of mushy and fast... I caught a good many of them, experienced some "maytagging", intentionally "turtled" under some particularly threatening ones. As the day progressed, I realized we'd had a perfect day for a whitewater paddler to get used to surf...it started small, ended big and fast and left my appetite whetted for even bigger.

In case you were wondering, the only carnage was Kinga's swim as a result of a loose sprayskirt.

All in all an awesome day. Thanks, Kinga!

    Rachel River Runner