The weather was beautiful, with some sunshine, and we had the water, surf, and beach to ourselves, meaning no surf boarders, swimmers or kids in the way.

We all practiced various individual and assisted skills. There were no spray skirt incidents to cause near misses with the natural selection process. With so many spray skirt incidents occurring lately, I made it a point to practice wet exits without using the grab loop on my spray skirt. I did about 15 wet exits by pulling my spray skirt off from either side, and I never had a problem getting the properly fitted, all neoprene Snap Dragon Supratex spray skirt off. With a little practice, it is almost as easy as pulling the spray skirt off with the grab loop.

After practicing skills, we all played in the surf. It was only 2-3 feet high, but it was still a lot of fun. It was small enough that we all goofed around, trying our best to get thrashed by late take-offs, burying the bow, and going backwards. There were some collisions, which is always good to practice, and lots of swims (not me, of course).

We finished everything up with lunch at the Lighthouse Restaurant, which included the usual story telling, jokes, and banter.

All in all, it was a great time with a fun group of sea kayakers!

Duane

Directions to the launch are as follows: Directions: From the 405 Freeway, go south towards San Pedro on the 110 Freeway, which will end and becomes Gaffey, go left on 22nd Street, go right on Pacific Avenue, go left on 36th/Stephen White Street, go left into Cabrillo Park, and the beach we will be launching from is on the right.

Map
Picture of Cabrillo Beach
Webcam of Cabrillo Beach

Duane Strosaker, Dave O'Conner, Steve Wilson, Jon Brindle, Mike Condit, Jack Brisley, Bob McMurry and I showed up for the skills practice at Cabrillo Beach yesterday, 7/31. It started out as a special day in that three out of the eight boats were wood a record percentage. Duane was in his Point Bennett, Bob was in his North Bay and I was in my Chesapeake 17.

I found out that Steve was slighted in my reporting of his performance in my last trip report. So I'll start with him. Boy today was his day in the rock gardens. I first spotted him side surfing a narly breaker between two rocks. There must have been a inch clear on each end of his kayak as he flew through the gap only to brace over the shoulder of the wave and catch the backwash and surf it back out around the outside side of one of the rocks. Wow! You had to see it to believe it. I really didn't watch the rock gardens much because I want to avoid getting drawn into those conditions. However the next time I looked over, from quite some distance, I swear I saw Steve surfing through the notch backwards right up to the tide pools were the wave crashed up against the rocks and he rode the reflected wave back out through the same notch. Really you should have been there.

Since I was only slightly intimidated by the conditions in the rock gardens, I stayed with the mere mortals in the calm where everyone practiced rolls and other skills. Everyone had put his neoprene on so I knew this was going to be a serious wet session. We started with rolls to get used to the cool water. And soon some were practicing the "Hand of God". Of course, sculling and bracing were constantly happening somewhere in the group. Soon several of the group were practicing a assisted rescues. Dublin Dave did a few t-rescues with me and he always has good suggestions on how to do things a little easier and quicker. I was watching Bob do rolls and skull with his Popsicle-stick greenland paddle. I don't know how he gets that skinny paddle to work (I have one that I don't use much).

I was playing around with trying to do a Steyr roll (starting lying on the back deck). I was having trouble getting the sweep to work for me. So I asked Duane for suggestions and he showed me how he does it. I never did get it to work but, in the process, I did learn how to skull up to a roll. I was thrilled with learning that.

I tend to brace too far into braking waves so I paddled in the break line parallel to the sand for awhile while the others were still practicing skills just outside the 2-foot waves. I now know how to fall over in both directions in breaking waves and once in a while I get lucky and stay upright.

Jack, in his neon banana boat, seemed to initiate the surfing session by surfing into the beach backwards. Soon the whole gang was surfing. A lot of us accumulated some skeg (upside down) time. I never did see Duane over in the surf. It did not matter if he was surfing frontwards, backwards or doing a reverse loop he stayed upright. I gave myself the grunion award for the day because I spent the most time flopping around on the wet sand on my belly usually with a boat attached. It proved I need a lot of improvement in bracing skills.

Finally, Jack was talking about it being time to leave but Bob finally made the break for the cars and the whole group followed. I was beat (in more ways than one). Six of us gathered at a local eatery for more good times. And guys if I missed any action let me know and I'll make up for it in my next trip report.