Yesterday's practice session was a huge surprise. I wanted to go to The Pond to practice rolling and bracing. I knew about 5 people would be showing up.

You can imagine my surprise when the total was 15 people and 16 boats. Mike Condit has decided to carry a spare boat in addition to a spare paddle. On the way out, we met Jess (from Aqua Adventures) and another paddler heading out to Anacapa. I hope they had a great trip.

The 15 of us broke up into several different groups and some tried learning to roll with help from Peter O, others tried to stand in their boats without holding on to anything while standing up, and some of us just tried practicing our rolls - or should I say swims.

I'm scheduling some warm water practice for me in a couple of weeks, because I only completed the last roll that I tried. Plus every time I signaled for a bow rescue but one, I couldn't stay under long enough for the boat to get to me.

After a while, everyone moved down the beach to practices surfing. I've never seen that many people surfing at one of our practice sessions. I played with my GP and found that if you try side surfing with it like a Euro paddle, it doesn't work well - someone said it's like sex - you can't just lay their without moving. John P suggested I scull with it and that worked perfectly.

Next several of us paddled with Dan Haven around the breakwater before calling it a day. This was Dan's maiden voyage in his own boat, a pretty Perception Carolina.

    Steve Holtzman