Rough Water Practice
Dublin Dave, George, Peter, Skinboat John, Ari, Drew, Mike Bodin, Ines (the Lone Rangerette), another new face whose name I can't remember for which I apologize, and I, Boatbender (AKA Beach Babe) met at noon at Hobie Beach. I couldn't resist the temptation of all that water and neat folk to play with so...I joined 'em after promising that I wouldn't bend any boats or make my shoulders do things they were never intended to do. After a short briefing we headed to the Pond where we worked on various skills--mostly bracing, some T rescues, leaning and edging and towing. The rough water was flat and you could make bigger waves in the bath tub by wiggling your big toe but that did not dampen anybody's enthusiasm for play.

There seemed to be several changes of partners as we all worked on different things. One of the things I tried was a combing tow which worked really well on John P's skin boat that had no place to hook a tow line to. I also tried a new style tow line made out of 9/16 tubular webbing. It is 35' and fits into a neat little net bag that takes up almost no room. It worked well and stuffed back into its small bag and deployed quickly again without tangling. Commercial versions are available from Aqua Adventures though I made this one myself. It was really good to see some new faces really getting wet as they went through the different rescue techniques.

We were shortly joined by pod of dolphin that didn't seem to care that we were sharing their feeding ground and they surfaced and swam through us on several occasions.

The flat water began to change as the wind picked up a little and we got some small surf which was just perfect for surf zone practice. Great place for several folk to practice the new Olympic sport called swimming with kayak. At the hour progressed the swimming became less and the surfing better. After 2.5 hours of great fun we headed back to the beach and Daddy-O's which was closed due to a big party they were catering. Fair food across the street at the Mexican stand.

I have have forgotten somebody, If I did, sorry. There were several new faces along with the old. There was no carnage, no broken boats or bodies and I am sure most of those who attended feel somewhat safer on the water and are more able to better enjoy the water world at our doorstep. According to some of our excellent local professionals, 85% of sea kayakers do not have a consistent roll; from what I have seen most of those paddling our local shores have no clue how to brace or edge or practice some reasonable control over their boats in anything but duck pond water no less what to do if they, or somewone close to them, capsizes. It is no wonder that "kayakers" are frequently "hated" by surfers and swimmers alike. It some places we are beginning to see kayaks banned from launching and landing because of these safety issues. The more we do to improve skills, the safer we are to ourselves and to the different groups with which we share the coastline and the more acceptable we become to others who now see us as nothing more that torpedoes. For our small piece we had another great day on the water with new and old friends.

    Mike Brown

Mike Bode adds...

I just want to chime in that, as a new member of CKF, a beginning paddler, and a first-timer at one of these group outings, I was tremendously impressed with the session and the people participating. I was greeted in a warm spirit of welcome and encouragement that was quite unexpected. To a man, they all have skills far superior to my own, and were ready to patiently share what they new. I want to especially thank Dave O'Connor for his patience in helping me review and practice rescues, and Peter O'Sullivan for his one-on-one surf clinic (I'm a Kayakswimming gold-medalist and proud of it!).

And thanks to Mike Brown for ringleading the whole thing. For a newbie, it was a great introduction to the group and CKF! If you guys don't play your cards right, I might show up for another one of these shindigs.

Submitted on August 22, 2004