In spite of today being a national holiday (with the associated fears of traffic), fourteen of us (five from Orange County) met at Hobie Beach in CIH to paddle out to Gina today. I won't list everybody, because frankly as a result of being old enough to wear a Tilley, I can't remember everybody's name and I don't want to insult anyone by leaving them out.

During the on-the-beach briefing, we found that there were quite a few paddlers in this group who have only been paddling since the beginning of this year. All of them have had classes from our local outfitters and it shows - everybody was able to maintain about a 3 knot speed in the flat windless conditions we had going out.

There was quite a bit of power and sailboat traffic leaving the harbor, but everyone stayed to the sides of the channel and also handled the steep wakes without any problems.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes (there were two short breaks), we arrived at the platform. While paddling out, Peter O'Sullivan and I switched off being the sweep. It was my turn just before we got to the platform and Chris Wood, Patrick Martin, and I were close together and talking when both Patrick and I saw an overturned boat and a swimmer waving a paddle in the air. The two of us poured on the speed to help the victim back into his/her boat only to find when we got there that it was Peter. Chris knew this was going to happen and Peter just asked us to let someone who needed the practice, do an assisted rescue.

During lunch, several people mentioned that they saw Peter, but thought, "let someone with more experience rescue him". Hmmm---we need to work on that. Anyway Patrick and I backed off, and one of the newest paddlers did a very nice T rescue. Peter then capsized again, and we had one of the two women on the trip do the rescue. Again, Peter was back in the boat fairly quickly.

Then a lot of us practiced rolls - or I practiced a number of successful bow rescues. As Wayne H's monthly Reflections column says this month, rolling is mental. I did four attempts where I "forgot" one part of the skill (different on each attempt) and of course did not come up. Finally, I had one roll going that felt perfect - until my hand slid off of the end of the paddle. Meanwhile, I enabled both Paul Jonason and Chris Wood to perfect their skills as a rescuer in a bow rescue.

Patrick was enjoying himself trying to take underwater pictures of each of us while we were under water. It will be fun to see if they turn out. Patrick was using the same roll that I use (Sweep Roll) for his offside roll and was having as much success with it as I. On the other hand, he was able to switch to an on-side roll and come up without any assistance.

Last week I did 5 or six successfully, and this week none. Oh well, that's why we practice and I know it will come back. Last year, I probably would have been wet exiting after each attempt instead of staying in my boat. I keep telling myself it is baby steps.

After everyone had cooled down, and two of our newer paddlers were demonstrating their scramble reentry skills, we set out for Hobie Beach. We noticed there was a fairly good current pushing us East to West and we corrected, but found that a rest stop, really blew us West. When we finally hit the breakwater, we were at the extreme West end of it and had to paddle parallel to it to get to the East End.

Just before we reached the breakwater, a sailboat coming out asked if he had just paddled in from Santa Cruz. I quickly said no and was informed by many that I should have said yes - or no, that we had just been out to Santa Rosa. I'll learn one of these days.

Most of us then walked to Daddy-o's only to find that it was closed for the holiday - so we ate at the restaurant next door. The food wasn't as good, but the company of old and new friends was terrific.

All in all, we all kept saying what a fun day it was on the water. It was also a great way to keep from melting in the heat. Forecasted temperatures were for 90's at the beach and 100's inland.

    Steve Holtzman

Pictures by Mike Bode
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