This morning I felt fine so I attended the paddle that Peter O'Sullivan and I were hosting from Dan Blocker Beach to Point Dume and back. When I arrived at the beach, I found a lot more kayaks and paddlers than I expected. We wound up with a total of 14 paddlers. The surf was relatively gentle, with sets of about 2 foot with an occasional larger one thrown in. The tide was extremely high at a plus 7.5 feet. There was enough fog, that I threw a gps into my day hatch "just in case".

Steve Wilson, Duane Strosaker, and Dave O'Connor, made the longest drives - and both Steve and Dave had been to the Ho Ho Ho paddle yesterday. We had a short briefing, decided that since we had a couple of paddlers who were relatively new to surf launching and landing, that we would land at Paradise Cove instead of Westward Beach for a break on the way back.

I asked Duane to help Paul C launch since this was only his second time out in surf. What Paul lacks in experience, he makes up with enthusiasm. All of us launched easily and soon we were paddling towards Pt Dume about 7 nm away. After 30 minutes of paddling, I started to remember why I didn't paddle last night. I was operating at about 60%. After 45 minutes, I called for a break so I could catch up to the rest of the group. Everybody thought I was just the sweep, but the truth is I was hurting and was having a hard time keeping up.

By this time, George "Speedy" Miller was a distant spec on the horizon. Finally we reached the point and headed out to the buoy about a mile off shore. We gathered there (all except George who landed at Westward and then paddled back out to join us). At this point I noticed we had more paddlers than we started with. It seems we picked up a paddler named John (sorry i didn't get his last name), who had a little trouble finding the launch spot. Eventually he spotted us on the water - drove down the coast a bit, and dragged his Skerry down a cliff and paddled out to join us. Fortunately, he is a very accomplished paddler and caught us as we made the Point.

Finally we started paddling back and Peter O', John Petersen, The new John, and I took the inside track to play in the surf some. As we turned into Paradise Cove, we notice that only 6 of the other 10 paddlers were turning in for shore. We all landed without incident and took a 20 minute break. Then we launched and headed back.

By this time, the water had smoothed out to being completely flat. There were a few waves to surf and I noticed again that I was having trouble keeping up. Paul Jonason and I took the sweep positions (it was nice of Paul to stick by me) and we traded paddles a for a while and just kept paddling. Finally we called another 5 minute stop, and then paddled the rest of the way back.

Everybody that I saw landed without any problem even though the surf was a little bigger than when we launched. I heard that almost everybody who had arrived before us also landed without problems.

As soon as we hit the sand, I was digging in my first aid kit for some Advil as my back felt like it was about 30 years older than the rest of my body.

We cleaned the boats, loaded them and most went to the local Malibu Subway for refueling. Jus now, I finished refueling with more Advil. Hopefully that will last until the morning.

All in all, despite the pain, sore musceles, and general malaise, it was a great day to be on the water.

Steve Holtzman