Patrick had his brand spankin' new Valley Pintail ready for it's maiden voyage. We were going to have a traditional Inuit wetting down ceremony on the boat, but Patrick threatened to get out his camera with the special microscopic lens on it and put together a photo calendar of the CKF "Packages".

We hit the water, and that's when John "Inuit Time" Petersen showed up. Most of us waited, but Speedo Miller and Jake headed out. We finally finally headed out so that John wouldn't have too much distance to make up to catch us.

As we passed the pond, All of us except Patrick stopped paddling, put our paddles down across our laps, leaned back with arms up stretched towards the sun and broke out into a chorus of "Let the Sun Shine, Let the Sun Shine". Patrick claimed to be more of a Beatles fan and he could be heard singing "Hope my boat ain't a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine....."

We paddled out to the power plant and couldn't see Jake or Speedo. George then called on the radio, and he and Jake were heading back towards us. We then decided to head a little further out, because Patrick wanted to see how his boat rolled and nobody wanted to roll in the murky looking water close to shore. We paddled out about another 2 miles and that put us about 3 miles off shore. Patrick did a couple of rolls, and commented that the water was still murky and that he couldn't see anything. A few others did some rolls, but I was listening to my doctor who has asked me to take things easy until I get a handle on some health issues.

I did try some sculling and bow draws and bow rudder strokes with my new custom made GP. It was a dream to paddle with and is definitely my lightest paddle, weighing in at only 28 3/4 oz..

We then started to paddle up towards the Santa Clara River to check it out. As we started going, I started feeling a little tired, so Chris Wood and Tim Werner accompanied me back to CIH. The waves were coming directly at our sterns and it was a very easy paddle to return.

Meanwhile, Patrick, Peter O, and Paul Jonason continued up towards the river. They then turned back and returned. We all went out to Daddy-O's, and when we finished eating, we noticed that John Pee, Jake, and Paul Chiang had not returned yet. We were a little concerned, so we called on the radio and found they were almost back.

When they landed, we all kidded John about the fact that his car alarm was malfunctioning again and it was continuing to go off. Usually, most alarms shut off after about 10 minutes, but not this one.

All in all, it was a terrific day on the water. Patrick decided his boat is a keeper after waiting so many months for it, and I came to the same conclusion about my new paddle.

Steve Holtzman

Pictures by Paul Jonason
Click to see larger image

John Peterson in his new skin boat with Peter O'Sullivan	Patrick Martin rolling his new Valley Pintail	Steve Holtzman with his new Beale Greenland stick

Nice trip report. It was a great day to be on the water with friends; thanks for bringing us all together. The sunshine and laughter made for a warm celebration. One small correction; it was Ron who accompanied George on the early-bird expedition. Since the traffic down from Ojai was still very congested, Barefoot Jake got to the launch site later than usual and paddled out with Inuit John to join us.