The surf was spilling which was a nice change and averaging 2-3 feet in height and then there would be a calm between the sets. Almost all of the 12 paddlers, Jake Stachovak, Ted Mitchell, Mike Plummer, Ari Danesh, Kevin Harris, Patrick Martin,Mike Bode, Skip Munns, John Petersen, Chris Wood, Peter O'Sullivan, and me) made it out without incident. Some of us were lucky and managed to get out completely between the sets (personally I think it was skill and not luck) and others wound up punching through some green water before it crashed down on them.
We started paddling for the destination of Hendry's Beach and got there in fairly quick time even though we were paddling into a 10 knot headwind that occasionally gusted to about 15. We didn't see any whales, dolphins, or other mammals on the way out and we came to some interesting surf at Hendry's. It is a long shallow beach so the waves were forming a good distance from the beach. The trick was to start going in on the smaller sets and wait for the waves to pass you. As soon as the wave was under your bow, you needed to paddle in quickly until the next wave was getting close to hitting you.
There was some very minor carnage on the landing and since everyone was dressed for the water, there were no problems. After coffee, hot chocolate, and some even ate hot dogs, we were ready to launch. The surf was bigger and more challenging. Three people decided they wanted to go swimming.
Ted, who is from Colorado and doesn't get much surf at home, had a run of bad luck. He launched during what looked like the lull between sets. No sooner did he get moving than a 3 foot high wall of water hit him. He kept going and then a 4 foot high wall hit, this too didn't stop him but the next 5 foot high wall started him surfing backwards towards the beach where he wound up doing a wet exit and swimming his boat to shore. He then got back in and paddled out like this was something he does everyday.
Next came Kevin. He launched and soon all I could see was a boat flying through the air and Kevin in the water. He is still learning the important skill of keeping one's mouth closed while swimming. Patrick commented that he had not seen a boat so far in the air since the first time he met me in 1997 and my boat was doing pirouettes in the sky. At that time, Len Goodman bestowed upon me the nickname of "Holy Roller". Patrick decided that it was time we passed the torch, er uh nickname to Kevin. Fortunately he took it very good-naturedly and is proud to carry on the tradition.
At this point, we noticed that Chris Wood who was already past the surf zone was swimming next to his capsized boat. It seems that the larger waves were breaking further out than anybody on the water thought. Patrick towed the boat out of the surf zone, Skip towed Chris with a contact tow, and Mike Plummer did the assisted re-entry.
We then paddled back and I thought I saw a whale. Actually it was the butt of a paddle boarder. Every time he would reach for another stoke, his butt came up and looked like a whale starting to dive. However the Condor Express (whale watching boat) was out and we watched it stop. Thinking there might be a whale, I signaled the group and we all headed towards it. Soon we saw a whale spout right in front of us.
In another minute, there was a whale 30 feet from my bow. We all turned and started to follow it. We kept pace with the Condor Express and watched the whale for a while. Again, it surfaced no more than 30 feet from me. Finally it dove and didn't come up right away so we knew it would be down for another 30 minutes or so.
We then headed in to Leadbetter Beach and landed without any more incidents. Packed our boats and found the parking wasn't as bad as we expected. The lot didn't officially open until 11:15, so they put the entrance tickets on our windshields for us and we only had to pay for a few hours of time.
It was a fun day with some old and new friends on the water.
Steve Holtzman
View a picture of Ledbetter beach.