I'll let Diane fill in the details of the main trip. After the main trip I just couldn't help myself, I had to play in the surf some more. It was a great little surf that was perfect to play in for a newbie like myself. Besides, it was fun watching the small sharks dart about in the waves and all of the carnage as the rental fleets came and went.
I was playing around in the surf for probably 30 minutes when Terresa (sp?) showed up in a WW boat and suggested we paddle over to a beach on the other side of the swiming area as it should be less crowded. Sure enough it was just about empty. Just one dad teaching his Daughter how to surf, and a guy standing on his porgue inspired boat paddling about. (Yes, paddling while standing.) We had a good time playing in the surf, but my 15 SOT just refuses to surf more then a short distance. The longer I surfed, the worse I seemed to be getting. I finally decided it was time to call it a night and we headed back over to the launch area. To my disgust my slow safe approach resulted in me going over like a renter... Arggh! That was it, and I pulled the boat to shore. As soon as I hit sand I realized the boat was a "bit" heavier. Seems the big hatches were leaking a bit. I pulled the drain plug and watched the water pour out for a fairly long time. No wonder I couldn't keep control of the boat anymore. It was probably half full of water and I didn't even notice.
Great time. Very happy I was able to attend! I will be back down there.
Wayne
Sunday was a beautiful day. 9 of us met on the beach at La Jolla Shores around 8:30 and launched about 8:50. We had a nice mix of attendees-both CKF & SDKC members among the group. Mike Brown, Teresa Boli, John Bristol, John Walker, Val, Connie, Wayne, myself and one person whose name I forget- sorry. The ocean was very calm and the tide was low. Launching for our group was smooth. Can't say as much for all the sot renters. We had a real easy paddle over to the sea caves-several of us on sot's did get our exercise keeping up with the sea kayaks.
The tide was too low to enter the caves-so we paddled past La Jolla Cove to childrens pool and on to hospital point(not named due to carnage there). John W. was on the shortest sot and had quite a workout paddling so far on a kayak purchased with the intent of surfing. The sea was so calm it was hard to turn back-but we did. When we reached the sea caves on the way back the tide was still pretty low-but some of the renters were entering on their sots. So when the caves were vacant, I headed in on my scrambler. As I was turning to come back out, a couple on a tandem rental ran right over the top of me, fell off and ran for safety leaving the boat on top of me with a large swell coming my way. Once I cleared the tandem off me, I headed back out to the open sea. John Bristol and Mike Brown managed to get the couple with the tandem out of the cave after several trys and dumps. They finally carried the boat over the rocks and exited out the other side. Goes to show that experience and training are necessary.
We all headed in to the beach after that. It was interesting to watch all the renters paddling around, falling over and over and over. I did help one guy get back on his sot. Probably didn't last long though. John W. fell over in the surf on the way in-I think he just wanted to cool off. Wayne and Teresa played in the surf for awhile and some of us had a picnic in the park.
All in all, a very enjoyable day.
Keep an eye out for future outings in July.