Originally the plan was to do a car shuttle and paddle one way from El Capitan State Beach to Goleta Beach, a distance of 11 nautical miles. But logistical complications warranted a change of plans. Henk and I decided to skip the car shuttle, launch from Goleta Beach and paddle west toward Naples Point. If conditions remained calm we might paddle all the way to Naples and back, a distance of 14 nautical miles.

The conditions remained calm. Our trip from Goleta to Naples was done in an hour and 45 minutes. I think the trip back was done in even less time with the swell helping us a little. Henk was a gracious partner and stayed with me. If I hadn't slowed him down he would have made the round trip considerably faster.

I had the advantage of equipment on my side with a fast kevlar touring boat and a light weight touring paddle. Henk was paddling an experimental proof of concept 70-pound wooden boat that he built with plywood from Home Depot, a Costco aluminum paddle (that can also be used as a snow shovel), and a seat that was made out of a 5 gallon bucket. Henk built this boat to test the CAD software that he created. I know he is going to be impossible to keep up with when he builds his next boat.

The day started off overcast and cool with a little fog here and there; perfect weather for an energetic paddle. For the first mile or so things were going pretty well for us. The view of Cal State Santa Barbara next to the beach made me wonder how the students could manage to concentrate on their studies with such a beautiful beach bordering their campus and dormitories with ocean views. In spite of the overcast, the water was clear enough to see fish swimming through the kelp beds at Goleta Point.

But when we reached Coal Oil Point our good fortune slumped a bit. We began to see the remains of dead dinosaurs floating on the water. For the remainder of the trip the hydrocarbons floating on the water were so thick that they were textured. We started seeing amber jelly fish that would normally be clear. Big globs of tar threatened to glum onto us if we weren't careful to avoid them. And the odor coming out of the bubbling water convinced me that a lot of the dead dinosaurs must have been carnivores with bad breath. Even after 75 million years the smell of these things was foul enough to make me queasy.

Along the way we passed the Bacara Resort. The place was beautiful with hillside villas overlooking the ocean. Since we were still slogging through the floating tar pits it was not surprising that the beach was vacant. People who come to that resort must have better things to do than to play near the ocean.

A few miles down the coast the water cleared up a little. There was still some oil in the water but not so many tar babies. As we approached Naples we were joined by three or four dolphins. One large dolphin seemed to like us as he swam beside us for a while and even surfaced between us when we were only about 15 feet apart.

We decided to do a landing at Naples point. So we carefully picked a stretch of beach with plenty of rocks poking through the waves. I was fortunate when a sweet little wave allowed me to surf all the way to the beach and deposited me high on the sand without broaching or hitting any of the rocks. Henk on the other hand had a wilder ride to the beach and ended up getting bounded off of a rather large rock. Fortunately neither Henk or his boat were injured.

While taking a break on the beach, Henk and I discussed some of the innovative features of his boat. He told me that the Martha Stewart brand of Tupperware is best for making internal bulkheads. And Berber carpeting is what he recommends for padding the 5-gallon plastic bucket from which he made his seat. I told him that is design was so amazing that Sea kayaker magazine should be willing to publish an article about it.

When it came time to launch, another kind wave gently floated my boat off the beach and let me paddle beyond where the waves were breaking without so much as getting a drop of water on me. But Henk's was having a bad karma day. When he joined me he asked if I had heard the loud screech of the rock that scraped the full length of his boat.

The trip back to Goleta Beach was uneventful. More oil and tar, but the sun came out when we got back to the college which made the ocean look a lot better. After landing I discovered that Henk's boat did a better job than mine of hiding the waterline ring of oily residue. That was the good news. The bad news was that Henk's swimming shorts did a really good job of hiding his car key from him.

While Henk was waiting for the Autoclub service truck to come to unlock his door, a guy showed up to admire Henk's boat. The guy told us a story about how he and his father had built a 30-foot sailboat with a concrete hull. That's when I turned to Henk and said, "Just think, Henk, you could be the first guy in the world to build a concrete kayak." From there the discussion went on about the advantages of a concrete hull: better resistance to rock scratches, better protection against shark attacks, and he could still get a good workout without leaving his friends so far behind.

It wasn't until after the Autoclub service truck was about to pull into the parking lot that Henk discovered the key had come out of his pocket and had wandered down deep in the webbing of his shorts. I wish that I had a camera to show the smile on his face when he managed to dig that key out of where it was hiding.

Henk, thanks for paddling with me today. It was a good workout, a lot of fun, and a lot of laughs.

Patrick Martin