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Kayaker Loses Virginity - Part II
As it turned out Tiffany showed up with her husband. It was my great pleasure to meet both Tiffany and Doug, a.k.a. “Sweetie”. It didn’t take long before Tiffany had me pointed down the beach and straight toward some breaking waves. Doug held my kayak and made sure I didn’t get sideways, and then I heard, “Paddle! Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle!” I think I must have been frightened because Doug said to me later, “What did you think?” I said, “Think about what?” Doug said, “The white water and the waves.” I was thinking, uhhh, what white water, what waves? It occurred to me I didn’t see or remember anything! I just paddled, paddled, paddled, paddled! As a matter of fact, it all happened so fast, and was so easy, I no longer thought a surf launch was a big deal. That Tiffany, she is good!
After putting in at Old Port beach, we paddled up to the lighthouse on a red tide and in the fog. On our return, we explored under the pier at the Old Port Inn. It’s very narrow in there with lots of pilings. I was kind of doing ok until the tip of my kayak touched a piling. I tried to reverse paddle but my paddle was hung up on a different piling. Just then Tiffany yelled out, “Tim, don’t panic when you see the Sea Lions!” Oh crap, in front of me were Sea Lions. It was dark, the water was a murky red, and I started thinking, “Oh man, I don’t want one of those Sea Lions to tip me over in here.” If I had worn my heart rate monitor it would have jumped 30 beats per minute! It became very important that I did everything right. I popped out the other side of the pier and everyone was just ecstatic with the fun of it all.
Posted:
Sep 27 2008, 8:27 PM EDT by
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Kayaker Losses Virginity- Part III of III
My day wasn’t over though. Tiffany and Doug took me to the entrance to Avila creek where we bobbed up and down watching the braking sets of waves crashing on half submerged rocks. Tiffany said, “This all depends on your comfort level, Tim. You can give this a try, or if you want, we can beach the kayaks over there, a calm beach not too far away, and walk them over to the creek.” I sized up the situation and thought I had a good 30% chance of making it without getting dumped, hitting my head on a rock, and splitting the kayak into two parts. I said, “I’m going for it.” Tiffany timed the sets, ordered me forward a bit, then said to backpaddle, backpaddle, then, “Go, go, go, go! Whatever you do, don’t stop paddling!” A wave came from behind and started pushing me sideways, another wave came and pushed me sideways some more, and I was headed for the rocks, the big rocks! I paddled so fast and hard my paddles looked like helicopter blades. I made it! Oh yes, I made it! I am so good, I can do anything!
My head was getting big. It got so big that when we left the beach later on I told Tiffany that I could go it alone, I didn’t need any help. Tiffany got into her kayak and took off through the surf. I confidently moved my kayak into the surf, got inside, and sat there in the sand waiting for the next wave to take me out. Uhhhh, oooppps, I forgot to get the skirt on right…uh ohh…my paddle is slipping away…here comes the wave, it pushed the nose of my kayak sideways. I thought, “Ok, I’ll just wait for the next wave and I’ll get this all sorted out.” It seemed like twenty minutes went by with Tiffany and Doug sitting out there looking at me floundering around. When I finally got out to them Doug said, “Hey, you’re all wet.”
It was a fun day. I learned a whole bunch of new things. I met two really great people! Thank you Tiffany and Doug!
Posted:
Sep 27 2008, 8:26 PM EDT by
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Newbee wets his pants!
OK, my first time out I tried Lopez Lake. It was uneventful, a little ho-hum, and it cost me $10.50. I figure if I'm going to learn how to do this kayaking thing without going broke I needed another venue. I thought I would give Morro Bay a try. I put in Monday morning at 9:00 at the stacks. The water was like glass for as far as the eye could see. I sat down into the kayak and almost tipped over in half a foot of water. After sticking my arm in the water to balance myself I ended up with water halfway up to my neck and some wet buns. Oh well, off I went and within minutes I was astounded by the beauty of it all. I made it to the back bay where I bottomed out a couple of times but that's not the story. The story is the thousands of birds! There were hundreds and hundreds of Pelicans gathered on what looked like islands. Over my head flew a thousand little birds all locked in unison. They flew swiftly past my kayak and I was astounded by the noise of their flight. In front of the Hotel five seals suddenly emerged at the front end of my kayak scaring the dickens out of me. They also scared the dickens out of hundreds of little tiny silver fish, they flew out of the water while trying to escape the seals. A fortuitous opportunity for a lucky Pelican overhead that wasted no time dive bombing into the water and coming up with one of the tiny silver fish in its beak. It was flapping back and forth in the Pelicans beak and then, GULP, he was gone. I have seen wildlife from the shore and from a sailboat, but I have never witnessed anything like this before. I could hear the seals breathing. I could hear the silence of the crane walking through the water. All in all, it was a day to remember.
Posted:
Sep 22 2008, 4:25 PM EDT by
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