I am at the Tybee Island Ocean Gathering Symposium. Today we went out for some rough water discovery.
Tybee Island is blessed with numerous offshore sandbars, of which the 'triangle' is the most famous and treacherous. But with the right conditions it is an amazing rough water playground.
On the northeasterly tip of the island, just 100 metres from the sheltered put-in at Tybee Creek, waves create confusing seas. On the flood this is a safe playground because whatever happens a paddler drifts into an eddy behind the point.
But on the ebb everything drifts into more and bigger waves. Last year I had someone out of the kayak standing knee deep on the sandbar (without the washed-away kayak) but unable to walk to the beach because of the fierce rip current around the point. That created some interesting group management challenges.
An offshore sandbar off Little Tybee Island allowed for safe playing conditions on the ebb. Again anything would drift out of the surf zone into calmer water; today. Challenging conditions, low consequences. With Dolphins around us in the surf and on our way back.
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