Travels with Paddles

a sea kayaking journal

Axel Schoevers (Photo: A. de Krook) Name:
Axel Schoevers
Location:
Rijswijk, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

An early morning paddle

Today I have been paddling with Fiona, Jen, John, Ken, Matt and Nigel, from Mission Bay, where Aqua Adventures have their kayaking centre, to San Diego Bay. We are on the water by 7 AM. Rock Gardening along the way, Matt hit a cliff face with the bow of his Romany Elite and later got washed sideways on a big set that rolled in. But no damages, yet... The challenge of paddling along the coast dodging the occasional big sets over shallow reefs. Off Point Loma is a reef break.
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We spent hours surfing perfect long ride waves, in the sun. Fiona is apparently practicing for Friday's incident management course by pinning John's wooden Pygmy kayak mid-ships. I heard the sound of impact from a fifty meters away. It takes a few moments before the two kayaks are separated and Fiona skillfully applies Denzo tape onto the hole. This is the first time ever I have seen Denzo tape used. We surf for another hour until we are all tired. We have seen dolphins and jumping chasing sea lions. Jen had said that this was an early morning paddle. Because of all the good time spent on surfing this turned into a day paddle in the morning.

1 comment:

Hans Heupink said...

Hi Axel!
Compared to my last "early moring paddle" (see: http://kajakwoerden.blogspot.com/2006/04/sunday-morning-paddle.html ) yours is a different cup of tea!
I am a little bit jealous for the waves and very jealous for the Californian sun! ;-)
This moring I was scraping ice of the windows of the car again...