Kayak Safety Gear or not ?

As one of the owners of Clavey, this story is not easy to tell, but alas...Last winter I had an unusual experience I thought I would share with the rest of you in the hopes that none of you will repeat it.  It was a beautiful winter morning and I decided to head out at about 5:30am to check the surf at one of my favorite breaks in the Point Reyes National Seashore. I loaded my boards and wetsuit in the van and, as an afterthought (because I had a new Necky Chatham 16 Carbon kayak on top of the car anyway) I threw in SOME – but not all – of my kayaking gear. I got to the parking lot and was greeted with a wonderful sunrise but minimal surf. I sat there drinking my coffee and petting the dog and then decided, because of the lack of surf, to take the new kayak out for a spin. I put on my Mysterioso tops and bottoms, a pair of Soft Seat Guide shorts, my PacLite Pullover, a MsFit Tour lifejacket, grabbed my favorite Werner Kalliste paddle and hauled my kayak down to the shore (what am I missing??). I slipped into the kayak, put on my neoprene skirt and headed out into the 2’-3’ shore beak.

Once past the breakers I began paddling the 1.5 miles down to the mouth of my favorite estero just to see how the sandbars were setting up for the winter. The paddle down was calm with a nice tailwind (air temperatures in the 50’s and water temp about 52°). I was paddling with a right-handed feather because that was what the paddle was set at and, while I can paddle comfortably with a left or right feather, my “bomb proof roll” is only good with a left feather. To tell you the truth I did not even notice I was paddling with a right feather. When I got to the estero mouth there were some fun little waves breaking about a quarter mile offshore. I paddle over to the south side to check it out and then headed back to north side where I had seen the waves.

As I began heading back I decided on a whim to see how the Chatham surfed. I caught one wave, had a nice ride and then decided to catch one more. On the next wave I got caught sideways and upon trying to exit the whitewater I rolled the boat. No big deal, I’ve gone over plenty of times. I set up to roll and failed. I tried again and again to no avail. I could not figure out what was wrong and I finally had to exit the boat. Now is where the real fun began.

I surfaced, grabbed boat and paddle, and looked for my safety gear (paddle float and bilge pump) that, I quickly realized, was not there. So there I was with no wetsuit and no paddle float in breaking waves quite a ways from shore. I was surrounded by harbor seals and their pups and could not help but think about the great white sharks that frequent the area this time of year. I tried a number of times to get back in the boat by balancing my body on top and slipping my legs in but the swell kept pushing me over. At this point I was getting a bit chilly and started to imagine my obituary in the local paper “kayak store owner drowns in home waters because he did not have the brains to carry the right gear that he pushes on people very day” I made the decision to get to shore, got on top of the kayak like a surfboard, and paddled like hell towards dry land. It took me about 15 minuets to get to the beach.

Once at the beach I felt quite relieved and surveyed my situation. My Mysterioso had done a pretty good job of keeping me warm for a while but by this point I was COLD. I ran around on the sand or - as people who know me and my crooked chicken legs will tell you more liked hopped around - until I was a bit warmer and got some blood flowing. I then dumped the water out of my boat and got back in for the paddle back to the car. As I paddled back I kept trying to figure out why I could not roll and then (LIGHT BULB!) made the connection between the blade feather and my diving paddle when attempting to roll. I changed the feather on the paddle and, before I paddled into the beach through the waves, made myself do a couple of practice rolls just to make sure I had not forgotten the move.

When I finally got back to the car, changed into dry clothes, and got the heater going full blast I looked at the dog and the still empty parking lot and thought that it could have been a long day for my loyal friend.

I was lucky. I have spent most of my life in and around water and I still had made some very basic, life threatening, mistakes. Perhaps it was the comfort level I had that led me to this lapse in judgment or maybe it was just plain forgetfulness. The good thing is that I know now that I will never paddle again without the right gear. It’s just not worth it.

Lets go over my list  of shame: paddling in remote rough water ALONE, not enough insulation (can we say wetsuit!), unfamiliar gear (wrong paddle feather, new kayak), no paddle float, no bilge pump, no backup clothing stashed in a dry bag, no food, no communication device and I did not tell anyone where I was going – can there be anything ELSE!

 

Basic Cold Water Kayaking Gear:

Insulation and Drysuit or Wetsuit

Paddle Jacket

Booties and Socks

Spray Skirt

Skull Cap

Paddle Float

Bilge Pump

Dry Clothes

Communication Device

Common Sense


-Tom "safety-first" Meckfessel

The Petaluma River: From the Source to the Sea

So technically the Petaluma isn’t really a river, it’s a tidal slough. And being a slough, it can’t really have a source, per se, so we actually started at the Petaluma Marina. Also, it doesn’t really flow to the sea, it flows into San Pablo Bay which, in turn, becomes San Francisco bay which, of course, eventually opens up into the Pacific Ocean. So while we maybe didn’t really paddle all the way to the sea, we did actually paddle all the way to the Black Point Marina which does actually sit at the mouth of the Petaluma River at San Pablo Bay. Probably ten to twelve miles all said and done.

Our trip began the way so many of our trips begin - with me driving back home to the house to get my bag of gear I left in the garage. So our plan to put on the water at 9am slowly became our reality of putting on around noon. Luckily the tide was on a solid ebb and the wind was at our back, but still we were on the water for almost three hours of fairly leisurely paddling downstream. The tide when we put on was probably between 3 and 4 feet so while we didn’t get the great view of getting on the water at a 6+ high tide, we didn’t get the mud flats view of the low tide either.

If you’re not into half marathon paddles, you can either, stop at Papas Taverna and take out, or start at Papas and continue. In our kayaks, which were definitely “touring” boats, the first leg of the journey took an hour and the remainder, from Papas to the mouth, close to two. You can, of course, make a round trip of any of the river but chances are, at some point, you’ll be fight the wind or the current.

Tom and Jeff took our two carbon kayaks from Necky, the Chatham 17 and the Looksha IV respectively. I took the Eddyline Fathom. All three boats, being plenty fast (and all three paddlers, being plenty lazy), we kept up with each other just fine. That being said, allow yourself more time if you’re in a more recreational or sit-on-top kayak.

If you’re looking for a fun, easy river with lots of birding that allows you to take advantage of some natural cheats (like wind and tide), we can highly recommend the Petaluma.

For more info on the Petaluma River, checkout: www.friendsofthepetalumariver.org

As a side note, the three kayaks we used on our journey, the Carbon Chatham 17, the Carbon Looksha IV & the Eddyline Fathom are all now for sale at “wow” prices.

2008 Chatham 17 Carbon Demo $2695
2008 Looksha IV Carbon Demo $2695
2008 Eddyline Fathom Demo $2095



-Scotto Galbreath

Kayaking the Caves of Mendocino

Kayaking the Caves of Mendocino

Three hours north of San Francisco is Mendocino, home to some of the coolest sea kayaking you’ve ever done.  My girlfriend Nicole and I took off for a weekend on the water early in October of 2008 and were rewarded with some of the best weather the California coast has ever seen.  

The Pacific Ocean looked like a sheet of glass as we slipped into the water at Van Damme State Park and after just a few short paddle strokes to the north, we hit the first of over a dozen caves and arches we would see that day.  After playing around in there for a little while we headed back into the sun,  rounded the corner and began a fun little run north into the “inside passage” - a fairly protected, ever narrowing channel that dead ends into a tide pool a mile and a half or so from the beach at Van Damme.

After a little lunch and a little harassing of tide pool creatures, we slipped back into the water and south to Buckhorn Cove.  Something they’re not going to run out of anytime soon, there on the Mendocino coast, is bull kelp. And once we got through all that kelp we were able to surf a neat little wave that built via the swell pushing through a tunnel at Buckhorn.   We could see some fairly cool looking arches on the south end of the cove but were too lazy to fight the kelp to take a look and headed north again to see what we could find on the way back to the car...more of the same cool caves and tunnels.

The next day only got better.  We parked the car on the north side of the bridge and carried the boats down to the quickly flowing waters of the Big River.  Paddling past some surfers taking advantage of the wave that breaks at the mouth, we made our way around the town of Mendocino and through the dozens of tiny islands that surround the Mendocino Headlands.  We were expecting a let down after yesterday but instead were met with another typical California day on the water, you know, where each day is better than the day before.  Caves and  tunnels and arches.  Oh my!  Again, we didn’t paddle all that far, probably five miles all said and done, but the adventure and beauty and fun packed into those miles were considerably greater than the last few hundred miles before it. 

The key, we found to the Caves of Mendo, was to really hug the coast.  Fifty yards out and who knows what kind of good stuff you’ll miss.  Every time there was a little cove, be it 100 yards across or only 10 yards across, we made sure to make an exploratory probe and eight times out of ten we we’re rewarded with another neat little cave, arch or tunnel.  

And remember, there’s a considerable difference in headroom between low tide and high and a lot of these caves have yet to install proper lighting and can be a little dark so be sure to bring a headlamp and a helmet.  Also, because we often banged up against walls and skootched over rocks as the swell caused the water to rise and drop, we were glad to be in a couple of plastic kayaks and not some shiny glass yaks.

For a great guidebook on this and other classic paddle trips check out: Guide to Sea Kayaking Central & Northern California by Roger Schumann & Jan Shriner.

Posted by Scotto