SKII

Sitting in the kayak slowly undulating with the waves of the pacific I realize the sea part of sea kayak isn't my thing and just may make me sick, though fortunately it didn't. The Sea Kayaking II class was held in Half Moon Bay last weekend. It's certainly a beautiful spot, a calm harbor protected by a breakwater, not far from the city but seemingly remote. The class started rather inauspiciously as there was only one other couple and I, they had their own kayaks and all there own equipment. And my specialized kayak gear consists of just my short sleeved kayak shirt as the kayak place generally equips me with everything. But at HMB they couldn't find a small size PFD which didn't add to my confidence. Nevertheless once in the kayak I felt very comfortable paddling around the harbor practicing a lean this way and that. So comfortable that while rocking the boat back and forth I accidentally fell in. This was the first time I was wearing a neoprene spray skirt which does not slip off right away when you tip over but I had done a lot of thinking about that and knew I had to yank real hard on the pull strap so it quickly released from the kayak. Safely back in the boat and we headed out from the flat water of the harbor to the rolling sea. I tend to still have a canoe stroke rather than than the short torso rotated stroke of a kayaker but I'm well aware of it. Still it was good to have an instructor there to remind me I need to shorten my stroke by about two feet. Paddling in the swells of the sea was not necessarily harder than paddling in the bay but it has a different feel to it, and then there's the slight queasy feeling of looking out from the tiny slab of plastic you're sitting in and seeing nothing but sea and sky. We made it around Pillar Point and stopped on the beach for lunch. The instructor spoke about ranges which we practiced using on the way back. It was comforting to be able to say for sure that we were moving in the direction we wanted to relative to the land. Back out in the swells we practiced T rescues which is much more difficult with the waves throwing the boats around. We each also did a paddle float rescue which I find much less stressful as I'm not worried the whole time about rescuing someone else. It's just me and I know I can get back in the boat. Finally late afternoon we landed back at the put in point. In terms of skills learned the SKII class immensely improved my understanding of boat control and gave me a whole new experience in kayaking. I can't wait to try out what I learned, but at least for a while I'll stick to kayaking in the Bay!