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Posted by Yak Slam on 18:51:31 06/30/03
Well I finally got around to doing a surf launch in San O. It was only my second time launching through the surf. The first time was down in La Jolla. Anyway there was a decent swell running. Trestles looked to be about head high from the Off ramp and there was a big line to get into Old Man's. So I headed down to Trail 1. I've surfed that place pretty big and know where the channels are. I walked out to the edge of the edge of the cliff and saw about shoulder high sets rolling through out of the south and a nice channel to just south of the reef. There was also a nice kelp forest straight out about 1.5 or 2 miles with a few boats out fishing. I decided to go for it and rig light. Carting the kayak down the trail wasn't too bad. At the bottom of the trail, I watched the surf for about 15 minutes. It was a classic south swell. There were sets every ten minutes or so with only a few small waves in-between. Feeling confident, I grab my kayak and waited in the surf line for the next set. As soon as the last wave rolled through, I pulled the kayak out into the water, jumped in and made the made the mad dash out. Much to the dismay of some of the surfing onlookers, I made it out dry. I rigged up outside the surf and began the paddle straight out.
Since I went light, I left the bait tank in the car and brought only my two plastics rods with the intent on slaying some bass. It was not to be. I ended up with only 1 lunker Calico caught with a grub pot holing in the kelp.
After about two hours I started getting cold and Paddled back toward the shore line. Outside the surf I stowed all my gear and waited again for the next set. A decent set rolled through and I followed the last wave in past the first set of waves. A smaller wave rolled through and I follow that on to the sand for a pretty uneventful landing.
All in all, I would call this a success. The hardest part of the whole trip was carting my wet kayak though the sand to the trail on the way back to the car. But I would definitely launch there again. The key, as with anywhere is to know where, when (time the sets), how the waves at a particular spot and what effect the tide has there. Had I not known this, I might have tried to launch straight out or to the north over some rather sharp and shallow rocks that are not necessarily visible from the beach. I've hit these while surfing there and I image that they could easily rip a hole in the bottom of a kayak.
None the less, the trip gave me some added confidence to start doing more surf launches and explore some near shore reefs in the area.
KJ
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