Sometimes it’s the simple ideas that are the best. Quite often when you’re kayaking on the lake, especially here in California, it’s nice and calm and warm and sunny. You don’t really need a spray skirt. But maybe it gets a little windy in the afternoon. Or maybe you just don’t like water dripping in your lap. Or maybe you’re getting in and out of your boat to pick blackberries. So it would be nice to have a skirt, but one that isn’t too warm, that’s easy to adjust to your needs and easy to get on or off when you get out of the boat. How about one that you don’t even have to remove from the boat to get in or out?
All zipped up.
Enter the Wildwasser Convertible Pocket System Zip Spraydeck. It’s made of a waterproof, breathable nylon so it won’t get too hot. It has a mesh pocket on front to hold your camera or a couple snickers. But most importantly – it has a zipper! That’s right, a water resistant zipper runs down the middle of the skirt, allowing you to open it up for venting or even to unzip it and leave it on the boat when you hop out for lunch.
I took one out for my workout paddle the other day – it was 65 deg. and sunny, your typical Cali winter day. I started off with the skirt zipped up and under my PFD as a normal skirt and it worked just like a normal skirt. But once I started warming up and I wanted to unzip it I realized that I couldn’t access the zipper under my PFD. So I stopped and rearranged things – I put on my PFD and then the skirt (with it’s suspenders) on the outside. This allowed me to zip and unzip as needed and it also took better advantage of the tent-shape design of Wildwasser skirts to prevent pooling. This approach may not work the best at keeping water out when rolling, but that’s not really the point of this skirt. It worked perfectly fine for paddling in a little wind chop – I remained dry underneath.
Skirt unzipped.
But just to test out the zipper I created a nice little puddle in my lap and kept paddling. While the zipper is not meant to be waterproof – only water resistant – I didn’t notice any water leaking through. The only thing you have to be aware of is that if you unzip the skirt while there is a puddle then it will all drop into your lap.
And getting into or out of the boat while leaving the skirt attached is made slightly more complicated by the pocket. The skirt doesn’t unzip all the way so it’s not going to be a large enough opening to pull your legs out while in the seat – you have to scoot back onto the back deck first. But a pocket is such an awesome convenience that it is totally worth it.
Overall I think the Wildwasser Convertible Pocket System Zip Spraydeck is a great warm weather, flat water skirt. If you’re not hitting the surf but you want to keep yourself dry or the sun off your legs then it does a great job. I also allows you to adjust the ventilation as the day warms up. And the pocket holds all the snacks for a long day of paddling and some emergency gear as well. Check it out – we have a few at our Sacramento store right now.
Matt here with my first blog post for California Canoe & Kayak. Last Friday I took a standup paddleboard to Yellow Bluff for the first time and it was challenging. I hoped to arrive to perfect conditions and a smooth front wave that I could surf on. The weather wasn’t great, but the radar showed a break in the rain from noon to 2pm that lined up perfectly with the 1:50pm max ebb. By 12:15pm I paddled into the top of the eddy at Yellow Bluff without rain and with skies clear enough to see across the Bay. Light winds from the south and strong currents set up an okay wave up front.
self portrait using the GoPro Surf Hero HD
At first it was difficult to stay in position, but after several attempts I finally got a really nice surf. Turns out it was a passing passenger ferry that created the wave. The ferry wake mixed with the waves of the tide race and created a nice set of waves – up to 2′ each, at least four of them at peak height.
Between passing boats I made my way into and out of the current practicing ferry glides and maneuvering. Balancing the board in such confused water is pretty difficult and bracing is absolutely crucial. I found myself bracing much more than I would normally brace while in a sea kayak in those conditions. After playing in the waves for awhile, I paddled up the tide race into the eddy above. It was a workout paddling up current at a fast cadence and reinforces the need to develop proper stroke technique. While taking a breather in the eddy above, another boat passed and by the time I made it back down to the tide race, the wake had reached the top and turned into four nice, steep, clean waves. With more skills I would’ve spun the board around and tried to surf them, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen so I headed straight into them. I couldn’t resist the chance to plow the board over those waves at a quick speed. I did pierce cleanly through the top of one while maintaining my footing. After the charge I pulled into the eddy, took a break and then played for another 20 minutes. As I paddled back to Horseshoe Cove the rain began falling again, the skies grew darker and in my mind I began planning my next trip here.
first good surf at yellow bluff. GoProHD
returning to the launch. GoProHD
If you’re going to venture out onto San Francisco Bay on a paddleboard, be sure to bring your skillls up to par first. Take a course, practice as much as possible and learn what you’re doing on flat water before paddling in wind, chop, current or surf. SF Bay is very complex so take the time to develop an understanding of tides and moving water before you consider paddling an SUP out there.
CCK is the only Bay Area paddling school with ACA certified SUP instructors and offers classes in Oakland and Half Moon Bay. SUP classes resume in February – check our calendar for dates. Book one today to improve your balance, technique & speed.
Every winter we have our year end instructor training/get together for CCK’s sea kayak instructors. It serves as a chance to review changes in policy and procedure and practice skills and techniques on the water, but it primarily is an opportunity to get everyone together for some fun and merriment.
warming up with the hokey-pokey
This year we met at our facility on Pillar Pt. Harbor next to the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club. We started with some icebreakers and dancing to warm up before a brief classroom session on teaching models. We all wanted to try out the new ideas and since the forecast was for deteriorating conditions we quickly got dressed and headed out onto the water. Everyone got a chance to practice teaching a stroke or two and there was a lot of good feedback and suggestions for what works and what doesn’t. One of the best things about being a part of a large group of experienced instructors and a program that has been around for decades is the wealth of knowledge that is brought to the table. But even better than that with this particular group of people is a willingness to embrace new ideas and concepts, to embrace what works and keep striving for improvement.
the crew on the water
We headed back in for lunch and some inspirational words from CCK’s owner, president and living legend Keith Miller. Keith pointed out that 2012 marks the 40th year of operations for California Canoe & Kayak – quite a feat given the nature of our sport and the rise of big box stores and corporate conglomerates in our present day economy. We are all proud to still be a part of a family owned and operated adventure that focuses on making people into paddlers and giving back to the paddling community for all that it has given each of us.
launching for the towing race
During lunch the wind had picked up, turning the harbor into a frothy mess and a kite surfers paradise. But with the crew looking like the Kokatat Dry Suit Modeling Team we headed back out to work on towing drills into the wind. We had a short race which proved educational – if the person being towed needs support and they can hold onto someone else’s boat then that someone else can still paddle, making the whole process that much more efficient. (the teams that did not think to have the supporter paddle as well claimed cheating, but their protests were denied by the rules committee). After that we worked on contact tows (no tow line) and it served as a reminder that little details can really make a difference on functionality – contact tows work best when the two paddlers are facing one another and the towee hangs on to the tower’s front deck a couple feet in from the bow. This makes the tow more stable and situates the low part of the towee’s boat next to the tower, allowing easier paddle strokes.
a little playing during a beach break
Then we reviewed the scoop rescue – an essential for instructors. Having an unconscious or incapacitated swimmer is one of your worst fears when teaching students but knowing how to get them back in their boat and upright is the starting point for handling such situations. After that we called an early end to the afternoon – not because anyone was cold or tired but because the 49er game was starting. The yacht club had a big screen going and Keith had some pizza waiting. The game didn’t end as we would have liked but at least everyone had some fun and learned a thing or two beforehand.
The Port of Oakland is perhaps not the most obvious place to go for a moonlight paddle but since our shop is right on the water in Jack London Square, and I spend all day talking about kayaking, it is great to be able to grab a boat and go paddling.
With a full moon rising above downtown Oakland, I paddled north with the intention of taking some night time shots of the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco. You immediately enter a world of leviathans, massive cranes that according to urban legend inspired George Lucas to design the AT-AT Walkers that featured in Star Wars.
Animal or machine?
Paddling on the Oakland Estuary at night requires you to be alert. You will encounter tractor tugs, the Oakland/Alemeda Ferry, party boats, Coastguard, Sheriff Marine Patrol and the occasional late returning yacht as well as some of the biggest container ships in the world. These massive structures line up along the Oakland shoreline like bloated cows at milking time.
Like cow's at milking time.
As soon as you leave Oakland Inner Harbor the South Bay opens up to the south and the Bay Bridge leapfrogs Yerba Buena Island, from San Francisco in the west to Emeryville to the east. There are lights everywhere, and discerning the channel marker buoys proves challenging but they provide useful stepping stones on the way to the bridge.
Red Right Returning
As I passed underneath the benign but watchful gaze of Yerba Buena Lighthouse, I was careful not to disturb the dozens of Harbor Seals sleeping on the rocky beach.
Passing under the Bay Bridge you not only hear – you can feel the pulse of the city as traffic thunders overhead on one of the busiest bridges in the nation. If the bridges are the arteries of the Bay Area’s cities, the Bay itself is its soul and the ebb and flow of the tide maintains the equilibrium so vital for life. It is remarkable how peaceful one feels gliding upon a silken carpet bejewelled with a thousand reflected lights gazing in awe at Human-kind’s creations.
City of a Thousand Lights
Camera shake or art? (you try shooting from a kayak at night!)
The new Bay Bridge construction is well underway and the main tower looks more like an Apollo Rocket at night.
Ready for launch.
A $6.2 Billion Dollar Project
The Port of Oakland never sleeps and dredgers are hard at work ensuring the ships do not run out of water.
Could explain why the water in the Bay is so murky....
Whilst the Oakland Estuary is not your normal sea kayaking destination, it has a beauty of it’s own and there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that whilst everyone else is stuck in traffic on the Eastshore Freeway I was witnessing the lifeblood of a nation.
This is an account by CCK instructor Bill Vonnegut. Bill is a member of the local paddling group ‘Neptune’s Rangers’. For more information about Neptune’s Rangers and their raison d’etre check out their website. Bill and his Ranger buddies have been using Go-Pro cameras and the like to capture some of their exploits and are getting a reputation for pushing the envelope in the rock gardens off Northern California’s coast. Whenever you spend that much time in close on rock shorelines you are inevitably increasing the risk. Bill’s group know this, have solid skills built on experience and paddle kayaks of various descriptions, but all appropriate for the job. Here is Bill’s account of a day when it just got too big:
“Myself and a few friends got together for a paddle down the coast last Friday. The plan was to start a Linda Mar beach in Pacifica and head down the coast to Grey Whale cove while exploring the rocky features on the way. The forecast swell for that day was about 4-5 ft with a larger 9ft swell coming in late that night. We discussed before launching that we may get some bigger than average waves rolling in ahead of the upcoming surge. However we were not expecting the extreme change in conditions that occurred while we were working our way down the coast. Going back to the Half Moon Bay buoy history for that day this is what we found:
According to the HMB buoy:
Wv-Ht DPd APd
1:50pm 4.6 12 8.1
2:50pm 5.2 21 9.1
Note the 21sec period waves mixed in.
These readings came a short while after our incident occurred, but we were there for the preview. Since the longer the period swell travels faster than the short they will arrive first and since the height of the swell was almost the same as the short period swell these would be hard to see coming also break in deeper water so that would explain how that first set seem to have come out of nowhere on the outside of our position.
We paddled down the coast that day exploring many coves and features along the way. It was a normal day with very consistent sets of waves some bigger than the others but nothing more than an average day. As we neared Grey Whale cove our destination for the day we had paddled into the bay just north of it. This is an interesting area where you find constant waves reflecting off the wall of the cove and colliding with the on coming swell creating a zipper effect.We have been in this area before under what seemed to be at the time larger conditions and found it a very exciting area. Everyone who went close in to this area had a solid roll. We had been in that cove for a while that day and had seen where the biggest sets would break and were staying outside of that area. I was caught totally off guard to what happened next. A wave up from what seemed to be out of nowhere appeared just behind me and caught me totally off guard. It knocked me over and picked Mark up and dragged him quite a ways into shore. Since that wave was much further out than all the waves that day and I had seen nothing break in that spot, I made the mistake of watching Mark rather than looking outside like I should have. Then I turned around and saw a monster wall up on the outside. If you notice the shot in the video where Cass is backing his 17ft boat over this wave and narrowly escaping, the face of the wave is at least a few feet longer than his boat. There was not enough time to turn into the wave so I ended up getting broadsided and sent screaming toward the rocky shore. All I could do was lay the boat on its side with the boat between myself and shore and side surf awaiting the collision with the rocks that I was sure to come. To my great relief the wave pushed me into a small cove and let go of me. At that point I had no idea if the next wave would come crashing over me or not. So I decided to jump out of the boat and scramble up the rocks and asses the situation. At that point I saw Tony paddling up, note that Tony’s hatch cover got blown off and he made it to the beach paddling a boat full of water. Mark got washed into the same cove after he had lost his boat to a large wave that had blown his spray skirt just outside the rocks.”
“Sergey was also hit by the same wave but was out of my camera range. He ended up loosing his spray skirt to that wave and we have been impressed how he has done a great job building his skill level in the short time he has been paddling. This is his account of what happened and I would like to share it:
“As for the incident I believe that boat full of water worked as a sea anchor that prevented me to be washed ashore at the same spot as you guys. I did rolled back after a first set of huge waves but realized that I am flooded and can not make over breaking stuff due to instability. I tried to swim away from impact zone and empty the boat enough to scramble in. I almost did that but was knocked over by the second set. Then I kept swimming to the right side of the cove seemed to be more safe and eventually trying to empty the boat. I had 2 possible options in the mind in the case of failure – abandon the boat and swim toward Cass and Peter or let the wave wash me and the boat onto the same spot as you. But at that moment from what I saw I was not sure that we can hike out of the spot. Luckily I did not have to make such a decision since I put my foot onto some solid surface. Probably that was rather a top of the rock than a sea floor because later I was not able to reach it. It was enough to partially empty the boat and do re-entry and roll. Then I punched through another set of breaking waves and paddle out to safety in submarine mode. Peter tried to reach me but I sent him away as we were still in breaking zone. Then we left the zone we did T-rescue to dump all water out.” Best, Sergey.
“This is a good reason why you should use a high quality white water skirt and have float bags in the hatches when paddling on the coast. I will leave it here as I have a video below that explains the whole incident very well”
Bill Vonnegut
Thanks to Bill and the Neptune Rangers for sharing thier experiences. As you might imagine, the incident has generated much discussion and comment. Feel free to add yours below. You might also want to check out Eric Soares excellent blog post on seal landings that covers a similar topic. If you didn’t know, Eric is a founding member and Commander of the Tsunami Rangers – the rock garden pioneers and inspiration for Bill’s Neptune Rangers.
If you are interested in learning the skills to paddle in rock gardens then check out CCK’s Open Coast and Rock Garden Safety & Rescue Classes or sign up for similar classes at this year’s Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium. At least that way, like Bill’s group, you will know what you are getting into and have a good chance of getting out safely when things go wrong.
First, I’m calling this a mini-review since I’ve only been able to get the Stomper 80 out for one day on a class III stretch. Not nearly enough time or enough whitewater to really evaluate it. But since we are in a record winter drought who knows when I’ll get a chance for more so I thought I would post up my impressions so far – I was able to learn a fair bit. The Stomper 80 is Liquid Logic’s new creek boat at 8’2″ and 80 gallongs; I’m 6’0″, 170lbs. and had no gear in the boat with me. My normal creek boat is the Jackson Villain S and I’m preferential towards displacement hulls.
The first thing I noticed was how loose the hull was. Just spinning in flat water you notice the flat bottom and lack of edges. Even compared to other planing hull creekers like the Burn and Hero, the Stomper just spins. There’s nothing for the water to grab. But once I got on a wave for a little surfing there was enough edge there to carve it up, the same when pulling into or out of eddies. And the flair on the sidewall makes it incredibly stable when leaning onto that edge, very reassuring when pulling out into fast current.
The drawback of a loose hull is that it tends to lose focus a little when you want it to stay straight. While it was really easy to control, it did take some controlling while ferrying (whereas I feel the Villain more easily stays on line without effort). The other main issue I have with all planing hulls is a harder landing off big drops – something I really didn’t get the chance to test out on a class III run. But in the waves and drops I found the Stomper did a good job of going through things and accelerating out of landings.
And a little about the Liquid Logic outfitting. Most people love it. For me it just doesn’t seem quite right. The extra firm backband really locks you in tight and the seat envelops you – works for some but not me. I also feel like it’s harder for me to stay forward – that somehow the seat angle doesn’t make it easy to engage my knees (in my Jackson I use the adjustability of the sweet cheeks to move the foam forward to help push my knees up). But that’s really just personal preferences and ergonomics – nothing wrong with the boat itself. And I did have the seat slightly back from neutral which is something I would change next time – I think just forward would work better for me and my weight, especially if I had some gear in the back. And speaking of getting gear in the back – they new flip up access to the stern is a HUGE improvement that’s found on all the 2012 Liquid Logic boats.
And that’s another thing to point out – I was in the 80 which felt like the right size when unloaded. I’m not sure how it would feel with an overnight load but when I sat in the 90 it came up very high on my sides – not a comfortable feeling and rolling would take some work. I assume the 80 rolls just fine – it was some chilly water and was being a big baby and I didn’t want to get my hair wet But my buddy who normally paddles a Jefe tried out the Stomper and said it (the Stomper) rolls much easier. Anyone much larger than myself (height or weight) will definitely want to start by looking at the Stomper 90.
So my overall impression is that this a great new planing hull creeker, especially for those that like the LL outfitting or like the Jefe but want a little more control and ease of adjusting. It’s also worth a try if you currently paddle a flat bottom creeker but want something a little more forgiving.
And I’ll also mention that my Wildwasser Eldo XT was once again dry as a bone. I keep loving that skirt on everything I try.
Here’s the Liquid Logic factory video showing the Stomper in a little more action:
Well, it’s that time again. Time when we look to the new year approaching and make some goals and resolutions about what we hope to accomplish. It’s a good time to take stock of where we are and figure out where we want to go. Here at CCK that tends to mean making a hit list of rivers we want to run or locations we want to paddle. But it can also mean a new sport to pick up (SUP anyone?) and new skills to learn. Here’s a list of some of our paddling goals for 2012. What are yours?
But my buddy who normally paddles a Jefe tried out the Stomper and said it (the Stomper) rolls much easier. Anyone much larger than myself (height or weight) will definitely want to start by looking at the Stomper 90.
