Through the Washing Machine

I call this image “Through the Washing Machine” for reasons you can imagine. This was captured on a recent trip to Mendocino. I had a GoPro camera mounted on my helmet. I had intended to capture video, but for some reason I ended with a series of stills. It’s a challenge to take photos here. I’m not going to take my helmet off to see what the camera is doing and this isn’t the kind of place where I’m going to pull out my still camera. With water surging in every direction, keeping both hands on the paddle to brace is a good idea.

We were in Mendocino with our kayaking club, BASK, for an annual event called Mendo Madness. The club takes over the better part of the upper loop of camp sites at Van Damme State Park and spends several days paddling in various environments. Rocks and caves on the coast and quiet flat water paddles on the rivers. This day, Thursday September 19, some of the more experienced paddlers offered a Mendo Newbie paddle and I’m always game to tag along when the more experienced paddlers are offering to serve as guides. More about Mendo Madness in the next post. Here’s a couple more photos from my helmet cam. Note the other paddlers playing in the surf and rocks. You can see a kayaker punching through the surf in the right photo, the kayak is just under my paddle.

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