In January our kayaking club, BASK, makes an annual pilgrimage to Monterey for a weekend of paddling. This year on Saturday, January 11, we congregated at Del Monte Beach just north of the Monterey Bay Kayaks for a safety talk and to organize into pods. There were about 30 of us. We broke up into three pods, the “long pod” that had a goal of paddling out to the buoy off of Point Pinos, a “fast pod” that intended to go as far as Lovers Point, and a “slow pod” that would follow the same route as the “fast pod.”
We opted to join the fast pod. We were on the water shortly after 10:00. There was a little bit of wave action getting off the beach. I felt like I got a bucket of water thrown in my face as I punched through a wave.
Once on the water we paddled out past the harbor, along the shore, and past the Monterey Bay Aquarium, keeping a distance from the white water surging around rocks. We saw what must have been hundreds of sea otters.
Off of Lovers Point Beach we stopped briefly to observe the surf, noting that conditions were not conducive to landing for lunch. We continued paddling out past Point Pinos. As we left the protection of the bay we started to feel the swell. These 8– to 10-foot waves would roll under us as we paddled. It felt like we were paddling up and down hills. Up one side and down the other, or as one paddler suggested, an elevator ride up and down. After getting a sense of ocean paddling, we turned around and headed back.
We stopped for a few minutes to break out our emergency snacks since we wouldn’t be landing on the beach for lunch. One paddler who felt more confident in the conditions ventured closer to shore and managed to surf a few of the waves. Then it was back to our launch point. You can see the track of our paddle above.
I had hoped to have a smooth landing, but my timing was off, and a wave caught me. As my boat broached, turning parallel to the waves, I was able to brace on the wave and side-surf into the beach without getting dumped. We were back on the beach at 1:00 having logged 7.4 miles. More photos are available in an online gallery.
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