Today, one week from the Jay race, Nick Bryson, Mike McDaniel and I decided to paddle the course from New Brighton Beach to the Santa Cruz Pier, out to the one-mile buoy and back to the start. No big deal.
Lots more happened.
Shortly after I pulled into the New Brighton Beach State Park parking lot, I saw kayaks and boats fishing everywhere I looked, from just off the shoreline to way outside the kelp bed. I was told, “Stripers and Halibut.” It was sunny and the winds were calm. Mike and Nick showed up and we were all up for this paddle.
Dave King pulled in to the lot. Hadn’t seen him in a while. He lit me up, and that’s Big DK all over! And just as we got to the water’s edge, several others we know showed up – having started at around six plus miles off, at Steamer Lane. Their plan was to take a short rest and reverse course. We all said hi, and then we left when they did.
Once we got in the water, several other paddlers showed up along the course. So, lots of us who will be in the race next Saturday were out there today. I joked we should just line up and get this over with now, and at least one other readily agreed -- with a big grin.
I’m amazed at the variety of conditions we were in. It started out smooth, and we got the usual backwash between Paradise Point and the Muni pier. But the West wind came up as we headed out to the mile buoy, so that made that segment a challenge. Rounding the buoy, we had respectable downwind conditions and some nice bumps to ride – including some whitecapping. Once we got back to Pleasure Point we decided on the calmer waters inside the kelp bed. The downwinder was fun, but it’ll take something off you.
Mike McDaniel was supposed to group up with us at Pleasure Point (he sent me off to catch Nick earlier) but we didn’t see him. We surfed a few waves on our way to Capitola pier, then paddled back into to New Brighton Beach, where Mike was waiting for us.
It just doesn’t get much more fun then it was today. But then, there’s the race to look forward to next week. I hope I see you there!
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