LaPush

After nearly a two-month, holiday induced hiatus, I finally made it back up to the surf. The forecast was looking pretty sad for the Straits and Jeff was looking to head out to the coast with a board-surfing friend of his, Rob. We all met on the West side of the Hood Canal Bridge at 7:00 Saturday morning and consolidated into two vehicles. Our first destination was Rialto Beach, just north of the tribal village of LaPush. Because it looked pretty sloppy, we made the short drive south to check out first beach at LaPush. It was a little cleaner (slightly), especially toward the north end of the beach where the Quileute river runs into the sea, with 2-7 ft waves. Rob's dog, Abby escorted us down the beach and bid us great surfing by barking from shore. She's a great dog, just hanging out on the beach until we came back in.

In spite of the surf being a little less chaotic than Rialto, I still spent a good portion of the first session getting beat up by extremely unpredictable waves. I expect some of my issue was having not been in the water since November, but it didn't help that the break kept moving around at will. Every once in a while, I'd realize I was too far out to catch anything and would move back toward shore. Just about that time, I'd get caught on the inside by a huge wave and would find myself getting Maytagged, hanging upside-down in my kayak. At one point, I was stuck in a side surf, headed straight toward Rob. With no other choice, I found I had the presence of mind to roll and pulled myself off the backside of the wave.

After a quick psychological break on shore, we headed back out for another session. The waves seemed to have gotten a bit smaller. I caught a few and was able to ride a few until they got into a deep spot and petered out before forming again closer into shore.

After another couple hours in the waves, we had a couple beers on shore and chatted with a local while Abby and I bonded over part of my turkey sandwich. All-in-all it was a great day.

Working on the Kayak

For my birthday in 2004, I got a build it yourself kayak kit--something I've been wanting to do for at least 10 years. There's something about building your own boat that I had to get out of my system. I made great progress for the first couple months, until the weather started getting nice. The way I see it, you could either spend a nice day in the garage, building a boat or you could be out paddling one that already floats. The short story is that the boat has been about 90% complete for almost one and half years and it's been sitting there--in the kids playroom. So after our Christmas guests packed up (it's also a spare bedroom at times), I got started back at it. After this last little bit of work on the rear hatch, it's mostly finish work. My friend Steve has a paint booth in his shop, so the plan is to get it buttoned up and ready for varnishing. I'm going to have to take it out for a paddle at least once before we make it all pretty like. Maybe next weekend? Maybe in another year... Even though I'm not done with this one, I find myself thinking about the next project--a woodstrip canoe.