There were two instructors and four students at the Surf Zone class held by MaineSport in Rockport, Maine, a 12 year old girl, a marathon swimmer, a Paddlewise lurker and yours truly.
We launched at the mouth of the Kennebec River from Popham Beach into some small surf and were greeted with some small swells. The whole time we were there, I never once was able to read them coming in. The instructors would yell, go, go, go and I would paddle like hell and catch one by accident once in a while.
After lunch we launched into some larger surf and paddled to another part of the beach where steeper 3-5 foot waves were breaking over a sandbar. Now I could see them and told an instructor to get ready for some rescues because I was going to get a lot more aggressive. Sure enough, I got knocked sideways and leaned too far into a wave and took a dump. (Not that kind, I fell over <g>).
When they came to rescue me, I told them I wanted to do a self-rescue. What a disaster! First, both sandals had come loose and were being held on by the strap across the instep. I'm between the kayak and shore and the instructor tells me to get on the other side of the kayak. The wind is blowing on shore and I tell him I want to be on the downwind side so the kayak is not being blown away from me. He disagrees and wins as I get to the upwind side away from the shore.
I got the paddle float out from under the bungies and started inflating one side with my elbow hooked over the stern. A wave came along and knocked me off of the kayak and it floated away. An instructor kindly brought it back to me. I stuck my arm under the bungies this time.
I stuck the paddle in the float, inflated the other side but forgot to attach the strap to the paddle shaft. When I tried to lift my leg up on the float, it too floated away. An instructor kindly brought it back to me. I then attached the float to the shaft.
So I try again and am up on the rear deck when a wave catches me broadside. I didn't have enough weight on the float so lost my balance and took another swim. Meanwhile, the instructors would say here comes a big one and I would get hammered again.
I get up on the rear deck again, and try to get my feet in the cockpit but my sandals are both flopping around and I have a pretty hard time getting them and my feet in. Finally I do and I'm now sitting in a cockpit full of water in 3-5 foot waves that fortunately are 6-8 seconds apart and not much chop or anything in between.
I get hit by another wave and decide facing into the waves would probably be a good thing. I get turned into them, set the paddle so I can lean my power elbow on the float for support and start pumping. Do you know how long it takes to pump out a cockpit full of water? My elbow gets sore so I switch the paddle to the other side but can't get my balance so move it back.
I'm negotiating 3-4 waves with no problem, keeping the kayak straight and just rolling over them. I get more than half the water out of the cockpit and here comes a 5 footer. We go up the wave the same as we did with the 3-4 footers but didn't go any higher. I punched through the last foot or so of the wave and of course the cockpit filled up again. Eventually I got the cockpit empty and the spray skirt back on and joined the others.
The real star of the day was the 12 year old girl. She was great. She couldn't have weighed more than 80 pounds but handled herself beautifully. Several times, all you could see was her head and her paddle braced into a wave off in the distance. She was a natural and made it appear so easy and graceful. Maybe there's something to that old dog/new tricks saying.
A great time was had by all. I caught a really good wave at the end and took it almost into the beach. I have a lot of practicing to do with the high brace and I wish we had spent more time on launching and landing. While the self-rescue was a disaster, I think (hope) I learned the most from it. If everything had gone smoothly I might have come away with a ho-hum attitude. As it is, I hope I will think the steps through next time and not just start doing them. I'm really looking forward to the next time too. Hopefully under controlled circumstances.