Tropical Storm Simon brought excitement to the Sea Paddler Training this year.
From the thunderstorms of Loreto to the Pacific surf outside Isla Magdelena, we felt its distant presence.
“Flexibility is the key to greater air power,” says my fighter pilot brother-in-law. It’s true of kayak courses as well. The conditions were always good for something.
Venues got creative enough to include the pool and meeting room at Tripui Resort, and more standard fare such as: a hot calm morning off Rattlesnake Beach for paddling a variety of craft, refreshing rain by Punta Coyote through which to refine slicing strokes, 12-knot winds crossing Bahia Magdelena where we got to use navigation skills to see whether the wind or the current was drifting us more, 7ft Pacific swells and using other paddlers to measure the height, and 1-3’ surf on a long sandy beach where there wasn’t much we didn’t do.
Jill from Seattle, Kate from the Yukon, and Matt from Georgia joined Maddie, Marcos, Ramon, and me. We could brag that there was not a drysuit to be seen. Not even a wetsuit! Even in the rain and surf we were comfy in single layers.
People will do dramatic things to get to good surf. All we had to do was load the kayaks on Marcos’ panga, launch it in front of our hotel–Mar y Arena in San Carlos, motor across the bay, drive it up onto Delia’s waiting trailer, get hauled across a sandy strip of Isla Magdelena (by a valiant Ford pickup), and arrive at a deserted surf beach with a panga-full of surf toys on a trailer! And then play until we were utterly exhausted and ride panga-trailer-Ford back again to the steps of our hotel.
