Back out there!

I hadn’t been out paddling since last Sunday.  I can’t believe how many swells, high tides, and wind we have had lately.  I’ve been paddling for over five years and this is the first time there has been so much fluctuation in the ocean conditions!  The high tides and surge has carved a hill in the sand where I go out paddling……and further down the beach, the surge created a sand cliff!  I hope no one thinks that is a good shady place to put out their beach chairs because I think it could collapse at any time!  It was even windy this morning and I got down pretty early around 8:00 a.m.  The ocean was definitely not calm but the surge had backed off……not gone….just backed off.  I headed out and decided to paddle north against the wind.  I got down to Cove Park and turned around.  I paddled south towards Kam 2 and then suddenly the wind backed off and it got very nice!  I ran into a paddling friend who had just come out and we debated whether to venture down to the boat ramp.  The wind was very unpredictable and we could see some stronger surge coming in down at Kam 3…… so we decided to paddle north.  We got down almost to Kalama Park, but I wanted to turn around.  The swell is definitely not gone either with waves breaking at Kalama Park!  It was nice conditions paddling down to Kam 2 and I really wanted to keep going, but before we knew it the wind came up and brought some white caps with it this time.  The wind got stronger so we both decided to call it a day.  I had to ride in on some surge and hurry up the sand hill, which wasn’t very easy in the wind!  I managed to get my board rinsed off and hoisted up on my racks during a five minute break in the wind.  Some clouds moved in and the conditions got very bumpy, but I went swimming anyway.  The visibility isn’t good either, but it felt good to swim!  I found a stretch of water that was clear down by the reef and wanted to just stay there!  Swimming back was work!  I sure hope the conditions improve soon because I really miss my turtles!