Sea Kayaking Lake Michigan in the Gales of November

My proposed trip of paddling from Port Sheldon to Saugatuck was evaluated and quickly adjusted on Saturday. The forecast was calling for winds up to 30 knots. Waves were expected to be between 6-10 feet, building to 12 feet. I had a rather large invite list that whittled down quickly to about five to six people, and that narrowed down to three in the final days.

John Fleming and I spotted a car in Saugatuck on the way up to Port Sheldon. Once we had everyone assembled I made a judgement call to not do the full 15 miles in the weather we had, but rather to start in Holland and finish in Saugatuck. A measly 7 miles. We parked near Holland State Park on Lake Macatawa and began to suit up. John Fleming and I were the only two with full drysuits. However both Joe Deja and Doug Neal had wetsuits. I encouraged people to wear helmets due to the waves, boats, and break walls.

We discussed the plan for exiting the channel which would be dicey at best. The plan was to shoot straight out of the channel and once in deeper water swing south. My record for expressing the dangers of exiting a constricted rough water area is not good. I tried to share this same concept when I was up in Wawa, and the newer paddlers still managed to run afoul of the hazards in the Michipicoten River mouth.

So when exiting here, I made sure to express that staying close to the break wall was a bad idea, and to stay loose through the rougher parts of the middle of the channel where reflection waves were bouncing around. Once through the soup you would be in deep water where nothing would be breaking and you could begin paddling south. Unfortunately Doug Neal ran afoul of the break wall and had a close call I didn’t even witness. Apparently he got caught by an incoming wave and almost ran into the rocks just inside the break wall. He managed to make it out, but was visibly shaken for the rest of the trip. When he emerged he erroneously spotted some surfers on the south part of the breakwall waiting for a wave and thought it was us. He started heading for the surfers. He never saw it, but a huge face that had me wishing for my surf boat came up behind him and lifted his tail about 8 feet, washed underneath his kayak and then peeled nicely as it ran over the southern sand bar. I remember thinking in my head, “wow is he going for that 8 foot wave?” Turns out he wasn’t. John and Joe made it out with no such frights.

I looked upwind and took stock of the situation, because if we were going to bag it, this was the time to do it. It looked gnarly upwind. Ok gnarly is an understatement. It looked steep, intimidating and mean upwind. A completely gunmetal gray sky with dark shoulder ridged clouds pushed down from the north like a mounted cavalry charge. Downwind looked manageable, and ironically the sun broke through in the south illuminating the surface like a runway in the dark for a plane. We decided to make a break for it.

Immediately my Foster Silhouette was racing downwind. I was probably making 8-9 knots without even trying. I was easily catching 400-500 yard rides with few paddle strokes. My blades would spin for four or five strokes and then my tail would lift from a giant swell and take off, spilling water off the bow and then I would edge on or off to keep pointed due south, and then low bracing on the other side. I was having a gas. The only trick was to keep pointing your kayak a bit west to ensure you didn’t wind up on the inside of the break zone. At this pace we would easily make Saugatuck in about 50 minutes.

Unfortunately one of our crew never quite recovered from his brush with the break wall. I think it really got in his head, and then when he was on the outside, he made the big mistake of second guessing everything. The water was cold, the buoy reported mid-high forties. The wind was howling at 25-30 knots, and the waves when you bothered to look over your shoulder were pretty impressive. And he knew at the end of the wild downwind ride there was another river mouth with two break walls to face.
I stuck back with Doug, while Jon Fleming and Joe Deja raced ahead with the wind.

Doug I noticed would stop paddling whenever a swell rushed underneath him, which on the Great Lakes is about every 3-5 seconds. So he was not paddling a whole lot. Having seen Doug paddle and teach before I knew it was purely a mental issue and not an ability issue. Having said this, I would invite Doug to comment on any aspect of this story that rings untrue or sounds exaggerated.

I was trying to keep asking him how he was doing. I asked if he was warm, or if he was sea sick. I kept paddling ahead a bit, hoping he would dig in and catch up. When that didn’t happen, I waited for him to catch me. We rested a minute, and then let him go ahead. As we paddled I tried to give some advice that probably rang out (at the time) as either useless or annoying about keeping an active blade in the water. We were making good time. But those oncoming clouds and the prediction of a building sea state were dead on, the wind was picking up, and the waves were getting bigger.

We were nearing the Kalamazoo River mouth at Saugatuck, and the tops of the waves began to crumble from the increased velocity of the wind. I couldn’t see Joe or Jon. We were hopelessly separated, but I was praying they made the entrance to the channel unscathed. As we approached I asked Doug how he felt about the channel. He said straight out he would prefer not to do it. I told Doug about the beach to the south where I could swing around and pick him up. But then recanted when I realized I would have to go all the way in with him and then back around and in the channel. This would add another 45 minutes of dangerous hard paddling for me and he might be alone on that beach and cold for a long time while I looked for Joe and Jon. I told him we were going to have to do the channel. He gritted his teeth and paddled on. I could tell he wasn’t happy with me.

As we approached the channel the waves steepened and began to break as they ran over a sand bar at the edge of the river. It was quite big, at least 7-8 feet. To add insult to injury it began to hail. Doug slowed as his anxiety built. I told him we had to go for it and not slow down in the channel. Doug wasn’t really focusing very well and when big waves came up behind him his paddle wasn’t even in the water. I was shouting to him, (thought it probably seemed like I was shouting at him at the time), to backpedal. He managed to back off of one quite steep face. I let him go ahead and one big wave immediately rushed up, I backpedaled and shouted for Doug to do the same. He either couldn’t hear me or was so deep in facing his fear of those breakwalls he just didn’t react. An impressive six footer took him and rushed him towards the mouth of the channel and then broke.

He went over. In my head, I thought, ah sh#t this is it. I’m going to have to tow him and his boat into deeper water to put him back in his boat. This is gonna hurt. And by the grace of god, Doug rolled up like a pro. I was never so happy to see someone roll as when I saw him come up. At this point I had enough adrenaline to crush a bus and I was beginning to fear for myself as well as Doug. I paddled up and said we had to go for it while there was a lull. Doug said he wanted to rest a minute. I shouted back, “This is not a place to f#cking rest, we gotta go for it!” I am really sorry for being short with him, but I was getting pretty terrified of having to tow him as a swimmer in the channel.

At that moment, God in his mercy smiled on me and the waves calmed enough where I could see the beach. Joe and Jon were on it and out of their boats. They were waving to us. The plan came together quickly I was sending Doug in to the beach and I would head down the channel to get the car. I told Doug to go for it. I watched him make it past the break wall as I braced against the incoming waves to my port side. Once he was clear of the break wall. I went for it. I backpedaled through the rushing waves and hail to get my bow pointed into the channel. Once I felt I had enough space I put everything I had into swinging my tail around and heading down the river mouth. One huge wave came up and washed me side ways directly towards the south edge of the break wall. I managed to swing my tail back in line with the river mouth with a stern draw and head towards the more protected north wall, and then sweep back in on another wave straight down the channel. I had made it, but only by the skin of my teeth.

I paddled like hell thinking I was going to have to get to the car and drive around to Oval beach in a hurry. But then I remembered there was a cut back in the river right by the south break wall where I could get out and check up on everyone. I was worried I was going to have to get back in a boat and possibly tow Doug in as a swimmer. But luckily after I humped it over the dunes all three guys were on the beach. I ran over and immediately hugged Doug out of some bizarre sense of regret and relief. I was so happy he made it. When I looked out at the sea state, it had turned into a gyrating washing machine of frothed up white water. The swells were no longer well formed and even, it had devolved into a real Gale of November. I was really happy all of us were on shore.

We took some pictures and began to portage the boats into the river. We managed to carry the boats in fairly short order and paddled the rest of the way up the river.

Over dinner we all agreed there was very little to exaggerate about the day’s events.

While we all made a decision to go for it, we had not counted on the extreme conditions on the entrance to the pier prohibiting us from entering it. Nor had I predicted that we would become so spread out so quickly. John and Joe, who really did very well, were having difficulty hanging back with Doug and I. If I had been a better leader I would have insisted on it, so that we could have made a group decision about the channel or the beach. Or at the very least we could have discussed it before they took off. We had no communication method to coordinate this essential detail. I was really worried about having to go back out and look for Joe and Jon. So I wanted to make sure Doug was safe inside the river mouth, rather than potentially struggling through the steep dumping surf on the south side of the Saugatuck beach. From past experience I knew this beach was not a good place to bring a kayak in steep waves. If I had remembered the path along the pier, the trip back to the car would have seemed far less important.

As usual I was second guessing my decisions and my leadership. John Fleming asked me a terrific question on the way home. Were we skilled or, lucky? I answered that without hesitating…lucky.

Again if Joe, John, or Doug would like to embellish please feel free to add it in the comments.

Saugatuck Channel Sea Kayak Wave Play Nov 8th 2008

Because today is the day of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald it is fitting that this post includes a way to kayak rough water in the Great Lakes without getting killed. I had another experience three years ago today that involved kayak surfing on the day of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, that surf session didn’t go so hot.

John Fleming and I made it out to Saugatuck this saturday to paddle Lake Michigan. It was looking like a huge day on the lake with thirty knot winds. Something that honestly is starting to be a pain. 15-20 is great for waves, but 30 is just heinous and makes all the waves flatten out and squash down. You can’t make progress for very long against it. The forecast for Lake Michigan that day was 30 knot winds out of the west, (onshore yuck) with 4-7 foot waves building to 8-10.

This is best put in the words of Homer,

“It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive”

John and I drove to the beach anyway to see what we could see. My B-plan was to play in the channel where the waves funnel through to the Kalamazoo river. John and I suited up and began to paddle up river. John is a newer paddler, but also one of the more skilled newer paddlers I have seen. Having seen his roll, his forward and positioning strokes, it seemed like he would do fine. However this was really the first time he had been out on water this textured.

John also was lucky enough to have just received his new Immersion Research paddling suit.
Considering the air temp which was in the low forties, and the off and on hail and freezing rain, this was probably a wise investment for John. I can’t stress enough how nice it is to have a drysuit for this type of paddling. I may groan about having to wear a drysuit on a summer Lake Superior trip from time to time. But when it gets cold in winter and fall, I love wearing my Kokatat Meridian suit. Nothing can put your mind at ease and allow you to focus on your skills than being warm and dry. There is nothing better for force seven winds and 40 degree water temps than wearing a paddling fleece, running tights and smart wool socks under a complete 3-layer gore-tex suit. I know a lot of newer paddler’s eyes pop when they hear the price, roughly $1000. Though the IR drysuit is a steal at $775.00. The availability of affordable immersion protection is a great thing for paddlesports. I love my Kokatat and I do think it is worth the money. That said if you are on a bit of a budget, the Immersion Research looks like a great suit. Maybe John will comment on it’s performance?

John and I approached the channel and looked at the maw of the beast. Sleet was driving in on the twenty-five knot wind, the waves beyond the breakwall looked like a giant washing machine. Massive whitecapped 8-10 foot waves were building on the outside. The wind was beginning to funnel straight down the river mouth.

I knew I could probably get outside, but then what. I could surf in most likely, or try not surf as the case may be in a sea kayak. But what then?... Often I’ve felt compelled to test my limits against the lake, but it seemed (to continue the metaphor) like sticking my head in the lions mouth. Because Saugatuck has a nice westward facing channel and a long Kalamazoo river approach that winds its way west, we are able to paddle right up to the mouth on flat water. I’ve been wanting to try surfing the river mouth on days like this for three years. I figured it would be a great intro to rough water for John. The only thing, and keep in mind this is a big only thing, is the danger of the break walls on both sides. You do not want to surf a sea kayak smack into a break wall, or have a bad capsize and get washed into one. However in the event of a swim that does not end in smashing into the break wall this is where a good quick tow and a rescue would be very important.

The waves cleaned up and ran down either side of the channel with a bit of reflection waves in the middle. In some ways this was the best spot to be. We were somewhat sheltered from the wind, in an area where the cleanest spilling waves could be found. I may actually take a surf boat next time. The waves in the channel were smaller and more manageable, more in the 4-7 foot range. These waves in the channel were also slow moving enough to react to individually.

It was great to be able to see a new perspective on this pursuit of mine. Watching John’s fearful reaction to the power of the lake funneling down two 6 foot steel and concrete walls right at him made his eyes pop a little, and he visibly tensed when we approached. I gave a few bits of advice I’ve been trying to articulate about rough water paddling.

• Stay Loose: if you tense up and don’t allow the water to move under you- you will lose and go over. I’ve seen many competent paddlers go stiff in steep conditions that may not have knocked them over and ended up swimming anyway. Being relaxed in the hips gives you an edge. You can steer much easier with your hips and your paddle than with your arms alone. Keep your grip relaxed on the paddle, you’ll only wear yourself out trying to crush your paddle in an iron death grip.
• Allow the kayak to settle: In the event of a capsize, allowing the kayak to fully capsize is the best way to make sure you only have to roll up once. By rushing to roll before the kayak is fully capsized and your body is in the setup position, you are more likely to be too far beneath the kayak and then struggling to bring your head up for air. Better to let it settle, hold on for at least a two mississippi count, and then rolling up. In the event of getting tossed around a bit by a wave, wait for it to release you before trying to roll up. This is the hardest mental gymnastics to get down. You just have to stop panicking and wait, wait, wait. Because waiting with no breath for a few seconds is always easier than swimming.
• Visualize your path: this is the hardest for newer paddlers to achieve as they have no ability to conceptualize which way their kayak will travel when it starts to plane out on a wave. If you can picture your kayak lifting at the stern and starting to rush downwave and how you are going to react when the unexpected happens, you will be able to hold on, brace, rudder, or roll. Practice in conditions is the only way to develop this skill

John did really well. He started off a little tense, but proceeded to unwind a little bit when he realized there was a manageable way to predict the waves coming in, and to pick the waves you wanted to turn on, and the waves you wanted to paddle for.

I did see him paddling up a particularly steep face that was at least six feet, I was worried for a second that he might get tossed ass over tea-kettle. He paddled hard and came out on the other side unscathed. He had a few capsizes and managed to roll-up from each.

I caught a few wild rides where I managed to edge off from the wall pretty well. Sea kayaks are so easy to get moving at top speed. It’s funny to switch in between surf kayaks and sea kayaks at times.
A surf kayak will easily turn and spin out from danger, but really needs a quite steep wave to fully plane out. Where as a sea kayak will surf a very small wave very fast, but once you’re headed down wave, forget about carving off in the other direction.

John Fleming hopped out of his kayak and got these shots of me from the south side of the pier. My camera will evidently have to go in to Pentax for service.

Port Sheldon to Saugatuck Sea Kayak Trip-Nov 15th 2008

The plan overall is as follows:

MEET: @ Port Sheldon Launch off of Lake Shore drive on the north side of Pigeon lake. There is a boat launch (and large parking area) just south of the power plant (south of the rail road tracks, right on Lake Shore Drive. The launch is actually on the river, as it widens into the lake just before going through the channel to Lake Michigan. It is 1/2 to 3/4 mile paddle from the launch to Lake Michigan.

WHEN: Be at the launch at Noon, sort out gear discuss plans and be on the water by Noon-12:00pm.

Distance: 15 Miles + 1.5 up the Kalamazoo River. 4 NM an hour is the average so figure on at least 3 1/2-4 hours. Five is the finish time I was planning on.

Dinner @

Phil’s Bar & Grille
215 Butler Street
Saugatuck, MI 49453
269.857.1555

Car Shuttling.

I am having my wife drop me off with my gear and boat to paddle down to Saugatuck.

Car shuttling can be handled very simply by any non-paddling members of your family. Or if you are coming from Grand Rapids, I recommend talking to one another to discuss the plan. It is also only 15 miles back to Port Sheldon so a bike, or a car drop could be worked into the plan.

View Larger Map

Please Watch These two in the day or two prior to the event.

Marine Weather

Holland Lake Cam

If it is huge and gnarly, 25 knots plus out of the west-northwest, we might have to consider a surf day in Saugatuck or Holland and then dinner. We may have a few extra surf boats and ww boats to play with too.

A word to the wise, this trip even if weather permits will be in cold weather and cold water.
Please dress accordingly and take responsibility for those you bring with you. A drysuit or wetsuit is mandatory, not an option.

I have extras of a lot of stuff so let me know what you need, and there are a lot of people who will be willing to offer good gear to those that can paddle.

Also another word to the wise, if you have a Skin on Frame or other type of folding boat without bulkheads do my hernia a favor and put some float bags in it!!!!

How to Select a Sea Kayak Tow Belt

Towing a sea kayak is risky business. Ropes and boats connected to people is indelibly linked, (pun intended) to trouble. Once you have a rope connected to a boat shenanigans can not be far behind, literally. Having done more towing in the last two years than I did in my first five years of paddling combined is probably a tell-tale sign that looking into a good tow belt is a good idea.

There are three basic systems for towing available to sea kayakers.

• Deck mounted rig: these take some epoxy work on a glass boat to get it set up but works really well the strain goes to the boat, and not the paddler. Downside is, you can’t trade off. and if you sell your boat time to epoxy up a new tow rig. My friend Jim Svensson has one on his NDK Explorer. It’s a sweet rig that he used often on our Apostle Islands trip. Also when you have to unlink, you have to depend on a good float to find your line again. The rope is behind you and restowing it is a pain at sea.


• PFD Mounted Rig: these are great because it’s one less piece of gear to have strapped on. Problem is the strain on the body is too high for long tows.


• Belt Mounted Tow: these systems seem to be the most flexible with the strain on the paddler coming at the right part of the body. They do have disadvantages to the deck mount. But a good belt tow can be traded off and will work really well in a variety of conditions.

One note that I always like to offer is to mention that Inuit Kayakers had a couple of things right. They put the weight on the boat, not on the paddler. So all the lines, the harpoons, the norsaq all went on the kayak. This presents its own problems, entanglement, windage etc. I am personally not a fan of deck mounted tows, despite this claim. Mainly because once you have it installed you’re guaranteed to need a belt to swap with another paddler, or you’re going to get a new boat. May as well buy a good belt system.

Here are a few things to consider when selecting a tow rope belt.

First and foremost is the storage of the rope when not in use. Believe it or not you aren’t towing most of the time. Thank God. So the storage of the rope has to be compact and flat so as not to interfere with your paddle stroke, your roll, and your general mobility. Bulk is friction and therefore resistance to all of your strokes. This said if you can make what you put on your body small and compact do it. This was my main complaint with the Salamander rig I bought almost seven years ago. Very bulky, very big, and interfered with everything, it was literally always in the way.

Second the carabiner should not have hooks, teeth, or other obstructions that otherwise interfere with cleanly clipping in to the deck lines of a sea kayak, or in the case of surf boats-the end toggles of a boat. The carabiner should be at least stainless steel, if not aluminum. We are in the Great Lakes obviously and so we don’t have to worry about corrosion of the components quite as much. The aluminum will be lighter and won’t sink the line as much. A big biner will be easier to operate in cold conditions with gloves, mittens, or cold hands. Brian Nystrom has a great web album of some modifications he performed on his Northwater rig, the picture below is of the carabiner he replaced.

Third length of tow, a good length is probably somewhere between 30-40 feet. There is certainly some debate amongst coaches on 40 being too long, and 30 being too short, but all would agree that 50 is way too long. Longer lines than 40 presents problems for distance between the victim and the sled dog. Shorter presents problems in surf when towing a sea kayak. Sometimes you want a wave between you and the boat, but not quite two waves. If a sea kayak you’re towing is surfing towards you on a short rope less than 30 it’s not a good day.

Fourth if you can find a rig with a floating line get it. But not at the expense of the other items I mentioned. It saves time to not have to haul line up from the deep.

Fifth, make sure there is a good quick release. Being able to let go in a hurry is sometimes very critical. You may have to customize it to make sure you can find it quick. Some industrious souls have rigged wiffle balls and other devices to make them easy to find. Just make sure they don’t get in the way of paddling and cause you to release the belt accidentally.

After watching some other folks use their tow systems, and bemusedly scratching my head at my reluctance to replace my old Salamander rig, I decided to get a Sea Tec from Northwater. Its gotten rave reviews from a number of BCU Coaches, and a number of folks I paddle with use them. The bag seems big enough to re-stow quickly, (biggest pet-peeve of salamander) and when re-stowed on land it repacks small enough to be out of the way for paddling.

If I’ve forgotten or overlooked something please feel free to add a comment to the post.

Here’s to hoping I won’t have to use it-yeah right!

Continued from Days One and Two

Day Three

We suited up to work on doing open water rescues. We headed out of the channel with around 8 students. We teamed up to do t-rescues. The swells were gentle and slow, but fairly sizeable for the Great Lakes 3-5 feet. Only sizeable in that they weren’t breaking. I teamed up with Louis from Montreal. He had a beautiful Skin on Frame kayak he built. The kayak had flotation fore and aft. Louis exited and he and I worked together to empty it, and get him back in. Louis aided me by holding on to my boat and helping to pull it over my lap. From there I emptied the kayak by rotating the kayak towards me. After that it was a pretty standard re-entry. We rafted up with the group and I taught Louis to rescue me. His job was substantially easier with my hardshell Silhouette. As a surf kayaker I don’t have any particular problem with craft that have no bulkheads. Sometimes they just don’t make sense. A skin on frame kayak is a very elegant craft that can be very sea worthy when paddled by a very competent paddler. Swimming doesn’t have to be catastrophic. If the paddler is skilled and stays in the kayak really there is no problem other than holing the kayak. But some of the same problems exist for a hardshell kayak when it is holed. However it is easier and quicker to rescue a hardshell boat with bulkheads.

This is when things got interesting. One of the students became sea sick while we were bobbing up and down on the swell. Doug quickly made the decision to tow her in. Bonnie rafted up with the victim and Doug started to paddle for the channel. I was ignorant of whether or not this was a real emergency or an exercise so luckily I treated it as if it was real. I was left to guide six students through the surf in the channel. I would be lying if I said I was completely calm in guiding students through a surf landing. There were several students who felt very uneasy coming through the channel. One was to my left and the rest were to my right. I was firmly indicating to the one on my left to keep off the rocks as the waves rolled in. She hadn’t developed the coordination to look over her shoulder and brace at the same time yet. So I was giving her the signal on when to backpedal and when to sprint to avoid getting munched. The other students were perilously close to the crib light and it’s rock. Waves were coming in that could have swallowed them whole. I gave some simple guidance to paddle hard, back paddle, or change direction to avoid the crib light dumpers. One student should never know how close he came to getting swallowed whole. I saw his stern lift, and I shouted for him to back paddle. He dug in and came off the crest and onto the back beautifully. I gave him some encouragement to paddle for all he was worth. He sprinted ahead and the next wave washed him into the channel, thankfully upright and intact.

Afterwards we found out that it was indeed a real rescue with a sea sick victim. While Doug and Bonnie got the heroic high fives for performing the assisted tow, I thought about the ducklings I just brought through the jaws of the beast. It is great to see students developing the skills they need to work up to navigating open water and surf. I certainly would have done things a little differently in retrospect. I probably would have gone through first to show them the line, and then given them signals to paddle left or right, backwards, forwards. Instead of having them go through all at once. If nothing else then for my nerves.

We then went through a few more rescues before everyone started to pack up. Again this is where things get really interesting. Louis wanted to go back out. We paddled back to the mouth and discussed which way to go. I voiced the option to go for the deep water between the crib light and the rocks and to stay off the spilling surf over the sand bar. It seemed everyone agreed. We all started paddling and then I looked over and I was the only one going through the deep water. I look over and Louis is over and out of his kayak. I paddle over and Doug is getting him back in. I have my towline ready to clip in and tow Doug and Louis out of the spilling surf. Suddenly my kayak is lifted and almost parked on top of Doug’s Valkyrie. I back off and then come back in. By this time Bonnie has them towed to deeper water. This is when I notice Doug’s nose bleeding. I was terrified that I had clipped him with my boat. As it turns out that same wave punched Louis bow into his nose as he tried to empty the boat. Doug put Louis back in in short order. Bonnie gave Doug a sterile bandage from her life vest first aid kit, (endlessly useful item as it turns out). We agree to head back in. This time we agree to let me pick a line and we will all follow me in. I pick the deep water channel again and jet through. Louis makes his run beautifully, but in the turbulent water on the inside he misses a low brace and goes over. We are literally 300 yards from flat water. I put Louis at my bow empty his boat as much as I can and tell him to climb on. Bonnie clipped and begins towing me. Louis is on his back deck. Doug then clips in for a linked tow and we are moving pretty well. Unfortunately this is where that useless OPP boat comes into the story again. The OPP patrol boat comes through at twenty knots and forces Doug further in towards the rocks. Louis gets washed up on the rocks and it looks like I am going to be next. His bow is wedged. I tell Louis to let go so I can grab is bow and free him. He doesn’t know what’s on my mind though and gives me a panicky, “Please don’t let go!” I tell him it’s ok “I won’t leave you”. It was all very cinematic and could have been a line from the terrible Into Thin Air made for TV Movie. Luckily he let go, I jetted forward, and grabbed his bow and pulled him off. Bonnie and Doug towed us back into the beach.

Doug got an icepack for his face. I still haven’t found out how bad the injury was. He didn’t break his glasses, but he might have gotten a couple of black eyes. We had a good laugh over lunch. All in all this was the most fun I’ve ever had at a symposium! Action packed baby! I can’t wait to go back next year!!! The kids and Laura had great time watching the band playing in the river and Lake Superior. Vince in addition to rescuing fisherman also made a horde of delicious food. I hope the surf is up next year. Gabe even got a Wawa Salmon Derby Baseball Cap from the Search and Rescue team!!

Sand River Falls

The whole family decided to do the Circle Tour of Lake Superior for our end of summer vacation. We loaded up the van with all our gear, four kayaks, (alas and ironically no room for the mega maverick) and drove up to Wawa. We made a quick stop over at the Sand River Falls. We hiked with Gabriel and Isabella up to the falls. The kids scrambled over the rocks and oohed and aaahed over the falls. Sand River Falls come very close to highway 17 and allow easy access to their beauty to kids who normally aren’t real keen on hoofing it for hours to see a bunch of rocks. We ate a bizarre lunch of crackers, salami and peanut butter.

Day One at Rock Island Lodge

We arrived at Rock Island Lodge to building weather. The wind was beginning to howl, white caps were visible across Michipicoten Bay. We went paddling in the Michipicoten river with the kids. Kids are amazing, funny creatures. One can never tell what they will be interested in or want to do. Gabriel and Isabella immediately paddled across the river to the sand bar and began running up and down the steep bank, collecting driftwood and rocks. Then Gabe got the idea to start jumping in the river from the bank, Isabella quickly followed suit. Laura pulled her kayak over and began rock hunting. No one was going anywhere. So I headed out to play in the waves.

The Michipicoten River mouth is not unlike the areas where tidal races form. The river which is dam controlled pushes water out that stacks up against waves directed across Lake Superior by wind. If the wind is strong, the waves begin to form in deep water. This makes for a fairly fun, safe, and invigorating surfing environment. The waves were becoming steep beyond the crib light in a wide triangle. Doug Van Doren and I headed out to surf the triangle.

2008 Wawa Salmon Derby 2008

This is where the Wawa Salmon Derby comes into play. Fishermen competing in the 2008 Wawa Salmon derby were heading out to catch fish near the river mouth where the surf was becoming interesting. The salmon fisherman were starting to come back through the channel as the surf was really beginning to build. The channel is not entirely straight forward for a motor boat. The sandbar to the south side of the channel makes the surf dump. The north side is a narrow deep water run by the crib light and the rocks where Rock Island Lodge is situated. The motor boats typically pick up speed and try to jet through the deep water section by the rocks. Most of the boats made it except for the boat pictured below. The Ontario Provincial Police boat was seemingly nowhere to be found that was helpful. The OPP boat was really to big to be of any use. The full Wawa news report is available online.

Ray, a guide for Naturally Superior and Jean-Fillipe a participant from Montreal aided the fisherman who failed to navigate the channel by pushing them off the rocks into deeper water. All of this ironically happened while I was getting cleaned up for dinner. A rare event took place where the surf continued to build. I managed to recruit Doug, Ray, Conor, owner David Wells, and a few others to head back out to surf after dinner. We made a few runs out and back trying to avoid the fishermen jetting through the channel at 20 knots.

Doug and I had one of our now infamous near collisions in surf. Doug was surfing the center section of the triangle where it was steepest. Doug dropped into the trough ahead of me, started carving diagonally towards the lodge and then the wave closed out on him. I was perched right at the peak of a fairly good sized wave that had substantial power to it to surf me right over Doug. I back pedalled furiously as Doug was munched by the wave. His boat was held almost in place by the contradicting forces of river current and the waves washing in from the open lake. His first roll attempt failed as another wave broke on him. He valiantly submerged fully and set up carefully to roll up successfully into the incoming face of the second wave. I managed to side slip past him on a down wave run.

As a side note about safety. Doug had right of way on the wave as he caught it, I was responsible for my path as he was down wave. Also I can’t stress the importance of helmets enough in these conditions as boats colliding is way, way more likely than hitting your head on something.

I caught several beautiful slicing diagonal rides from the middle section where my Foster Silhouette carved at what seemed to be about 15 knots towards the rocks. Ray who said he was just getting comfortable with his roll in surf, was on fire! Everytime I looked over to see his white Valley Aquanaut he was blazing a furious down wave path, or rolling up from having had a nasty close-out munch him and drag him onto the sand bar on the south side of the river.

Normally I prefer to surf in a small surf kayak, but the conditions in the river mouth were actually perfect for long kayaks. If timed just right, a very long stable ride could be caught in the center of the channel right by the rocks. It is however a little perilous due to the giant table rock the crib light sits on. The waves tend to break and close out on this spot.

Day Two

We divided the students up into smaller groups. I took a small group of three students, Wally, Dorothy and Jean-Fillipe. We worked through a progression of forward stroke technique for torso rotation I’ve been using. In this progression the forward stroke is broken down into it’s three parts, reach and catch, rotation, and release. I have the students experiment with differing postures, (slouched and upright), allowing them to discover how much further they can reach with good posture vs slouched. We also experiment with a shallow plant vs a deep plant and see what happens. Then we begin to work through some rotation exercises. These are a particular favorite of mine. I have students experiment with doing rock-em-sockem robot arms, (locked elbows) paddling where you have to figure out how to get the paddle in the water and rotate without using your elbows at all. This usually gets a few chuckles. But pretty quickly paddlers are rotating their torsos to reach the water. Often students have no prior experience with the use of the muscle groups needed to paddle efficiently. There is no direct biometric result for a correct rotation. So by removing the elbows, (the bendy part that primarily allows arm paddling) the student gets a feel for what it feels like to paddle with their torso. The next step is to remove the arms almost entirely. I then have the students do T-rex, (picture the tiny little arms) paddling. With elbows locked in at the side completely the students paddle by rotating their torso to reach the water. These exercises are somewhat silly, but they do give the idea of how to get the body working properly.

After lunch the students headed out and began surfing the waves that managed to make their way into the river. The students did surprisingly well. All of them demonstrated elementary ruddering and bracing while their hulls planed out. It is great fun to see folks who are newer to the sport surf. Their faces light up like christmas trees when they gain speed and start to really carve. When you see someone surf for the first time, you get really stoked and feel like it is your first ride too. You can tell how much people enjoy it because they come back to the beach and are telling tall tales about how fast they were going, how long their ride was, and how many times they wiped out. For my part I encourage them to exaggerate, elaborate and enjoy. The three e’s of kayak surfing.

Continued in Day Three

Sea Kayak Day Trip with Doug Van Doren-Lake Michigan

Waves were predicted to be 3-7 feet out of the Northwest. Wind was gusting to 30 knots. Doug Van Doren and I suited up at Dog Beach near South Haven. We paddled out through the breakers with some effort. Doug almost immediately started to lose his spare paddle on the back deck of his Betsie Bay Valkyrie. He got it secured and we started paddling into the wind.

We were paddling into steady gusts, but were somewhat sheltered from the wind in the troughs of sizeable swells. We tried to stay somewhat close together, but we were forced to shout even when only a few feet apart due to the wind. I was trying to get a few pictures snapped off and by the time I got my first picture off Doug and his kayak would disappear behind a swell. We chatted back and forth for a while, but as we got closer to the pier, we started talking about when to turn around.

The sky was bright blue. The water was a wonderful Homeric Mediterranean green. The scale of the waves and the winds was such that I had been focused on what I was doing, but I noted how calm I was. I think the three or four years of Surf Kayaking has mellowed my freak out about the wind and the waves. Some would say I am an adrenaline junkie and that if Force 7 winds don’t get your blood pumping you’re messed up, but I was enjoying myself and did not feel terrorized as much as very alert and engaged.

Certainly the Great Lakes and their storms are nothing to be trifled with. And if anything, anything, had gone wrong paddling almost a mile from shore in those conditions it could have been very tragic. But in the end that is life isn’t it?

After an hour of paddling into 20-30 knot winds we turned around. We immediately began flying with the wind. I was catching rides so easily that all I had to do was keep my boat pointed towards shore and take a few strokes and my Nigel Foster Silhouette would start to plane out. Doug and I started doing neck and neck pacing with each ride. After I stopped to take a picture Doug raced for nearly 100 yards on one ride. I didn’t catch up with him until we were looking at the impact zone on the beach. I picked a line and tried to do a diagonal run and successfully carved my way into the beach. Doug followed after and a steep breaker picked up his stern and and his bow plunged down deep into the water. The wave broke and Doug, Valkyrie and all cartwheeled end over end. He wisely pinned himself to his back deck and flattened his paddle to his side. I was unable to get my camera out in time to get a picture.

Doug surfed in to the beach. I continued to catch a couple of rides. I got one beautiful diagonal ride, and then got worked heavy on another where I caught a good ride, but then got window shaded pretty hard. I rolled up about three times before finally getting the kayak turned seaward. I tried breaking back out for about twenty minutes. I eventually decided to call it a day and surfed back to the beach.

There Doug and I were asked to the do the unthinkable, we were asked to help jet skiers. We helped two young guys carry a three hundred pound jet ski up the hill to a trailer. I think we may awaken at the next sea kayak symposium to find ourselves chained to a fence with our heads shaved.

Sea Kayak Trip Lake Michigan, Saugatuck

After several months of feeling sub-standard, experiencing new low ebbs of my fitness and strength, and consequently feeling very low in spirits; the wind began to blow. Unfortunately it did not howl, but spirited breezes across Lake Michigan were quite enough for me to be getting on with. After being a complete ass and forgetting about dropping off my Isabella at camp (I suck), I negotiated a penitent truce at home. Paddle time with Lori and Doug and getting Isabella off to Van Buren Youth Camp became a settled armistice between all parties.

We paddled out of the harbor and into the wind. This particular day was overcast and the wind was veering from the southwest to due west, to northwest. We made the call to head directly out. We paddled at a steady four knot clip due west for almost two and a half hours. I felt some of my old strength and fitness returning. Nothing ached for once. Lori unfortunately was taking my bad mojo. She was hurting but keeping up.

As we neared the time for turn around the wind had begun to veer completely to the northwest. The waves had been tidied up and began to form tidy swells. The blue green freshwater sea began to hiss as the cat’s paws of white caps skittered across the surface. Mist closed in around the land. My paddle blades caught the wind as we tacked towards land. I dug in for all I was worth feeling the muscles in my back and my abdomen pulse, twitch, and burn.The Foster Silhouette began to plane and surf on the small wind driven waves. I was leaning well forward trying to free the stern and allow it to catch the swells. I began to fly with my old grace again. As my kayak spilled down wave, I was edging hard and allowing the hard chines to catch and then pivot the kayak down wave again.

Doug and I have a tendency to try and ram one another while surfing, I actually parked my Silhouette over the top of his Valkyrie deck on a crossing between North and South Manitou while surfing wind waves between the islands. I tried to keep the distance healthy, but as we surfed, I had to drop a few emergency hanging draws to pull us apart.

I enjoyed feeling the powerful fluid bite of the Werner Ikelos. I found myself using a fairly high cadence for my forward stroke. I would spin hard and then sweep and edge to stay on course and then dig in with a rudder to keep the lighthouses marking the harbor on my bow. Doug and I would trade leading the surge towards land like two motorcycle riders on a starting line, goosing the throttle, he would spin dig his blades deep, spin hard, and then catch a ride. Doug’s Valkyrie would scoot ahead fifty or one hundred yards until he would have to start paddling hard again. Then I would dig and spin until I caught a ride, perhaps even getting on the back of another waves, and then smelling another ride, dig hard to climb over the top and spill down wave again.

As this sprinting continued I forgot about the hernia repair, work, and all problems, and only about the next ride. In some small way this is what being in a sea kayak on open water is about, the distance between land and sea is a thin tether that needs to be broken every once in a while. If I stay too long on land the tether seems to grow in thickness and weight until it becomes hard to bear. Nothing in life that I have done thus far has felt as beautiful or as free as flying before a tail wind 5 miles from land.

We all know surf kayaking is obviously very freeing. It is however a different feeling. Heading out to surf storms has a certain amount of sheer dread with brief moments of pure bliss. The pit of dread in your belly as you break out on a 25 knot wind day from a beach with 10 foot surf is a bit much at times. But that dread is rewarded with a carving green water bliss that you couldn’t top with a shot of heroin in the eyeball. Burt Monro said it best about his motorcycle, “I live more in five minutes on that bike than most people do in their whole lives”. This is especially true of surf kayaking. Sea kayaking wind driven waves is not as thrilling, but it has beauty and grace. It also has a different pace, it is slow enough to be able to enjoy it while you’re doing it. While surf kayaking I am so completely in the moment, I have to think back while in the car on the way home about the rides I caught, rather than while I am paddling out to get the next one. Suffice it to say, I am still in love with both mistresses.

Flotnar 4th Annual Ice paddle on Lake Michigan in South Haven

Jim Viviano and I decided to try for an Icepaddle two weeks ago. The ice cliffs on the Lake Michigan piled quite high this year. The ice cliffs on the Great Lakes form as the warmer water begins to erode the edges of the ice pack. Then wave action piles the remaining ice up into cliffs, which will melt and refreeze until they are completely thawed.

We loaded our sea kayaks up at the Black River DNR boat launch. The dredger was digging up mud for the powerboats to have a deeper draft through the channel. Jim and I quickly passed through the channel and then were astonished to see the ice had formed a narrow band between open Lake, and the ice cliffs.

The ice blocked us from viewing the cliffs up close, pancake pack ice was solid to the shore about two-three hundred yards out. There was also a moving ice debris field that was on the open lake and drifting in. We had no where to go. We pushed our sea kayaks through some brash ice to paddle in what looked like a little ice pond that was a quarter mile long and 500 yards wide. We did find some spots on the south side of the pier where i could get out and take some pictures.

Jim and I performed a few eskimo rolls in the river mouth and paddled back in. Despite being defeated by the ice, it was a short bright sunny day. I am continually astonished at how different the ice can be each spring. In my first years out on the Lake 2003-2004 the ice was very high and dramatic, but it was easy to get out through the river and then very close to 20-30 foot ice cliffs.

Our winter was especially long and cold this year with more snow than usual. This provided a more confined paddle, but fun nonetheless. What I always like is the feeling that if one didn’t know they were looking at Lake Michigan, you could almost feel it was Greenland, or Baffin Island. The dynamic nature of Lake Michigan for sea kayaking, and surf kayaking continues to entice and deliver. My thanks to Jim.