Cold Rain and Wind
Weather has impacted our paddling ability a great deal this winter with California getting a much needed supply of rain. Unfortunately, we were also impacted by a sewage spill that contaminated the Harbor and surrounding beaches for several weeks, too. While California is known for having warm and mild winters, cold ocean waters and even colder winds are especially dangerous conditions for beginning paddlers and should warrant caution from even advanced or seasoned paddlers.
Paddling in 46° F, with water temperatures in the 50s with wind wakes in the Harbor, is not a safe option, especially without a coaching rescue boat to accompany paddlers who may tip over. Our Sunday workouts have been impacted a great deal this winter and given our club is currently all first year paddlers, the coaches have chosen to play it safe and do land-based workouts instead.
Hunter K1
Despite this forced pause in our water training, the club has two new adult paddlers and has also acquired another more stable vintage K1. A paddler from Santa Barbara donated a very well maintained fiberglass Hunter model to us and the boat requires no repairs! We’ll get a cloth cover made for it and put it into immediate use with our paddlers — thanks Lew Riffle for the donation!
After the time change to Daylight Saving Time in March, we’ll shift our weekend workouts back to Saturdays and come April, add two weekday afternoon workouts to our schedule. Hopefully as the water warms up again, along with the weather, we’ll be able to recruit some additional paddlers to join our club.
