Maryly is looking for a kayak that is designed for an "altitude challenged person" to fit into comfortably. Monterey Bay Kayaks (MBK) was having a "demo day" this weekend so we drove down to take advantage of it. "Demo days" are a common occurrence at kayak stores but I have never gone to one before and was interested as well. On one of these events, the kayak store lines the beach with new models of kayaks for people to come and try out. Sometimes many manufactures send representatives with new boats to show off. Maryly had a list of small kayaks she wanted to try on for size and I was becoming interested in sit-inside expedition kayaks.
We arranged way in advance to spend the weekend in Monterey and go to the Aquarium on Sunday so Saturday would be our day to demo kayaks. The weather turned bad on us and it was a gloomy rainy day as we drove down. When we showed up at MBK, they had not bothered to bring any of the boats out to demo, but were happy to carry out whatever kayaks we wanted to try. Although Maryly wasn’t sure, I for one was perfectly happy kayaking in the rain so we suited up. The rain stopped while we were changing into our wetsuits and the sun even peeked out from behind the clouds a few times. It was a great day to try out a few boats.
Unlike Maryly, I did not have an agenda of boats I wanted to try, but there was a new boat from Current Designs, called the "Extreme", sitting in the middle of the floor. Everyone else there seemed to be goo-goo-eyed over this boat and seemed to think it was hot stuff so I suggested that I should try it out. They warned me that it was a little tipsy and that I should try out a more stable boat first, so I tried out an older boat by Current Designs called a Solstice. I found that boat to be as stable as a rock, very long, wide, and difficult to tip over. Probably an excellent touring kayak. I had brought along my dive mask with the intention of trying out an Eskimo roll in the water of Monterey Bay. The Solstice was so stable I had difficulty imagining it rolling back up so I put off rolling for a while. Next I tried out the Extreme and found the stability to not be a problem at all for me. I suppose it felt a little like some of the river kayaks I have been practicing rolling in. The day still seemed young, and I didn’t want to get cold and wet just yet, so I put off rolling for a while longer. I reserved the Extreme to try a roll in later.
Maryly was curious to try several hard-shell sit-on-top kayaks. We checked out two kayaks by Heritage, the Osprey and the Nomad. We took turns trying out each of these. Maryly was interested in a hard-shell sit-on-top because she was tired of her slow plastic sit-on-top boat and wondered if a hard shell would be faster while still being familiar. I was disappointed that these boats had very high centers of gravity to keep the seats out of the water. This would have made them less stable if they hadn’t been very wide boats that sort of had built-in pontoons on the sides to compensate. The extra width of the boats made it difficult for Maryly to reach out to paddle. I decided I would rather be lower in the water and have a plastic boat for banging over rocks.
At the end of the day, I switched back to the Extreme to try doing my first roll in the ocean. I put on my crutch, a diving mask, and forced the boat over on the left. First try I was able to come up on my strong side on the right. Maryly and our MBK salesman watching on the beach both applauded my success. Then I got cocky and tried an off-side-roll. It failed, then my knees came out from the thigh braces and I couldn’t do an on-side roll. I thumped on my boat in the universal signal to come do a rescue but Maryly was unable to turn the large stable sit-on-top she was in. She tried reaching for me with her paddle, but I didn’t want to pull her over. I started to recognize panic in myself, calmed down to straiten myself out, popped the spray skirt off, and did a wet exit. As I cam up I saw Maryly jumping into the water to come to my rescue. I don’t think there was much a swimmer could have done to help. I had planned for the worst with this roll and was just a few meters outside the mild surf. Just a few swimming strokes pushing the boat got me inside the surf and my feet hit bottom. I pulled the boat ashore and quit for the day.