Every year for the past 4 years I have gone on a boat dive trip with my brother Paul. Maryly has come along the last two years. This year we talked a few people from BASK into coming along also: Joe Petolino and Jenning Gee. We each brought along a kayak to play with between dives. Maryly and Jenning brought sit-on-top kayaks while Joe and I both brought little sit-inside river kayaks to play in. The water temperature at the channel islands was 65F this year, which felt like bath-water after kayaking in the 50F water around San Francisco. I was able to practice my roll a bunch of times on every outing.
On the first day the dive boat was parked off the landing at Anacapa Island. From there we could see a bunch of smaller holes in the cliff, suggesting that there would be caves. So after our first dive I jumped in my kayak and paddled around the landing. The "landing" at Anacapa Island is a ladder with a crane above it. Kayakers can get a permit to camp here, but you have to climb up the ladder out of your boat, then use the crane to pull your boat up after you. I stayed in the water and went into a few caves.
Over the next two days we managed to find time to play in the kayaks and find caves in Santa Cruz Island. I have long figured that kayaking and diving should go well together: While you are out-gassing nitrogen on a surface interval, you can explore the shoreline in your kayak. This trip was the first time I have successfully managed to do this. Kayaking has become so popular that the boat has a special purpose kayak rack now and between us BASKers, the crew, and the other divers we managed to fill the rack up.