Long Beach to Newport Beach, September 25th 2005.

In the morning I was able to launch under the freeway overpass with no problems. I had an easy paddle with calm water going though Alamitos Bay. As soon as I came outside the jetty and started paddling south, I started seeing surfers everywhere along the shore. They were all wearing black neoprene wetsuts, many with hoods as well. I thought these southern California surfers didn't wear wetsuits! I was not wearing a wetsuit because the water down here was a balmy 61F degrees instead of the 50F that I'm used to in my Northern California waters. As I paddled down the coast on this day I saw more and more and more surfers. They blurred into a black smear of neoprene just offshore as I looked ahead or behind me. This went on and on and on for twelve miles! This is the popular Huntington Beach surfing area. I had planned a short 15 mile paddle for this day and for most of the day (only broken by a few jettys) there was this solid wall of surfers waiting for the Perfect Pave. If I was a surfer down here, I would go looking for another hobby that was not this popular. Since the swell had been so mild the morning before I figured there wouldn't be much for the surfers to play in. But the swell started rising up and pounding the beach. Is the southern swell back? The waves seemed to come from the south, hitting the beach southeast first and then zipping up to the northwest. Despite being bigger than I had expected the waves still didn't look good for surfing to me. They seemed to dump close to shore before they became steep enough to ride. I didn't see many surfers get rides and the ones I saw looked very short.

Landing a kayak through this would be miserable! But unlike the day before had a backup plan. If I couldn't land at my scheduled beach near my motel, I could go an extra five miles to the entrance of Newport Bay, then paddle 5 miles back. The motel was midway across a narrow spit between the ocean and the bay. I didn't relish the extra 10 miles of paddling so I was pleasantly surprised when the waves suddenly calmed down as I approached the town pier and my landing spot. I landed with no problems. I considered using the bay for my trip out in the morning so I went exploring after securing my kayak at the motel. I walked miles up and down the shore of the "bay" and found only private yacht berths and businesses catering to yachties. I gave up on finding a public ramp near my hotel and planned another surf launch for the next morning.