Shakedown test and getting rekt in Santa Cruz

After finishing a midterm today I decided to skip the rest of my classes and take the yak out for a bit of a shakedown run. I am still getting all my gear set up but I felt comfortable going out now that I have a radio, as long as it didn't get too foggy to keep the coast in view. I set out from the beach south of the Santa Cruz harbor with trolling for halibut in mind. I trolled around the mile buoy for about two hours and managed to pick up a decent brown rockfish, no skunk! No signs of halibut but I'm determined to try again once I get a GPS. On the way back in as I waited for a set to pass, I ended up getting too close to shore. A wave started breaking behind me, and after riding it for about a second the front of my yak hit the sand. Luckily I just got ejected onto my feet in waist-high water, but it was a good wake up call to learn to practice my surf landings more. All of my gear was stowed in the hull so I didn't lose anything besides my ego. All in all a good day on the water and I'm eager to get back out there and find some butts.

Nice fish!

You might want to launch from the harbor “A dock”. Then you won’t have to worry about crashing when launching or landing. Also, a compass is essential IMHO, even if you do have GPS.

Awesome catch! I was starting to think that there weren't any fish in Santa Cruz