Carmel River Report Dive report

A quick report for now, I will post the full report in This Happened to Me.

Yakuza and I made clean launches through the surf. Joel gets HAMMERED by the surf. Joel is on the beach and kayak is in the breaker zone. Not wanting to attempt a landing and relaunch from the center of the beach I opt to dive in and swim through the breakers ( 4 - 6' BEAN style punishers) to retrieve the Joelless kayak and paddle.  I bring the boat back to the beach and Joel pushes it back out thinking he will swim out to hit and board past the surf zone. BAD IDEA! We opt to scrub the diving after we finally get 3 manned kayaks on the water. It was a good call as conditions continued to worsen. I will post a full day report in the This Happened to Me.

-Brian G

update: I should add that nobody was hurt except some PRIDE~  (JoelFishing) 

Glad you all made it home. Can't wait for the Rrrrest Of The Story.

Glad to hear no one was hurt...sad to hear I wasn't there to see it.   

Sucks that I missed the trip to get my truck fixed and Toyota didn't even have someone there to do the work.

With all of the excitement I'm a bit sad that I wasn't able to send my biographer agarcia to document the story... I'm not sure if he was out playing in the powder or snapping pics of recovering drug addict stars at the Betty Ford Center with his new camera.

This is a relatively recent picture of him.

my version of the story....

Hooked up with Brian "Blue Jeans" and Martin / Yakuza....got to the surf launch before noon and there was some surf already breaking (Bean Hollow style). Martin and Brian did the smart thing and launched from a more protected side....I, on the other hand, was too lazy to drag my yak and launched from the middle of the Bay....and got my ass handed to me a couple of times  I flipped my kayak twice trying to get though the whitewater and failed miserably  By this time Brian and Martin were about a hundred yards off shore waiting for me. I finally decided to push the kayak past the surf zone and signaled Brian to paddle in to hold on to my yak (to keep it from drifting back to the beach break) My plan was to swim to it and re-board past the surf zone. Surprisingly, Brian did a David Hasselhoff swim rescue   Instead of paddling in to get to my kayak, he gets Martin to hold on to his kayak while he made the hundred yard swim to my yak and then proceeds to push it back to the shore   Definitely what I didn't have in mind as my yak tumbled on the shoreline once again   After giving Brian the look of Death, I explained to him what I was trying to do and so, I shoved the kayak back to him, chucked my paddle right next him as he held on to my yak and I dove in through the surf break and swam up past the safety zone and boarded my yak. Brian swam back to his yak and we started making our way to da spot. I immediately started to feel sick in such a way that I could not regain my normal breathing - I told the boys to go on without me as I was not feeling right. They decided to abort the plan as well as it was getting choppy further out. We then decided to paddle back and call it for another day. None of us had problems surf landing and all was good. Martin and Brian chose to dive from the shore and did some recon along the kelp and rocks right next to a cliff by the shore while I lay on the beach to relax. We hung out by the beach for a little while and had some home made lunch prepared by Martin (Thanks dude ) By 3PM, were packed up and left the scene with no crime towards any of the fish residents....we figured Patrick / Sin Coast had already cleaned up the place and left nothing for us to spear 

Ouch, that can be a brutal beach to launch/land on...  glad you guys made back in one piece.

Glad to hear you guys are OK. I was totally bummed when you called this morning and I was out of town. The whole time I was in Vallejo, all I could think about was how nice it must've been in Carmel! I was there Sat and caught a bunch of nice rockfish.

Hate to say Told you so...but I definitely remember the last thing I said to Martin was "launch on the south end of Monastery beach because its the most protected." And Mooch launches in the middle of the beach. That steep beach can be gnarly, with a heavy shorebreak and washing-machine action. The scuba guys call it the "Monastery crawl" because you literally have to crawl out or it'll keep sucking you back and tossing around if you try to exit the water normally. Its a tough lesson to learn.

Bummer about the swamping. But I'm still jealous you guys got to paddle the ocean for a while.
PK

This report is a good read, but you've GOTTA have photos accompanying stuff like this!   

not the greatest pics, but i kind of had my hands tied.

the day started off nice (kind of late OTW though).  Earlier in the day and I don't think we'd have gotten wacked as bad.

I think the last pic shows Joel after his spear/paddle chucking effort.  I can't see anything in his hands 

As for me, I tore a few holes in my wetsuit from having such rusty launch procedures.  I snagged one of the eyelets or tiedowns when I jumped on the boat.  And to add insult to injury, it was my new brand new O'Neill Fuel tri suit!  damn!  all those holes are just gonna cause more drag.   .  I knew I should have gone with my crappy suit, but I was just too excited to play with the new neoprene. 

I gotta give it up to Brian G.  He's one very nice, faithful, reliable, and patient dude.  He drove many hours to dive, and when conditions turned south for the group, w/o batting an eye, decided it was OK to cash it in and head for land.  Never exhibited being upset, to the contrary, he was just as mellow, smiling and happy as could be.  Brian G gets the zen master award for the month of March!!    

Anyways, I had as much fun, if not more, sitting on the beach chatting it up as I would have doing our intended activity.  Definitely some very good company to be around.  Also, got my boat wet and practiced a good but tough surf launch.  Great for the confidence.

Just roll with the punches. Thank you for the kind words.




-Brian " Bluejeans" G

Thanks for the visuals!     Way to be patient, Brian G. 

Man... that's great. I would've paid money to see Mooch get slapped around like a Be-outch by big blue. Really wished there was some pics of the ordeal... but, I've got a good imagination. Glad you guys made it okay though. I bet you guys were laughing your asses off on the beach. That place is horrible when it's rough. I've seen first hand what can happen out there. I won't mention any names though... but this one time... I saw the white hand lift and slam a great man down like a rag doll while gear was flying out of the yak all over the place. OUCH... Okay, I exaggerated a little there. Gear wasn't flying out all over the place but, he was. Classic wipe out on a short, strong break.

Yakuza-
Too bad about your new wetsuit. I guess you have some vents in it now if you get too hot in it. Got to watch those eyelets. And your right on the money about Brian Bluejeans. You'll be hard pressed to find a more easy going guy. Just don't go knocking on his door unannounced.

Freddie

I won't mention any names though... but this one time... I saw the white hand lift and slam a great man down like a rag doll while gear was flying out of the yak all over the place. OUCH... Okay, I exaggerated a little there. Gear wasn't flying out all over the place but, he was. Classic wipe out on a short, strong break.

Freddie

I'm more than happy to provide entertainment for my friends.  Unfortunately, its what I do...... 

Just didn't want to throw you under the buss there bro. That was pretty funny stuff though. Damn kelp...

Freddie

I'm very glad to read that all are o.k. to paddle, dive, spear or have a beach-lunch "another day" 
equallly happy that Martin shot a few pics of it going down!   good reaction time bro!

Mooch~ they're all gonna want to dive and spear with you, after poppin-up with your first WSB!.... iBELIEVEinYOUbrah'!    and didn't even laugh once

good job on the recovery fellas....Brians' calmness must have rubbed off on you two somewhere along the ride?
 **ZENness a MUST when dealing with MADNESS