Know when to call it a day

Took advantage of the 3 day weekend and headed to the Van Damme / Elk Area.
Got there at 10am Saturday knowing the swell report was not favorable. Checked out a few coves in the area including Elk and decided Saturday was NOT a day to be on the water. As I was driving past Van Damme I noticed 2 kayakers on the water so I pulled into the parking lot to watch them come in. The surf was big and I knew they were going to get pummeled. Much to my surprise they both made it in no problem. They were on little surf SOT's with no gear at all. After the safe landing they decide to go back out.
The 1st guy makes his move right into a GIANT breaker and gets HAMMERED. Lost his paddle and his kayak washes up on the beach. I can see his paddle just outside of the surf, so his buddy decides to go for it in his kayak. He gets hammered, but hangs on to his paddle. After 3 attempts he finally makes it past the breakers and retrieves his buddy's paddle. Comes back in enough to try to 'javelin' the paddle back to his buddy, then gets caught by a breaker and is hammered in the surf. As his kayak washes up buddy # 1 makes another attempt, and seems to be making it ok so buddy #2 starts out. Well buddy#1 wasn't so lucky and gets dumped and pushed back towards the beach as buddy #2 is going for it and getting drawn towards the breaker. I could see a rescue in the making as the 2 collide. WHAM! Remarkably neither was knocked out. After a few more attempts they both make it out.
I figure the Stooges show is over so I turn towards the parking lot headed for my truck when what do I see? A TANDEM gearing up to go ab diving. Well this I gotta stick around for.
These guys had dry suits and weight belts on..recipe for disaster.
They get their kayak to the surf, brace for the incoming breaker and get knocked on their asses! Kayak comes back and drills them both, but they recover. Get lined up, brace for another breaker and get knocked on their asses again. Now as they try to stand the kayak takes the legs out of one of them and he falls on top of the kayak and gets sucked into the next breaker. WHAM! If I only had a video camera. These guys are either real troopers or real idiots, you decide. They get lined up,  breaker comes, then they hop on make it through the next breaker, but the guy in back falls off. As he tries to get back on he dumps the other guy off. Just outside of the surf line. I am thinking of how much these guys are toast; when by an act of some miracle, the sea lays flat, in an instant. They dumped another 3 times, just outside what had been huge breakers all day. After almost 4 minutes they finally got under way when the big ones started coming in again non stop.
I got up at 2:30 in the morning to drive to The Mendocino area to fish and dive. No way is my life or health worth a fish or abalone.
Know when to call it a day so you can have other days to enjoy.
We went out on Sunday and Monday. Check out the fishing reports.

At least you got some entertainment out of the deal... would  have been great to have had a video camera.

I have learned to check the report carefully before I drive to the coast.  After a couple trips where I had to turn around and come home after a 4 hour drive I had enough.  I also have had a couple of the oh schit why did I come out into this moments.

I probably would have stuck around too see that cool action comedy.
At least no one got seriously hurt.

I had a bad experience at Linda Mar this year....I hooked up with Kevin after work to recon for Salmon. The swells were big and Kevin did the smart thing by backing out. I, on the other hand, wanted a salmon really bad. So I launched and barely cleared 4 breakers before I got to the safe zone.....after 5 minutes of getting my trolling rig ready,  I realized there was NO SAFE ZONE   I was being tossed around by the swells and could not even keep my yak on a straight heading. 10 minutes into trolling, I stopped and decided to head back. As I was looking for a window of opportunity to paddle back to shore without being crushed by the swells, I realized that the sets were constant AND consistently BIG. I SAT FOR AN HOUR on my yak hoping that the conditions would die down  - it only just got worse   I knew I was going to flip my yak on the way back so I just decided to go for it. I paddled in backwards (that's how I usually land my yak at Linda Mar) and sure enough I got hit again and again and again....and again by the incoming waves - and I got totally drenched by white water. My deck was flooded and the yak got really heavy - so I gave everything I got just to point my bow towards the HE-UGE breakers. Sure enough, after what it seemed to be forever, my paddle touches the sandy bottom and I quickly jumped out and struggled to get in front of the yak. I managed to grab hold of the carrying handle up front and I could not believe I made it with my yak top side. I was very lucky and learned an important lesson - no fish was worth ANYTHING on that particular day  

Mooch,
I hoped you washed you the brown stains farmer johns after that trip.

Tote,
Nice report and picts.  Can't believe how foolish some people are.

BTW, that was one helluva fish.

Stuart

Mooch,
I hoped you washed you the brown stains farmer johns after that trip.  

Stu - I was literally scared shitless that day...thus...no brown stains  

That day you caught the first salmon of the season at Moss was a close second to this scary experience. I'm glad we headed in right after you got your fish on board.

On a positive note: I was able to test the prowler 15's capabilities on the worse possible conditions - so, far I'm really impressed with it    If I could re-design the P15, I'd add a couple more scupper holes up front cause the water drains really slow once you get flooded by big swells