Mill Creek 5/5 - Limekiln Camping 5/6 & 5/7 (Alot of Pictures)

This is Sunday Report:

Pete camped at Limekiln Friday and Saturday. He came over and socialized us. Nice of meeting you, Pete. 

We got up at 6AM and checked ocean condition. Swell was decent ( not small, not big either). We decided to launch from the Limekiln beach.  Pete got up early and came to observe how we launched.

We had things up and ready for launching. However, Surf and waterbreak constantly creates 10-20ft high wall at the beach. It gave us a small-to-no window opportunity to lauch.    At one time, I had counted consecutive 12 waterbreaks at 10+ ft high. If we hit any one of these, kayak would roll. 

Make long story short. Dave lauched first and failed. Kayak rolled.  Later, Tim lauched sucessfully, Congrates, Tim!  10 minutes later, I lauched and failed miserably. My kayak rolled and knocked me down.  Both Dave and I lost a few things, which were not a big deal. We waited for another hour or so. The condition did not seem changing. Both Dave and I felt cold, since we were wet at 7AM morning. We finally called quit around 8:30AM.

Dave and I left Limekiln around 9:45AM. On the way back, we saw the beautiful Point Lopez cove from highway 1. It was sunny and clear morning. We were amazed with big blue ocean surface. What is in our mind is that we will defintely come back, when ocean condition is right.  , although we failed today.

Eric

Pete was our witness for the launch. Sorry, Pete, we could not show you much.

Campfire at Limekiln Saturday night. It was fun and relaxing. Great camp neigbors and kayak fishermen.

Surf and waterbreak wall at Limekiln Beach. Launching window is so small - no error of judgements would be forgiven. We rolled in one of these break walls.  . Launching at Limekiln is really tricky, if the ocean is not calm.

On the way back, I took a few shots of the big blue. It was beautiful. We were determined to come back and revisit this gorgeous place again.

Here is another one - the big blue.

Big Sur mountains in Spring. The color is pleasant. The trip was priceless. 

Saturday fishing was good craig and I looked at the swell sunday morning and decided to make the long trip home early rather thatn get pounded.  Eric said we landed smoothly but but my first experience was a little nerve racking after 2 big rollers came in and all I saw was the back of craigs kayak up in the air but he managed to land it without rolling (extreme) but what an adreneline rush and I was glad to be in a group of pro's to give me advice. thanks to all for the advice and hope to get out there again someday..

Here a pic of Eric and James, about to land. I have a little videio clip of the landing, but I have to figure out how to loas it on this site.

Craigh

How does the board feel about teamwork assists in launching and landing in tricky surf?  Do you guys think it would be helpful to have somebody on the beach spot for openings?  The perspective from the beach can be really different than the view from the water.  Another thing is that a person on the beach can help drag a boat out of the surf a lot faster than a guy can paddle.  The down side is that the person on the beach can be just another obstacle, and potentially injure him/herself by getting struck by a surf - flung kayak.

Hi, Martin

Your idea is interesting. I would think that the teamwork of surf launching must be well practiced. Sunday condition at Limekiln was scary. There were consecutive water breaks that were creating walls of 10+ ft height. They gave little window of opportunity for you to bypass the walls. I rolled in one of the walls.

With team work, I would think we could stage yak better and push it off quickly. That would work if timing right. But, last person would be left out. In case of Landing, it would work if someone on the beach could drag yak out of surf as soon as possible, given that the yak already approaching beach without roll. Not sure how much the person is in helping.

An interesting idea, yet to be practiced.

haveing a guy on the beach would be dangerous, no matter how you look at it.  also, landing a kayak, let alone a surfboard on a close out shore break is gonna be tricky no matter what.  Now, i'm wondering where are the pics of the 10' waves.  in the pic at the top, those seagulls look to be 1/3 of the height of the waves, and then the pic with you guys paddleing in, those are 3-4 foot faces.  where are the big uns???  I've heard stories of these monstrous closeout shorebreaks at lime kiln but never seen it.  Did anyone get a good picture of one??  JTF..

If you look at the picture, you can sense the wall buildup. That picture just gives an example of the shorebreaks. Sunday morning, some monstrous shorebreaks were roaring continuousely. They were 10+ft or more. I were wiped out during launch.  Good thing is I did not have camero with me. So I missed pictures of 10+ ft shorebreaks. 

How does the board feel about teamwork assists in launching and landing in tricky surf?  

IMO: learn to do it on your own. IF the surf is really that big, I suggest doing what Jmairey did at Linda Mar. Get off the kayak and get behind it and swim it towards the shoreline. (I've done it once myself and the yak did stay top side)

haveing a guy on the beach would be dangerous, no matter how you look at it.

I agree with JTF. A kayak rolling on the surf is not something you want to get close to.

I have also seen limekiln shorebreak big in the past.  I don't think anything is more dangerous than being pile driven into
the sand then sucked back down for repeated pile drivings. toss a 70lb kayak in there and it's just plain dangerous.
glad to hear you gave up on sunday.

I have landed after surfing with big shorebreak, and it's no fun, you have to time it such that you get washed
ashore on the back of the wave and land on your feet, then get far enough up the beach you don't get washed back.
all the while keeping your board between you and the beach. nerve-wracking.

Now, if I really did want to get out and get back in I would use a long bowline.  I would swim out with the rope,
leave the boat on shore. then have somebody launch the boat (some kind of ballast fixed to the bottom would be good
to dissaude the boat from capsizing), and pull the boat out with the rope.  A small swimfin, like the body boarders
use would be good here but not necessary.

jump on once it's out.

if the boat flips while coming through the surf, you'll have to right it to get it to move. that's why ballast fixed to the
bottom would be good.

likewise, for landing, let the boat in to shore on the rope.  somebody can pull the boat up on the sand when it washes up.

getting yourself in and out is not that easy either, but pretty do-able.

Two navy seal type dudes could launch a pair of kayaks like this in probably any conditions. one guy on shore, one guy
in the water, they can move both boats out, then mount them outside the shorebreak, likewise they could swim those
boats out with the bowlines through some surf, especially if they had body-board type swimfins.

But this is pretty much crazy-talk.   

darn! I was really hoping someone would have gotten pics of that.  Its all good though.  The most important thing is that nobody was pummeled.  Sad to hear the fish weren't biting that well for everyone.  Bills orange and clear plastic really did a number on the reds when I was there.  Although, all my fish were caught in a 2 hour window also.  JTF..