Getting gear together, any advice?

Hi all, so I just got the ascend fs12t kayak for fishing in the bay and half moon bay and around the gate. Just got a pfd today and I was looking at wetsuits. Can someone guide me in the right directions of thickness I would want and also if the booties gloves and hood are necessary.  I know I will need a vhf what is a good one to get ? Thanks for the help. Can someone also send me in the direction of how to read swell and weather info so that I don't go outon a bad day. Thanks again

Read through this:  http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=27534.0

Post here again if you have questions and welcome to the madness

Footwear is an important consideration - hard to think of anything more annoying than cold toes - but they don't necessarily need to be wetsuit boots.  Neoprene footwear is comfortable and warm and can be purchased separately from a wetsuit.  Some of the paddleboard boots are much more comfortable than dive-specific footwear... unless you're a diver.

The wetsuit hood and gloves are not necessary for kayaking and are pretty uncomfortable to wear.

If you go with a wetsuit, you might find you also want a light nylon rain suit.  When neoprene is wet and you're in the air, it can get chilly from evaporative cooling.

The VHF radio can cost anything you're willing to pay.  Look for at least 5watts of transmitting power and make sure it is completely waterproof.  The recommendations for floating, GPS, DSC, etc. are all good options if your budget supports it.

I'm guessing you know the minimum safety gear California requires of you.  They're different than up here in Oregon, so familiarize yourself with the equipment you must carry.

Check the surfing websites for good predictions on wind and wave conditions.  NOAA's weather service is pretty accurate for local forecasts and marine warnings.  National Geographic has an interesting page here where you can learn about the relationships between swell height, period and length here: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/volvooceanrace/interactives/waves/index.html

But more important than all the information and gear in the world, get some experience.  I flew SAR in the Bay area for the Coast Guard, and the chop, the strong currents and the rapidly changing weather conditions make the Bay and the Gate a challenge for experienced kayakers.  Don't overestimate your abilities and don't become a statistic.

Be safe.  Have fun.

All good advice above. I'd just echo that the surfing websites (such as surfline) are good for weather info, swell info, and so on. But local conditions can and do vary quite a lot, so you always need to be prepared to call it off if conditions are not what you expected (hard to do after planning, preparation, getting up early, driving, etc.). And as a rule of thumb, I'd say that 10 knots is probably a reasonable threshold for wind---anything at or above that can make for unpleasant (to downright dangerous) conditions. And even if conditions are nice when you launch, wind predictions need to be take seriously. It's no fun to be miles from your landing site and have whitecaps suddenly start thrashing your kayak...

Thank you guys for the info. I will definitely make sure I have all necessary gear before launching. I just did a control flip in my pool which was I'd say about 35-40 deg. Yesterday. Took 3 times for me to get it flipped and back in. The first 2 I hit water and got the fk out. Didn't realize it would be so damn cold. But now I know to expect the worst and the pFD sure helped from me hitting bottom. I think the hardest part is getting the yak back over. I think I will have to wait for a calm day to launch anywhere out here that isn't a lake. Or hit one of you guys up to go out sometime so I'm not out solo on my first trip. I'll check up on some weather info and see if I can get my calculation correct. Heading out to the water today but swells say 8-10 ft with 5-10 knot winds so I'm guessing it won't be a good day for yakking so no launch.

Here's a good one with some discussions on ocean conditions for go, no go.


http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=32677.30 read the whole thing.


I use the Weather.gov point and click. it gives a forecast for the point where your cursor is, much better than a general area forecast.  Also almost all other weather data sites use this data and just package it differently,

Here is a point and click for the middle of San Pablo bay
http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.38751&lat=38.06196#.Vsnda_krLIU

Once this page is up you just use the map to click on any spot your want.

Here's a good one with some discussions on ocean conditions for go, no go.


http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=32677.30 read the whole thing.


I use the Weather.gov point and click. it gives a forecast for the point where your cursor is, much better than a general area forecast.  Also almost all other weather data sites use this data and just package it differently,

Here is a point and click for the middle of San Pablo bay
http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.38751&lat=38.06196#.Vsnda_krLIU

Once this page is up you just use the map to click on any spot your want.

If you go down the page to "Additional Forecasts and Information" and click on "Tabular Forecasts" you get lots more detail.

http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=38.062&lon=-122.3875&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=digital

It helps with go-no go decisions if you make notes of the conditions you're seeing.  Whatever notes work for you, like maybe forecast vs. actual conditions or whatever information makes sense to you.  Eventually you'll put together a mental picture of what you're probably going to see at a launch site.

I don't know your experience level in a kayak, so don't let this offend you: be patient. You don't want to go out in saltwater until you're very confident and comfortable kayaking in freshwater, and I would suggest that having any difficulty righting the kayak and getting back in is a clue that you need to gain more skill in a lake before you hit the Bay or the sea.

If you can right the kayak and be back onboard in 20 seconds or less every time you practice, you stand a good chance of being able to do it in less than 3 minutes in the sea.  It's that different when everything is being pushed around by waves and winds and currents.

I don't know how to stress personal safety strongly enough.  In general, up here, we don't try to go to sea until we've had hours and hours of experience in the lakes and rivers.  The ocean can get incredibly real incredibly fast.

Good luck to you.

Thanks guys. Im a newbie at kayaking and don't have experience other than controlled flips in the pool and righting the yak and getting on.  I will definitely take it out on the lakes before I launch at sea to get the feel of actually being out on water. And I will definitely take notes on conditions I see vs what was forecasted just to compare.

Your pool in in the upper 30s in the east bay?

You got in the pool without any of your immersion gear on and practiced reentry?  Even if your pool is in the upper 40s thats hardcore man.  Good work.

Yeah the pool gets cold out here way colder than the bay or ocean water, I didn't think it would be so bad since I jumped in it every time the Giants won a playoff game in 2014. I was drunk as he'll then and it wasn't an issue but this time no gear sober as can be with a pfd and shorts first dip was crazy I couldn't even talk just mumble " it's fuckin cold" which I didn't finish til I was out of the pool . Then I knew what I was up against so the next couple times wasn't as bad. Definitely won't do that again without a wetsuit. At least not sober. But I remembered a video that was posted on here about cold water immersion and not to panic and catch your breath and dammit it works, at least better than trying to rush things.

Here's a good one with some discussions on ocean conditions for go, no go.


http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=32677.30 read the whole thing.


I use the Weather.gov point and click. it gives a forecast for the point where your cursor is, much better than a general area forecast.  Also almost all other weather data sites use this data and just package it differently,

Here is a point and click for the middle of San Pablo bay
http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.38751&lat=38.06196#.Vsnda_krLIU

Once this page is up you just use the map to click on any spot your want.

If you go down the page to "Additional Forecasts and Information" and click on "Tabular Forecasts" you get lots more detail.

http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=38.062&lon=-122.3875&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=digital

Yeah my apologies on not being clear, the real value on the point forecast is the hourly forecasts, which looks like Traildad uses the tabular version whereas I like the "Hourly Weather Forecasts", or just click on the picture of a weather graph on the lower right of the page,  Same data just a graphical presentation.

Yeah my apologies on not being clear, the real value on the point forecast is the hourly forecasts, which looks like Traildad uses the tabular version whereas I like the "Hourly Weather Forecasts", or just click on the picture of a weather graph on the lower right of the page,  Same data just a graphical presentation.

I'd never bothered to look at the point forecasts until you mentioned it, so I'm grateful for the information.  Thanks!

Here's a good one with some discussions on ocean conditions for go, no go.


http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=32677.30 read the whole thing.


I use the Weather.gov point and click. it gives a forecast for the point where your cursor is, much better than a general area forecast.  Also almost all other weather data sites use this data and just package it differently,

Here is a point and click for the middle of San Pablo bay
http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.38751&lat=38.06196#.Vsnda_krLIU

Once this page is up you just use the map to click on any spot your want.

If you go down the page to "Additional Forecasts and Information" and click on "Tabular Forecasts" you get lots more detail.

http://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=38.062&lon=-122.3875&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=digital

Yeah my apologies on not being clear, the real value on the point forecast is the hourly forecasts, which looks like Traildad uses the tabular version whereas I like the "Hourly Weather Forecasts", or just click on the picture of a weather graph on the lower right of the page,  Same data just a graphical presentation.

Are you clicking on a link in that page? I can't find "Hourly Weather Forecasts", just tabular or graphs.

Sorry for the thread jack but here's what I've seen on these point forecast pages.

There is always a picture/link to, the hourly weather graphs in the lower right margin of the page,

Sometimes it's called hourly weather forecasts, and sometimes its called hourly weather graphs, I'm not sure why, on the 2 examples below one is over land and the other is a marine forecast. Maybe that's why.  Since I always just click on the pic of a graph I never noticed the different titles.