I love traveling, I truly do, but one thing that traveling does for me is it makes me appreciate home, my friends and Trinidad, California, my home waters.

Trinidad, California.

After the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium earlier this month, I took the rest of February off, to enjoy being home. For Mark and I, kayaking “season” gets busy again starting next month, so I’m soaking up as much of home as I possibly can.

Last Sunday our local kayaking club, Explore North Coast, had a rescue practice day at Trinidad. Conditions were a little wonky, to say the least, with forecasted swells of 14 feet at 13 seconds. One thing that’s nice about Trinidad though is that it has both a harbor launch and a surf launch, so there’s usually a way out no matter what the conditions. In the nine years I’ve been paddling here, I can only recall a couple of days when we were unable to launch and went for breakfast instead.

I met my paddle pal Michael Morris for a before rescue practice paddle, and the two of us headed south to go around some of the larger rocks. This was not a good day for rock gardening, and as we went around one of the larger rocks we had to pick up the speed a little as a large swell started to crest. As we dropped down the other side I couldn’t help but smile. I LOVE Trinidad.

Prisoner Rock, our gateway to the ocean.

After going around a few more rocks and stopping to watch the waves crash in amongst others we headed back to the beach to meet up with the Explore North Coast group. We didn’t land, but instead sat back and watched as everyone made their way out.

Mike Zeppegno and Damon Maguire were the hosts of this paddle, and they had several exercises for people to practice, including both assisted and self rescues, as well as rescue scenarios in rocks using both towlines and swimming. All in all it was a great day to practice skills, but an even better day to be home, on the water and with friends.

Trying out my new Jeff Allen towline.

Experimenting with rescues.

Learning what works and what doesn’t.

Michael’s taking this swimmer somewhere…

Larry is magnetically drawn to rocks.

Damon enjoys the day.

Marcella hops over some incoming set waves.

Phil is all smiles.

It’s always nice to have coffee at the Beachcomber Cafe after a morning on the water.