Bird Key
By
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
‘A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drownded,’ he said, ‘for he will be going out on a day he shouldn’t. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.’ -J. M. Synge The Aran Islands
Show N’ Go Trip Report - Saturday, October 2, 2004
Folly Beach, Charleston, South Carolina
Air temp 80 F, water temp 78 F. Light winds, increasing to 5 – 10 knots S in afternoon.
Nine sea kayakers met at the Southwest end of Folly Beach, at the County Park at 10:00 AM. It stirred my loins to see all of the vehicles with kayaks on top waiting to get into the park.
The group consisted of:
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Tom Nickels – Nigel Foster Silhouette
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Cheryl Quam – Nigel Foster Silhouette
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Carole Stratz – Azul Sultan
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Stephen Whiteley – Azul Sultan
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Glenn Vetter – his Klepper of course
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Dan Q – his self-made stitch and glue
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Gregory Forman – his red boat with the happy (it’s a zucchini!) rudder
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Deborah Mitchum – brand new NDK Romany Elite
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Scott Szczepaniak (me) – NDK Explorer
We took direction from Tom, who is preparing for his BCU level 3 coach assessment, with a spirited launch and play in the surf waiting for the whole group to launch.
As we gathered up, we witnessed a crazed dolphin leaping out of the waves to land in stupendous belly flops! Then we went along the shore break to practice bracing. Then into the break over the bar to practice surfing. Sad, so sad, the sight of so many upturned hulls!
Glenn had a new deck and skirt in place on his Klepper. His first side surf had a high brace that was way too high. He did not dislocate his shoulder. He did, however, have to fend off a school of instructors (who, in a shark-like feeding frenzy, all sliced towards him to tell him to keep his elbows down!)
Scott experienced his first bow-ender! Cheryl was 30’ away, Tom 50’ away, but no one witnessed it! (Other than Scott!) Slow motion, and I knew it was about to happen. Not as scary than a stern-ender, in my limited experience.
After some high-energy surfing, we regrouped on Bird Key for lunch. Carole led an impassioned telling of the recent ill-fated Charleston County Park Deveaux Bank trip. Tom and Dan went a’beachcombin’. Tom later reported that upon bending over to pick up a shell, a gallon of seawater squirted out of his nostril! Seawater inserted earlier into his sinuses from a large breaker. Dan did not find the sand dollar he promised his niece, but did find a Mermaid’s Purse.
Scott and Greg did some brace work at the beach, with Greg’s brand spankin’ new Lendal paddle! Then the group headed back towards Folly for some more surf play. By this time, the group was improving their skills and testing their limits! Greg was putting his newfound bracing skills to work keeping upright. Deborah found the sweet spot in her high brace and low brace, and was surfing the breakers in towards the beach. She did lean away from a few waves at the end of the ride, just to keep things exciting. She deftly executed the Mitchum hand/sand roll, and the Mitchum head/sand roll. Dan was riding, capsized, swimming, and then re-entering. Any lack of skill was made up for in his enthusiasm. Don’t forget, he was deathly ill, having called-in sick to work earlier in the day!
Cheryl Quam pushed her envelope as well. Her experiments with back-surfing were successful. Certainly safer than teaching high school in North Charleston! Stephen, in the classic stoic British tradition, was capsizing only out of sight of the group, and getting starched and pressed before re-joining the group.
Finally, the weary paddlers landed on Folly Beach. Too tired to do anything more, they lay in the sand telling tales of the tall (and taller!) waves that they surfed. Except Carole, who was doing her own version of the hand/sand roll for the camera. Finally, sponge-bobs and sponge-bobbets got the last of the seawater from the cockpits, and boats were carried across the sand the vehicles in the parking lot. As boats were tied down, the talk turned to “doing it again” tomorrow, and Tom’s Anglesey Party tomorrow evening.