Baja Sea Kayaking Vacation

At the end of October, Trish & I took some time off to paddle with Sea Kayak Baja Mexico on a 6-day relaxing tour of the Loreto Islands & Coast.  Ramon & Daniel guided our group of 8 from Loreto out to Danzante then down the coast a bit.  If you ever get a chance to paddle the Sea of Cortez, connect with SKBM for guide services or equipment rental.  You won't find better trained, more professional guides with any other company and you definitely won't find better equipment.  We toured with top of the line P&H & Sea Kayaking UK sea kayaks, Werner carbon paddles, Kokatat pfd's and MSR camping equipment.

For me, this was just a chance to relax with Trish, spend some time in the desert and reset myself after a long summer.

working on our relaxation techniques

early morning on the Loreto waterfront

Loreto harbor before sunrise

Trish makes a friend

first night camp on Danzante Island

yup

1st tarantula of the trip

awesome group of people from Baja, Canada, Washington, Wisconsin, Maine

Baja is so beautiful

hiking to see cave paintings

Ramon, our guide

Just the ladies.. Polly, Leanne, Sydney, Kathy, Margaret, Trish

Don't be an Inflator Hater!

Inflatable standup paddleboards get a bad rap from too many people.  My first & second experience was on a borrowed POS (piece of shit) that I rolled up and took East - twice.  Yes, it was great that I could travel with it, especially to an area where board rentals were mostly non-existent at the time.  But the board was heavy, slow, unstable and way to flexible.

Fast forward one year and I'm getting ready for a baja trip.  Again, nowhere to rent quality boards where I was going so I again started to research inflatables.  I settled for the Starboard 14' x 30" Astro Touring - a great board, especially against what I'd paddled in the past.  I first paddled the board back in October and thought it was alright.  It was fast, it was stable, wasn't too heavy - didn't have any of the characteristics I was afraid of.  It doesn't have the beautiful lines you can get with a rigid board, but you can still roll it up and fly with it.

After that trip, I continued to paddle the Astro and I noticed something when paddling it.  My stroke adapted to minimize bounce and I was having lots of fun paddling it.  It became a great loaner board, since it's so durable.  Every time I paddled it, I liked it more.  By December, that board became my go-to board for everything but surfing.  And even when I did take it surfing, it did alright on waves up to 3'.  By January, I started selling off my rigid boards since I wasn't paddling them anymore.  I'd fallen for inflatables.

Paddling that Starboard Astro gave me so much joy every single time I used it.  It has this far-out characteristic that is hard to measure, kind of like umami.  You don't read about it on the board websites, no mention in the specs page.  I call it the fun factor because that's what it is - so much fun.  Inflatables are fun to paddle..

This month I purchased a 14' Elite by Red Paddleboard Company.  Holy shit!  The fun factor has remained the same, but all the other board characteristics have just shot forward into the rigid board category.  It's narrow (26"), it's fast, it has a great shape, a good design, it's stable and it incorporates a standard fin box, a huge improvement.  Like other inflatables it's durable as hell, fits on my back, my bike, or in my luggage and is a joy to paddle.  But, it doesn't bounce as much, it's stable on the tail and great at pivot turns, it feels light on the water & has a full deckpad.  Look for a review in the future.

Adventures in Sea Leader Training

9 paddlers, one panga and 5 days of Sea Leader Training.  While in Baja this week, I sat in on a BCU course run by Ginni Callahan and Santiago Burreuta of Sea Kayak Baja Mexico.  As an observer, I had the best job - no responsibility, no stress.  I helped when they asked, when they were set, I simply paddled.  

We started in beautiful Loreto, founded in 1697 then moved slightly south to a more remote beach.  After 2 more days, we convoyed across the desert to San Carlos, on the edge of Magdalena Bay.  In San Carlos we made ourselves at home at a small eco-hotel right on the water, launching off the property two days and out of San Carlos port the third.  The highlight of the trip was the maddening logistics of getting to the surf.  First we drove to the panga, loaded it with sea kayaks and sups, drove the panga to the water, boated across Mag Bay, put the panga on a trailer and towed it across a low peninsula and re-launched into the surf.  It was an adventure in itself and added a ton of fun to the experience.  Even though the surf was small, it was totally worth it.

All of the students were BCU 3* paddlers, some pursuing 4*, some just out for more personal training.  The big question asked of a 3* paddler is 'Will this person be an asset on a trip?'  For this group of paddlers, the answer was absolutely 'Yes'.