As kayakers on the "Big" ocean, we are at the mercy of the elements. Having a good "situational awareness" of everything going on and specifically the weather is always a good plan for your well-being. But there are times that even with the 'best laid plans of mice and men can go awry' and you may get caught in a situation that is out of your control. That is when having a plan "B" landing down or upstream is a very good idea. Depending on your skills and ability, paddleing directly into and against a gale force wind is not a good idea: something/someone's going to give and it ain't mother nature. I would paddle at angles to the wind if at all possible and shoot for the alternate landing spot. But if an emergency situation happens, like if you become a small dot in that BIG, BIG ocean and that feeling of "sincere insignificance" takes over and you feel that you are in a bad way and in fear for your life, then (hopefully you packed your cell phone) by all means call the Coast Guard.

:cool::alberteinstein::afraid::puke:

Doing a simple check at weather.com and seeing a weather advisory is enough for me to not go out. Then there was a wind advisory on top of that. How much more of a clue does one need? I agree, the guide from the rental shop should know better.

Ive been out there in bad conditions.

Didnt know any better.

Saw water spouts in the horizon and thought "wow, cool!".

Then the wind stopped, and started blowing in the opposite direction.

Real hard, like 50 mph, 70 even.

Coolers full of beer were rolling down the beach.

The wind was so strong, it would twist my torso when it caught the paddle.

I couldnt keep my kayak pointed into the wind.

And when it turned, it made a sound. Whub whub whub!

WTF was that?, I thought, and then it started to tip.

When the wind caught the underside of the kayak, its made another sound.

Whooooosh. Whoooooosh.

And then it flipped.

I was upside down, in the seat, watching my gear hang on their leashes.

I flipped 2 more times in less than 5 minutes.

I thought I was going to die that day.

I'll save you the rest of the story.

The wind is no joke.

Be careful out there.

Look at the time on the chart. It updates. The correct time frame showed 12 knots

When i am bymyself i just keep my radio tuned to the weather alert system. I am not taking no chances.

what ever happend to common sense? you're tax dollars at work ladies and gents. You don't need a radio, you don't need the internet. All you need is a brain. My vote is for letting those who don't have one, fend for themselves. this shit costs money.

Your brain alone can't see what is going on at the beach or OTW if you live 15 miles from it. Some type of communication with weather info is still needed.

It could be a nice clear day, and then there could be a freak gust wind. You just have to be prepared.

we paddled our Fish n Dives using the original paddles that came with our Cobra package. Too short, bad design, and heavier than the Werner 2-piece ones we bought last year.

Hey Aron and Julie, I've bee thinking about a new paddle for the Cobra Tan, You like you Werners paddles.:confused:

True, but there have been many days I have driven to LJ all geared up, took a look at the conditions - weather swell or clouds on the horizon - and said no thanks.

In 8 years of this - I've never encountered a freak gust at LJ. Strong gusts that steadily built up, strong gusts I knew about on launch, winds so strong I had to paddle in to the cliffs at Bird Rock and hug the shoreline back to Shores, freak waves, freak fogs, yes...... but calm days in SD tend to stay that way.

I don't think an anchor will help on rough sea and deep waters.

Not calling you a liar, but if it was blowing that hard, we would call for help, assuming we had a phone/radio.

Once, in SD Bay, we got towed by a very nice PBer who saw we weren't making any progress. It was only blowing 25+mph. If it was blowing 50-70 we might have ended up fishing the Coronado Islands.

We like them a lot. Cost was about $250 each at the OEX in Mission Bay. We like the feel and that they are 2-piece, which we were a little leary about at first. The OEX guy (forget his name) assured us Werner would replace them for any problems we encountered.
Aaron

I hope you're not implying that they should not have been rescued, if they felt that need. Yeah, they were probably bozos for not checking on the weather, over-estimating their ability, or just being plain stupid. But, like others have pointed out, weather is sometimes unpredictable, and the predictions of the weatherman don't always happen that way.
I doubt and sure hope they just didn't think to themselves, "Hey, this shit is tiring, why don't we just call for a tow, and save the workout".
Aaron

anchors and kayaks go together like matches and gasoline.

THANKS FOR THE INPUT GUYS.

Its called a squall. A sudden violent gust of wind. Lookit up.

We were trying to land when it hit, and it blew us more than a mile parallel to the beach. It lasted no more than 15 minutes before we were able to get on the sand paddling chest down and drfiting sideways. Surfers dragged us up the shore when we landed. They had seen us getting blown away and had already called rescue. My own radio, a uniden got fried that day. Never reached for it as i was trying to stay alive. When i popped my head above the water, the wind would fill my eyes, ears and nose with water. I heard later That a pb hailed for rescue in the bay that day as well. Crazy weather. From then on, waterspouts and lightning in the horizon means im getting off the water.

But if you dont believe me, thats cool.

peguinpower, i fish in malibu. at least once every winter they clock offshore winds between 50 and 90 mph. crazy stuff! it's foolish to go out when they're calling for bad weather. even if it was only 15 mph, those beginners where unable to paddle back to shore. the guide should have known beginners might not be able to paddle against winds 15 and above.
beginners have no idea what wind speed they can handle. it's all new to them.

Thats where it happened. Ive heard that the canyons funnel the wind from the valley and given the right circumstance, you get what we got that day. Afterburner winds.

It wasnt like we were fishing in high winds. We just found ourselves in that situation all of a sudden. Our biggest mistake was taking pictures of the lightning and water spouts in the horizon, thinking it was cool since it was headed parallel to us. Not. Doh!