Baja - swell
 

In light of some recent discussions like that guy that almost got killed when his kayak sank... and given the boards have been fed with some (white and shiny) inspirational material for heading down South, it may be good idea to throw a safety reminder about one important thing - the Baja swell.

It can be real ugly down there. The coastline is exposed so it's nothing like the Shores. 2 or 3 ft ground swell can pump up some pretty serious surf. The sets get thick and the worst of all, they break good 100+ yards away from the shore. Some serious adrenalin gets pumped up for 30-40 or so seconds launching into what seemed like a lull, paddling towards the wall of water forming in the distance trying to ride over it before it breaks. :eek: I hated that, scared the crap out of me...

Don't forget it's an unknown territory. At least where we fished, there are some submerged reefs scattered in the area. Rolling over one of those could be pretty ugly. http://lajollafightclub.com/go/image.../icon_idea.gif

With Baja, you can't be tuned into swell conditions so good as here in the US. Wetsand's Baja Norte swell watch gives you some general idea, but you never know till you get there:

http://www.wetsand.com/swellwatch/sw...7&SubCatID=857

Don't make the 5 or 6 hours of driving make you feel obligated to launch. If it seems too big, put it off for tomorrow. It may lay down.

The trips we've done so far, we made a final decision to go only a day before. If the conditions didn't look right, we had no problem postponing it for another week or so.

Have all your safety gear. It's Baja - there's no CG to come to your rescue. Wear a PFD, especially when launching and landing.

Make sure you have the company.

I'm not writing this to discourage people from going. This is just a voice of reason for folks that are heading South to keep in mind. The swell is just one of the things to be prepared for, and it shouldn't be taken too casually.

Here's a picture that Trev took of one of the tougher landings the group had on one of the previous trips. I wasn't there, their story, but you get pretty good idea by looking at it. :eek:

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegall...6/bajasurf.jpg

Stay Safe Always!!! http://lajollafightclub.com/go/image.../icon_idea.gif

I know what you're talking about. The long drive, the antisapation, the high hopes, posibly the road fatigue and you're going out no matter what. I've been bitten by this on a surf trip years ago. Sort of the opposite side of a kayak trip, way to much surf. I have a buddy who is an advid abalone diver on the central coast. At the start of every ab season there is a big rush to the coast by people who haven't been in the water since last season. I think my buddy called it "Sacramento Syndrome". Three abbers were killed at the start of this season alone. I can barely think of any thing worse than loosing a buddy on a "fun" trip to Baja. Mike

There are three kayaks in the surf in that picture...

The surf was decent when we launched, but the weather turned and this huge swell came out of nowhere. That was a very scary part of the trip and we were lucky to come out of it with just a little bit of lost gear and some damaged kayaks. Everyone was fine after sitting around the camp fire for a while.

Man that kelp bed looks close. Makes me want to just swim out from shore.

The divers that do that kelp are local. There are unmarked gill nets here so be careful.

Just to add, the orange yak in the middle of that pic is upside down!:eek: That one required a local diver to rescue. Me and two other guys were still outside the surf zone while this carnage was occurring. Those two took a panga ride in, I gambled with the surf. Got in but had to turn around and paddle for my life 6 or 7 times to avoid a big one. The bad news is that the launch had been fine that morning, this swell just rolled in while we were out there. Scary sheeet.

Good advice...another option when the sets roll in is to do a Superman.
Hold on to the back handle and let nature take its course. The added weight in the back (you) keeps the bow up.
Have had to do that a couple times...

In some spots that might not work. You might go over the reef and get banged up, or the undertow can pull you right back out. On these beaches the waves often break in water >6' deep. Look out.

I was still out when that pic was taken
I took a panga ride in

Panga through the surf! That was fun.

At least on that day, if you were not paddling to shore you were not getting any closer. That upside down kayak sat there for over half an hour getting beat up by the surf and then sucked back out. Our diver friend had to swim out and drag it in, along with the kayaker.

Yeah, the crazy thing about that break is it was a fairly easy(by baja standards) launch at high tide, but at low tide the reef on the outside was breaking making it very tricky indeed. It's really important to pay attention to how a break changes through out the day. Baja will definitely improve your surf launching and landing skills whether you want it to or not. This is still one of my favorite Baja pics.

That's a cool pic Trev. I still have nightmares about the Colonet reef breaks. I'll never forget the one that ate Forrest.

Better yet, when a set wave turns your kayak parallel to the white water, try submerging your paddle blade as far as you can. keep the flat part of the blade facing the shore. this keeps the wave from flipping you. its a bumpy ride but you get in without flipping. ive done this in headhigh surf on the sea of cortez in sit inside kayaks without gear. its a pretty common surf technique.

either that or you invent a massive 2 ft retractable skag :)