Kayaker rescue La Jolla

[octico]

Originally Posted by momo fish

The worst weather and condition I have ever been out in was in LJ (right John & Jemie!!) and the best condition I have ever been out in has been LJ... That should should tell you a lot about LJ and how conditions can change..

That being said, I don't understand why take the risk but I'm sure they had their reasons.. Heck even the rental shops didn't let people out which says a lot..

Conditions can change from one minute to the next out there. They probably read the reports and thought they would be safe if they stayed close.

Good thing they were prepared.

[Jim Sammons LJKF]

Originally Posted by octico

Conditions can change from one minute to the next out there. They probably read the reports and thought they would be safe if they stayed close.

Good thing they were prepared.

All the shit slinging aside.

yes conditions can change quickly on the ocean, though not nearly as bad in LJ as many other places I have been.

The fact is there was a small craft warning issued two days before to go through Wednesday. Last I checked a kayak is a small craft.

I just have to say a large percentage of guys who kayak fish in LJ do not have the skill, experience or conditioning to deal with those kinds of conditions. Not saying all but we get a lot of new guys out there that can handle the day to day but when things go south it all goes to hell.

We had something similar happen several years ago. There was a wide open YT bite on one day, so the next day tons of guys showed up to fish. At 4:30 am the wind was already blowing pretty good. I was with my kids, we along with several other friends decided that was not the day to go out. A bunch of other much tougher guys with YT fever all headed out despite the conditions.
Of course later that day on the news was the report that TWELVE guys had to be rescued by the lifeguards boats because they couldn't get back in.

As I mentioned before, there is always another day to go out.
Know your abilities, know the predicted weather, and never underestimate the power of the ocean. We have too many great days out there to risk it on a shitty day.

[momo fish]

I agree as sometimes reports can be iffy so you play it safe and stay close but the reports all had small craft advisory plus heavy winds..

I can understand if conditions change if weather was borderline but it wasn't and that was my concern with the kayaker that had to be rescued. It was a ways of resources and I'm pretty sure even the coastguard was pissed they even had to go out given they should not have been.. I wish they could slap some guys upside the head for bonehead decisions.. 😂

FYI, speaking of rescues where is Jemie??? We need a first hand account..

Originally Posted by octico

Conditions can change from one minute to the next out there. They probably read the reports and thought they would be safe if they stayed close.



Good thing they were prepared.

[octico]

Originally Posted by momo fish

I agree as sometimes reports can be iffy so you play it safe and stay close but the reports all had small craft advisory plus heavy winds..

I can understand if conditions change if weather was borderline but it wasn't and that was my concern with the kayaker that had to be rescued. It was a ways of resources and I'm pretty sure even the coastguard was pissed they even had to go out given they should not have been.. I wish they could slap some guys upside the head for bonehead decisions.. 😂

FYI, speaking of rescues where is Jemie??? We need a first hand account..

Jamie bought a boat ....

[RK]

BUMP

[tamddo714]

Haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rufus]

Guys, protect your passwords! It seems that some 12 year old girls have hijacked the thread.

[jorluivil]

.........

[OnTheWater123]

HAHA

good to be safe though.

[octico]

[Goose1993]

Jorluval and hammerhead

Yaa I have swam with a life jacket. It's a pain in the ass. Especially since they probably were wearing clothes and probably salvaged some gear before their kayak went down. Not to mention it was rough waters.

I'm not saying it's not a difficult swim, I'm just saying .5 miles is a really short distance to make a mayday call just to get to the shore. If they felt in danger they made the right call though. I guess I'm just looking at it from my own abilities and views. I'm a strong swimmer and would rather help myself that wait for the coastguard to dispatch from mission bay.

But trust me, if I felt in danger, I would immediately radio in. But I like to trust myself to get myself out of harms way. On my last central coast trip, I was a little over 1 mile offshore on the west end of the kelp at leffingwell landing. I got violently sick. I think food poisoning hit me or I got a rapid acting stomach bug. I was throwing up and got dizzy. I was considering radioing into to the coast guard, but I knew I was only a mile or so from shore and knew I would get anxiety if I waited a couple hours for the coast guard to get me from morro bay. I just powered through the pain and exhaustion and paddled in. Like I said, I like to rely on myself.

[Goose1993]

Ya I'm over arguing on a forum.

It was fun for a while

But knowing the conditions and your abilities is huge. Like I said before, swimming .5 miles in rough water may not be that bad for a lot of people, but a lot of people can't handle it.

And choosing the day to go out on is EXTREMELY important. Big waves on a small/shallow hulled boat or windy, rough conditions on a kayak can be deadly. It's not worth dying out there. Especially when you can just go a couple days later!

[Old Man in the Sea]

Jim was 100% correct. If you saw the wind and waves yesterday & with the smallcraft warnings those 2 guys should not have gone out at all. Don't be stupid and go out during small craft warnings! They were correct to call on the radio lifeguards if they feared for their lives or safety when they capsized their kayak in those conditions. Let's be happy they are smiling back on shore!!

[Dannowar]

I guess Jim kicked me off the board. Catch ya kooks later!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Dannowar

I guess Jim kicked me off the board. Catch ya kooks later!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hold on...hold on...I was just joking. I can't imagine BWE without your...your...your candor" . I'll just have to deal with all of your future pics having fiberglass backgrounds. Not a bromance or a dude crush but...don't leave us! Jim

[ful-rac]

Jim don't worry about Danno retiring....

The great Drake has returned to sing you to sleep every night from now on.... !

[Dannowar]

hey i didn't retire, i sold out.

[BigAppa]

Well, I guess I'll pop my posting cherry for this one. First off, I'd like to sincerely thank BWE contributors for all the advice they've given in this forum. From the advice I've picked up here - rigging tips, launching spots, fishing techniques, etc. etc. etc. - I've been able to take a lifelong casual hobby and turn it into a passion. So again, to all those who have shared your knowledge, thank you.

I've been kayak fishing for about a year and a half now, and I've fished all along the Southern California coast, from Gaviota to La Jolla in many different types of conditions. For the last two weeks, I hadn't been able to get out due to family, work, and weather conditions. If I go more than a week off the water, I'm a jittery wreck, obsessively checking BWE, rewatching Youtube videos, checking surf reports, just to feed my addiction a little bit. So when I saw a small window of opportunity this past Tuesday morning, I took it.

I checked the usual reports, showed up at Leo Carrillo, checked the conditions, and launched into easy 1 to 2 footers. The wind was blowing about 8 knots, there were a few white caps, the swells were about 3 to 4 feet. I knew the wind was supposed to pick up later, but I thought it was fishable as long as I'm off by one. I had become pretty comfortable with this place, having launched from there about 50 times or so over the last year and a half, and I had fished in similar conditions. So I started my paddle out.

About a mile offshore, the conditions started to change. That's when the words I've read here many times, and repeated again in this thread by Jim Sammons, occurred to me: "There will be other days to fish." I should have listened to my instincts then and turned around, but I figured I'm almost there. I'll just take a look at the bottom and see what I can find. Of all the advice that have been given on this site, that is one of the most important to me: Remember that there will be other days to fish. I should have listened to it, but I decided to ignore it because I thought I could handle whatever situation arose, and because of this decision, I came as close to losing my life as I ever have.

I finally get to the spot, paddled around a bit looking for marks, and decided screw it, it's getting way too sketchy. I started heading back without making a drop. Instantly, I knew this was going to be trouble. The winds had picked up to what felt like over 25 knots. Swells were about 5-6 feet and breaking at the top, but worst of all, these swells were hitting me from all sides: the very definition of washing machine conditions. I was getting knocked around badly, And I came close to flipping several times. I managed to paddle to about a mile offshore when a series of swells hit me. I lost my balance, and a small wave broadsided me at that exact moment, and I went into the water.

I was wearing a pfd so I bobbed right up, and luckily, the leash on my fishing pole had wrapped around my leg so the kayak didn't get a chance to drift away. This is the part that is the most frightening when I think about this moment: The currents were so strong, I wonder, what if the kayak had drifted away from me? What would have happened? Even though I'm in decent shape, there was no way I could have swum back to shore, not in those conditions. I do always have my vhf radio with gps and dsc with me, so I probably would have been okay, but who the hell knows?

Anyway, thankfully, I was smart enough in at least one respect: I had practiced self-rescuing techniques multiple times in different conditions as per the suggestions on this board. But, in those conditions, it was still a challenge. My first attempt failed. Didn't get high enough. Still not worried. Tried again, got most of my body on board, when a swell came and tipped me over again. Tried a third time, and the same result. Now I'm getting worried. I was clinging to the kayak, in the middle of those swells, and thought about making a Mayday call for the first time ever because I'm getting tired. Really tired. I'm in my forties. I think I'm in pretty good shape for my age, but it's amazing how quickly your energy saps in those conditions. I tried one more time, and I managed to stay on followed by a huge sigh of relief.

It took me another hour to paddle back to shore, almost flipping multiple times along the way bc now I had water in my hull. When I finally pulled my kayak onto the beach, I just sat there for a good thirty minutes, just feeling numb.

I haven't told my family about this. I don't really see the point of worrying them needlessly. I just told a good buddy of mine and now this community. It's actually quite embarrassing talking about this, how stupid I was, but hopefully, other new or relatively new kayak fishermen can take something away from this experience.

So heed the warnings that have been repeated here on multiple occasions about fishing with a buddy (another huge mistake on my part), vhf radio, how overconfidence can kill you, etc. And especially for pig-headed people like me, always remember that there will be other days to fish.

Now, if the conditions look bad from the start, and I have to ask myself, "Should I just wait?" Or if I'm already out on the water and the condition takes a turn for the worse, and I wonder "Should I head back in?" The answer will always be, "Yes."

[ctfphoto]

BigAppa, welcome and great first post, scary stuff.

[cabojohn]

BigAppa-
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience here. Glad your OK and ready to fish again. NO need to be embarrassed.
When shit goes south...it goes quickly!
Having ALL the right safety equipment and a clear head is priceless!
Knowing when to NOT paddle out is just as important. Glad you got a second chance.
When in doubt...CHICKEN OUT.