new to open water kayking.....tuna anyone?

[ernesto]

i have gone outside the dana point harbor while hope netting in the dark. i can say that the total darkness and the lack in abilty to anticipate the larger swells and wind is a bet intemidating.

[stevie951]

Originally Posted by ernesto

i have gone outside the dana point harbor while hope netting in the dark. i can say that the total darkness and the lack in abilty to anticipate the larger swells and wind is a bet intemidating.

But at night you are usually facing calmer seas, try paddling out of the harbor past the oceanside Jetty during high tide, facing large swells and surf

Considering you have never left the harbor brother, your best bet would be to do a dry launch like most of us do @ the surfline our first times out. but you would DO your normal launch out of the harbor, with no extra gear weighing you down and just take an excursion out of the harbor mouth and if you have a Fish Finder with GPS, just go ahead and see how far out 5 miles west really is.. Then if you have any type of swell, making it back to the launch point in a straight shotwhen 5 miles out is practically not possible unless you are a beast who can paddle sideways through the swells setting, yes setting swells ha and forget about white caps......

Not trying to knock you whatsoever, but just chillen in calm water is completely different from when you hit the washing machine swells throwing water over all sides of your kayak.... out of the 20-30 times i have been out so far this year, i think we had glassy lake like conditions at most 5 of those times... Gotta be prepared...