Landing and launching a hobie

[Mr. NiceGuy]

Originally Posted by TAngler

Thanks so much for the advice! Awesome to have so many folks take the time to help. Very very cool! Thank you! Gonna get out there and practice.

If you are serious about these things as you seem to be, I know a lady you might like to meet.

She's famous in the kayak world, but maybe relatively unknown amongst many kayak fishermen.

Google around and look up Jen Kleck. She's a local treasure who owns a kayak supply business near the SD River and the entry to Mission Bay called Aqua Adventures.

She's often gone on kayak adventures or doing other things, but if you do your homework and organize in advance, you might still be able to catch her for a lesson.

She's among the best of the best, and that's not an overstatement. I would humbly suggest that she's worth whatever she charges .... assuming you can still find her and book her. She is an outstanding teacher and can easily adapt to whatever your level is now, and help boost your skills from there. She is empathetic and down-to-earth in a very wholesome way.

She can "take you to the next level." No doubt about that at all.

I have the utmost respect for her attitude, her personality, her skills as a teacher, and her remarkable experience with kayaks and kayak adventures. She's a pro, by many measurements.

To be clear, she's not a fishing guide, or anything like that. Maybe she's not interested in fishing at all, ... I don't know. What she can do is teach you kayaking skills, and open your eyes to things you need to know to be safe when you go out in the ocean.

Maybe I shouldn't say this in a public forum, but I just did.

[Mr. NiceGuy]

PS - about practicing capsizing, up-righting and re-boarding your kayak in water over your head: I would suggest doing this deeper into the mouth of the SD River where the water is lazy and calm. Not out past the breakers. More than a few fishermen are so damn fat it's sometimes hard to maneuver.

PPS - I was once WAY TF out in the ocean, alone, and accidentally sat on the treble hook of a lure at the end of my line. It was one of those surgically sharp sticky Japanese thingy's. I literally jumped out of my kayak before I realized what happened. Luckily, nobody was around with their GoPro's to record this bizarre event. I didn't know I was capable of falling out of my kayak like that, but I did. Beats the Hell out of me! LOL.

I crawled back aboard red like a tomato and resumed fishing as if nothing happened. Sopping wet, of course. No simultaneous shark encounters to report.

Please don't tell anyone because this is quite embarrassing


When I was more of a newb, the legendary Johnny Ceviche told me to learn "self rescues" before I go out in the ocean ... I have some ideas, but I'm still trying to figure out what that means in it's entirety. My safety checklist keeps growing with ideas and practical applications.

Someone else in these forums reminded me in my formative phase, "when you go in the ocean in a kayak, you become part of the food chain."

Food for thought.

Life is sweet.

[jorluivil]

When landing, I just sit in the kill zone and let the surf wash me ashore