Liquid Fusion Kayaking

National Safe Boating Week is May 16-22, 2009. Check out the statistics on wearing a life jacket and survival, then watch Cold Water Boot Camp. When I saw that this video was 10minutes long, I said no way. It exceeds my attention span for a YouTube video; however, I was glued to it for the entire 10 minutes and rewatched it for information for an article that I was writing on kayaking safety.

It reminds those of us who regularly paddle in waters below 59 degrees of the importance of wearing life jackets and cold water immersion clothing. I love my Kokatat drysuit – safe, warm, comfortable, and made in the USA.

Paddle safe and have fun!!!

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Last weekend we received 6 beautiful brand new boats. They were made specifically for us and I got to paddle one of them for the first time. Wow, I don’t think that I ever paddled a brand-new, never paddled before boat. It was a surreal feeling.

So what was it . . . well hold on to your paddles and put away your skirts, it was a new Dagger Torrent. A what? Yes, I was paddling a sit on top whitewater kayak. We bought 5 of them for 2009 because we have been having so much fun with rock gardening in our whitewater kayaks that we wanted to share the fun with those who don’t want to paddle a decked boat.

Typically I paddle a Necky Jive when we are rock gardening in whitewater kayaks – aka “short boats.” The Jive is fast and carves nicely. My first impression of the Torrent was how nice it was to just jump on and paddle and not have to deal with the skirt. I liked that I could kick my legs out of the thigh straps when paddling straight stretches. I was very impressed with the tracking of the boat. We were paddling in 10 foot swells that would have had me bobbing and spinning about in the Jive, but the Torrent tracked straight as I paddled it with little correction. The Torrent was super maneuverable though and I could face the swell and spin a 180 to get onto the wave with ease.

I am not one to push the limits in a new boat and the conditions were not ideal so I will have to paddle it again to see how well it handles in our favorite pourovers and surge channels. I did a couple of eskimo rolls with it just to see what would happen and found it fun to roll. I think that our new Torrents are going to be the user friendly boat that we were looking for to share our rock gardening playground with others. Stay tuned for more reports and photos.

And of course I mentioned 6 new boats (only 5 were Torrents). A new sea kayak is still awaiting its maiden voyage.

Our new and improved Liquid Fusion Kayaking website is up and running. On Saturday, we managed to get out for some paddling fun with some friends from Humboldt County as well as some of our local Mendocino Coast kayakers. The “short boat” revolution on the Mendocino Coast continues as we show our “long boat” sea kayaking friends the funness of ocean rock gardening with “short boats” – whitewater and sit on top kayaks.

We are continually amazed by the playground that is in our backyard. We love kayaking in Fort Bragg’s Noyo Bay. It is close to home, Bear and Aften (our dogs) love the leash free beach, good food is close by at Silver’s, and we have a playground of rock garden features (rocks in the ocean that we can paddle around, through, or over and that often create whitewater, waves, and currents with the swells and surges of the ocean). One day Jeff counted 30 different play spots.

We compare our Noyo Bay to a skatepark. Like skaters, we rally our friends, don our protective gear, and seek to perfect our moves and create new ones as we play and interact with the features. We marvel at all that the Noyo Bay has to offer in such a small area – sea caves, gigantic rocks, rock reefs, a few nice surf waves, pour overs, surge channels, and amazing beauty. The wildlife is all around us and doesn’t pay much head to our antics. Occasionally we will have harbor seals following us about and watching with amused curiosity as we seal launch and slide on the rocks.

Creativity is a large part of ocean rock gardening. It is fun to experience with friends as each has their own paddling style and interpretation of the feature. We enjoy taking seasoned paddlers with us as well as adventurous first timers. Again, it is like a skatepark with features for all skills and abilities and the opportunity to be inspired and awed as the skilled “Go Big.”

For me, it is fun to play and explore my creativity as a kayaker but also to share the experience through my photos and videos. I hope that you enjoy them.

Our new and improved Liquid Fusion Kayaking website is up and running. On Saturday, we managed to get out for some paddling fun with some friends from Humboldt County as well as some of our local Mendocino Coast kayakers. The “short boat” revolution on the Mendocino Coast continues as we show our “long boat” sea kayaking friends the funness of ocean rock gardening with “short boats” – whitewater and sit on top kayaks.

We are continually amazed by the playground that is in our backyard. We love kayaking in Fort Bragg’s Noyo Bay. It is close to home, Bear and Aften (our dogs) love the leash free beach, good food is close by at Silver’s, and we have a playground of rock garden features (rocks in the ocean that we can paddle around, through, or over and that often create whitewater, waves, and currents with the swells and surges of the ocean). One day Jeff counted 30 different play spots.

We compare our Noyo Bay to a skatepark. Like skaters, we rally our friends, don our protective gear, and seek to perfect our moves and create new ones as we play and interact with the features. We marvel at all that the Noyo Bay has to offer in such a small area – sea caves, gigantic rocks, rock reefs, a few nice surf waves, pour overs, surge channels, and amazing beauty. The wildlife is all around us and doesn’t pay much head to our antics. Occasionally we will have harbor seals following us about and watching with amused curiosity as we seal launch and slide on the rocks.

Creativity is a large part of ocean rock gardening. It is fun to experience with friends as each has their own paddling style and interpretation of the feature. We enjoy taking seasoned paddlers with us as well as adventurous first timers. Again, it is like a skatepark with features for all skills and abilities and the opportunity to be inspired and awed as the skilled “Go Big.”

For me, it is fun to play and explore my creativity as a kayaker but also to share the experience through my photos and videos. I hope that you enjoy them.

Sunshine and Whales . . . Rain and Otters . . . Mendocino Paddling

The whale migration in January on the Mendocino Coast was simply spectacular!!! Warm sunny days with glassy ocean conditions made for some great sea kayaking and whale watching excursions. Calm conditions and sunny days also afforded amazing visibility below the surface of the water. It is always a treat to be able to scout the abalone population as we paddle. Eat well and grow little abalones!!!

To get our whitewater fix; we pushed the limits of our sea kayaks in the ocean rock gardens and paddled some very technical spots off of the Fort Bragg Coast in our river boats. Of course we enjoyed some great surf sessions in both long and short boats but continued to wonder when we would get some rain.

Finally our winter storms seem to have arrived. The Noyo Bay is a great spot to watch the windswell come in. One can watch the short interval sets building at sea and then crashing and rolling through the bay and even into the Noyo Harbor.

Excitement for whitewater river running is building as we check DreamFlows hourly to watch our rivers start to flow. We scouted the flow on the Noyo River ourselves and are pleased to see it at a runnable level. The Eel River is beckoning us though. Just an hour and a half away with beautiful scenery, salmon, bald eagles, river otters, and some great surf waves; the Eel is definitely on our agenda for the weekend.

Video, photos, and more of what do can be found on our website .

Rain, Rain, Rain . . . Where are our winter storms?  California’s drought conditions are not going to get us down.  We have a whole big ocean of whitewater in our backyard. Saltwater is good for the sinuses, right?

Mendocino coast whitewater kayakers aren’t letting this winter’s drought conditions keep them high and dry. On Sunday January 18, a posse of six local whitewater boaters played in the whitewater and rock gardens of the Mendocino Coast’s Noyo Bay. A 6-8 foot swell provided surfable waves and exhilarating whitewater drops over the rocks and reefs.

Liquid Fusion Kayaking’s Jeff Laxier and Cate Hawthorne just returned from sea kayaking in San Francisco Bay and the Big Sur area and were longing for some whitewater so they rallied the crew. Mellow play spots were sought out to warm up and practice water reading. When the crew found their groove, more technical features were sought out that involved surfing the swells over and between the rocks.

As the afternoon progressed, the green faced waves of Chicken Point lured the paddlers for some kayak surfing. Whale watchers on Todd’s Point where treated to an exhibition of kayak surfing as competitive kayak surfers Josha Stark and Jeff Laxier played on the 12 foot waves off Chicken Point. Josha and Jeff are preparing for competition in the 23^rd Annual Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival in March.

The paddle concluded with some Eskimo rolling and deep water recovery practice off of Noyo Beach. The warm sunny day and immersion gear made the chilly water refreshing. Check out YouTube for our exciting video of Mendocino Coast Rock Gardening:

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