Adventures in Onionism

And I'm not paddling there. Wanna buy my kayak ?

My day was not quite as epic as originally planned, but it was still fun. I paddled from Berkeley Marina to Angel Island (7-8 miles), ran two laps (17K) around the island, one on the perimeter road and one on great single-track to the summit of Mt. Livermore, climbed around the old military buildings, paddled home with big scary waves at my back, then went for a 14 mile bike ride. I've come to the conclusion that for me, kayaking is a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. It gets me to interesting islands, but getting out of the boat and exploring the island is the best part. Today was easily the hardest kayaking I've ever done, with 20-30 knot winds and a small craft advisory in place. (I didn't know this until just now, and I didn't know anything about conditions other than the tide schedule until I parked at the marina at 5:30 this morning and saw that it was already choppy.) The way to the island was difficult as I was headed out against big waves, b...

I just learned to roll a kayak. I took a lesson from the UC Aquatic Center, with the same instructor who taught the basic class I took last fall. I assume it will be harder when I (1) go under accidentally instead of deliberately (2) go under in the cold ocean instead of a heated pool, or (3) go under in my gigantic sea kayak instead of a tiny whitewater boat, but for now, I'm pretty stoked about the C to C roll (on my right side, and actually, more just "righting myself" instead of a complete revolution).