Learning surf and rock garden skills with Liquid Fusion

As part of my plan to build the kayaking skills I need to do coastal paddling trips in Northern California I took a couple classes in early May with Liquid Fusion Kayaking in the Mendocino area. When I was living in Seattle I developed good skills for kayaking in waters with strong currents and wind waves. But I had not built much experience in sea swell or surf. Jeff and Cate of Liquid Fusion have a great reputation for helping people build exactly those skills. Also, I had never been the Mendocino coast so I was looking forward to that.

Here are a few photos of those trips. All of the kayaking photos are courtesy of Liquid Fusion.

The first weekend in May I took a surf class with Jeff.

The drive along Hwy 128 through the Anderson Valley was very pretty. It's one of the most northerly California wine regions. I had not yet tried any of their wines so I made a mental note that I'd have to come back and stay there sometime. When Hwy 128 joined 101 I got my first views of the Mendocino Coast. I was awestruck with the color of the sea there -- a shade of blue out of a Maxfield Parrish painting. The drive up the coast to the town of Mendocino is gorgeous.

I met Jeff on the Big River at the south edge of Mendocino. The tide was flooding and we would use the surf at the mouth of Big River for our class. He had me use a Necky Jive, which was perfect for me for this class. A long-ish whitewater kayak that surfs well. We did a wide range of exercises on the pretty friendly waves that day. I got a lot of practice paddling back out through the waves and eventually got a lot better at it. Managed to surf a few waves well and had a great time. I was definitely exhausted by the end of the day!

After a day like that I was hungry. I wanted to get a feel for the local restaurants and Jeff had a few recommendations. I ended up having a well deserved beer and pizza at Piaci Pub in Fort Bragg. Great beer selection. I recommend it.

The next day I met Jeff and Cate for their Surf Safari -- basically getting out and surfing. We met for breakfast and talked a lot about surf -- the various kinds of surf, what to look for, finding the rips, etc. We then went to a bluff about the beach where we planned to surf and watched the surf while they pointed out in detail the things we'd been talking about earlier. We went down to the beach and watched the surf and currents some more. We got on the water, did some warm up exercises, and Jeff helped me pick out waves, time catching them, and gave lots of feedback out what was working and what wasn't. I got a huge amount out of the day.

As I was driving back to San Francisco, I felt really glad that I'd come up to Mendocino to get some great coaching with Liquid Fusion. I was also pretty tired. I got to Boonville in the Anderson Valley about time for dinner. I'd wanted to stop there and explore a bit and I'd heard that the restaurant at the Boonville Hotel was very good so I stopped in. It was still early in the tourist season so I was able to get a table without a reservation. Yeah! turned out to be excellent.

About halfway through my first course I realized I was exhausted. I was talking to my server about my weekend and he suggested that I just get a room and stay instead of driving all the way back to the city. He noted that they had a couple small rooms available. An excellent idea. He showed me my room. I really liked it! So with room key in hand I went back to my table in the dining room, thrilled that I could now conveniently sample the wines of the Anderson Valley! I was impressed. Due to the cooler weather the area's wineries do a fine job with Riesling and Pinot Noir. I slept very well at the Boonville Hotel. I highly recommend it.

The next weekend I returned to the Mendocino Coast for a rock garden class with Liquid Fusion. I had taken an intro rock garden class with Paul Kuthe and Cate at the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium in January and I was really looking forward to building those skills. This turned out to be exactly the class I needed. We started at the beach in Noyo Bay and did a number of warm-up exercises near rocks not far from the beach. Then we talked a lot about safety kayaking in sea swell near rocks. Things like always being clear about where the safe spots are if big swell or breaking surf come through. And making sure you know how to get to those spots fast. We did a number of exercises where the goal was to stay close to a particular rock as the swell went up and down, pushing you toward the rocks and then pulling you away.

We then paddled north out of the bay along the rocky Mendocino Coast. It is gorgeous. We did progressively more challenging exercises as the day went along. Which became progressively more fun. Things like going through slots between rocks. The fun part is that as the swell goes up and down there are times when there is water between the rocks. And times when the water is gone and it's just wet rocks there. Not surprisingly, the idea is to paddle between the rocks when there is actually water there.

The swell was pretty mellow that day so we were able to practice how to go into a cave safely. Hints like pointing your bow back out to sea and backing into the cave so you can see waves coming. That was a fascinating environment.

We worked on landing and launching from rocks, which is a great skill to practice.

Now, with a good day of exercises we'd built the skills to go over a couple pourovers. That was really fun. That made my day. I want to go back and do that some more!

And to wrap up the day we practiced rescues near a larger pourover. It had been a long time since I'd practiced rescues in dynamic water. Very worthwhile.

This trip I stayed at the Sweetwater Inn in Mendocino. I reserved a room that had been an old water tower. It's a really comfy and cozy room. Right below my room were wonderful old wooden hot tubs that were pretty much all mine later in the evening.

I was not nearly as tired after this class as I was the week before surfing. And I'd had a huge amount of fun learning exactly what I knew would help me kayak in this area. So I wanted to reward myself -- dinner at Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino. It was excellent. Again, I highly recommend it.

So I had a great dinner, enjoyed the hot tub til late in the evening, relaxed and explored the town of Mendocino the next morning, and slowly meandered south along the Mendocino Coast, stopping here and there to check out other places I might want to stay on other visits.

For example, the Glendeven Inn looks great. Their rooms are very nice and their restaurant has have an excellent looking menu. While I was there I got some fresh eggs from their chickens on the property.

It was a great weekend. I felt that given relatively mellow seas I could now go out on more trips along the Northern California coast -- with people who know what they're doing. So I found myself looking forward to coming back and getting out on the water again with Cate and Jeff.