The Price of Adventure

joemonte, couldn't agree more!  I have much to be thankful for this year, including my love of adventure!

DJ, I am slow to panic.  My skills were highly developed, and I carefully measured my risks.  But paddling in hurricane seas is something I quit, not after the trip where that picture was shot, but another trip where one of my friends did not make it back to shore.  His body was never recovered, and he was a very skilled paddler.  We underestimated the power of the sea that day.  We did not enter through the surf zone, because the waves were breaking at estimated 10-12ft (3+m) on shore.  While we sought a safer entrance, the wind increased and so did the wave height.  We paddled out through an inlet (more protected area) and found ourselves in total chaos.  I could not tell the sky from the water, nor the shore from the open sea.  Waves refracted off the shore and hit the incoming swells, creating clapotis, haystacks of water which lifted you up and then there was no place to put your paddle!  I screamed down the face of huge walls of water without any howl, because I wanted to survive and needed to stay totally focused.  I was quick to realize that I had to return to the inlet, and used a radio tower as my guidepost  since I could not see over the waves breaking all around me for direction.  I was the second of five to return.  When four of us got to safety, we waited a long time before realizing the truth.  There was no possibility of assisted rescue that day, not even when I called the Coast Guard on my marine radio.  Another kayaker and a surfer not with our group also died.  One cannot get cocky with power like post-hurricane surf.