Stand Up Paddle Surfing Paddles, Boards and Accessories

Two days after Memorial Day your humble scribe, along with most of the crew of a previous mission to Big Sur, struck out for some yet to be SUP-ed territory on our Vortice XP raceboards. This time the mission was not one way, but up and back; heading further north along the rugged and beautiful and most inaccessible areas of the west coast. Dave once again helmed this crew, including Matt and Randy and me. We headed north far above sites of past of paddling and beachboy surfing sorties and into a more remote area of the central coast. The crew was loaded for the contingencies of surf or exploratory paddling. After checking out the conditions, Uncle Dave recommended that the Vortice XP’s would be the best tools for a nice little run up the coast. The elements included 49 to 50 degree water, calm winds and a low scud hanging tight to the upper part of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. It would have been great to “bronze it up” if the sun had been out, but with the Aleutian-style sea conditions some neoprene accessories were in order should we topple into the upwelling-chilled brine. 

Randy, Matt, Dave about to shove off. Randy off-gassing his hog leg.

  Randy and Dave lighting out for the country

Dave and Matt spelunking 

Exiting one of the sea caves, Dave and Matt

Over the shoulder view of Dave

Dave catching a nice little bump for himself between two huge sea stacks

  Last year we made a similar trek, a downwind run, along the southern extremity of the Big Sur coast. This mission was to go boldly where no beach boy surfboard had ever travelled. Dave, Randy and Matt have extensive experience gunkholing along the wild coast between San Simeon and Carmel; so, it seemed a natural choice to leave the Tupperware 'yaks behind and take the Vortice XP’s on the mission north. Since the seas were choked with kelp and sea grass, we equipped them with the Parmenter designed “Kelp Cutter” fin (no kelp was harmed in the making of this Field Report), which has a very wide base, low aspect ratio, with a highly raked, swept tip that enables the kelp to slide harmlessly over the fin and thus avoid fouling and drag (as shown on board below):

Dave and Matt cutting the trail to the “Guns of Navarone” cliffs and caves

Matt and Dave about to enter the void, a yawning, growling, spitting sea-cave rumbling with the bones of many an unfortunate sea-farer------well, there were no bones, really, but it did growl at us.

Dave negotiating kelp and stone

Randy with his new XP

Central Coast Mystique

Above, lunch break and some timely munching on the greatest energy bars in the world, the locally-made 'Big Sur Bars'; after lunch a small landslide clobbered “Big R” on the shoulder. The coastal cliffs of Big Sur are quite unstable, and it seems even raucous laughter can set the stones a'tumbling!

Dave treading lightly, at a respectful distance from our little friend

During the RTB (Return to Base), the crew spied a clump of fur floating around a bed of kelp. Thinking it was a dead sea otter we closed in for a look, all of a sudden in a Lazarus style move the baby sea otter woke up, and squawked.. We gave him his space, glad that he was just napping.

 “Say Hello to Our Little Friend…”

In summary folks, get out there and explore! There are so many wonderful adventures to be had, and a standup paddleboard can serve as your ticket/vessel to fun and exploration. Get away from the tired line-ups and crowds. Grab some friends and comrades, and light out for the territories. 

Humbly submitted,
Ted Rutherford, C4 Waterman