I have surfed the Encore
and some other canoes in Lake Michigan. In general you will find you are limited to the size of wave you can get through on the way out (take a baler). Surfing in, I found the Encore impossible to keep straight. If the canoe does not plane, it just is not fast enough to stay ahead of the wave, the bow burries and the tail comes around. Air bags are in order.
My small canoe surfing breakthru was moving the seat back (in a less rockered canoe). This enabled me to get out thru bigger waves and more importantly it keeps the bow high, the stern low and your paddle further astern when surfing in.
With some power strokes that allows the canoe to plane in on its “chest” like a body surfer with the stern deep in the water a bit like the fin on a surf board and it puts your desperation-pry further astern to control the terminal yaw.
Start small, things happen fast.
Isn’t there something about leaning
I’m guessing you don’t want to lean into the wave… or do you?
it’s kinda backwards from river paddling
When you get into a sidesurf, you lean toward the wave. Otherwise you'll get flipped by the slower water on the beach side.
When you end up on the beach, jump out on the ocean side. Othersise the next wave will bash the boat into your legs. You've got to scramble and quickly recover your boat. Each incoming wave will dump sand in it and it will quickly become heavier and heavier.
lean to the white side.
Just like in river paddling, you lean into the white stuff.
When you’re out of the boat, hold onto an end (not the middle), and stay on the seaward side of the boat.
I’m told that a nice place to go…
is the mouth of the Narrow River
http://www.narrowriverkayaks.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/jason/.pond/aerialnarrowriver.jpg.w560h374.jpg
Put in at the bridge and paddle down to the beach. We’ll see - thanks for the tips everyone.
That looks like a great spot
That’s where I’d go. Got a helmet cam? Take us along!
Check the tidal flows
You might want to see what that river mouth does during peak tide flows before you “paddle down to the beach”.
Tide rips can be extremely challenging with incoming surf. Probably not a problem in the summer, unless there is big Hurricane swell, if so, scout carefully. You can get recirculated into rocks and jetties with waves breaking continuously beating you down or swept out to sea so pay attention.
Borrow Jeffs Atom
I used to surf the Slasher at Nahant. It was a hoot!
The Atom is quick enough that it should work as well. Neither the Encore nor your Cascade are very good for that. I doubt the Yellowstone will be much better but I’ve been wrong about that boat before. OTOH the Yellowstone will be MUCH nice for poking around and exploring which is what I would do.
If you do end up in a side surf lean into and brace on the wave. Just the opposite of what you would do on a river wave. That’s because on the river the water moves through the wave, in the ocean the wave moves through the water.
what seadart said
Erik, it’s been a long time since I anchored out at Harbor of Refuge off Pt. Judith, but I’m sure you’ll have a heck of a tidal flow in that channel.Check the tide charts…
http://ri.usharbors.com/monthly-tides/Rhode%20Island/Point%20Judith
looks like a 3’-3.5’ swing from high to low…yep, don’t try fighting it. I’d scout first. Sailboats have engines for a reason on tidal waters.
I find tides generally continue “outbound” an hour after stated low tide, so keep that in mind.
Surfline Write Up -Check this out
http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/point-judith-northeast_5107/travel/
Stupid question but…
I’m definitely a landlubber. I shoot for high tide which looks like it’s late afternoon later in the week. (Thanks for the tide chart.) I’ll scout it first. And I want to avoid the outgoing tide right?
I lived near the ocean my whole life - you would think I know this stuff.
I’m walking distance from Pt. Judith
I’ve seen some good size waves there, but usually it doesn’t look too bad. It is really rocky there. Depending how it looks, I might try to paddle out beyond the break and get a picture of the lighthouse from the water, but I wouldn’t try to surf there. Good place to wreck a boat.
Shark Danger = 4 Yikes!
I’d mess about
near the high or low, say within an hour or so of either. Might want to try paddling out at just about slack, then catch incoming back in. You just may get some interesting currents to play in around those bends.
I’ll probably just poke around
There are a lot of nice places around there - Great Pond, Ninigret, Worden Pond, the Narrow and Pawcatuck Rivers. There are some high tides after dinner later in the week - that would be the time to try some surfing.
That would be late morning
That would work - thanks.
Simple deduction, really.
Take whatever boat already has the least amount of scratches, scrapes, dings and dents from New England granite-filled streams...Then, after a good number of riders in the surf, when grainy pebbled sand and North Atlantic grit has deeply imprinted and impressed itself upon the more pristine boat's hull
--Your fleet will have parity!
And remember, NO HELMET!
(;-)
Great week at the beach
I spent a week at the beach in Narragansett, RI, and paddled 6 of the 7 days. I was up and out of the cottage early and caught the sunrise from my boat most mornings – can’t beat that.
I brought my Yellowstone Solo, and it was definitely the right choice. I did a mix of open water and protected paddling. In open water I was paddling mostly in 1 – 2 foot swells - it was fun bobbing in the waves. I only tried surfing once, and almost lost it when I got spun sideways, but I think the Yellowstone would surf fine with a little practice.
I won’t bore you with the details, but there are a few pictures here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/580631317lbdgtz
If you are interested, posts for individual trips are here:
http://eckilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Narragansett
Searched the archive…
and found my old post. Lots of good information here, but I can’t believe this was three years ago.
I’m back at the beach again this week on Point Judith in RI. I do all my paddling alone, so I have pretty much given up on trying to surf, but I have done quite a bit of paddling in the open water of Narragansett Bay. I stay out side of the break zone, but I still end up paddling in 1 to 3 foot rolling waves. It’s not bad paddling into them, but paddling with them coming from behind really freaks me out.
I haven’t done a lot of lake paddling, but the rolling waves that you get on the ocean seem different than the windblown waves that I have paddled on lakes. For one thing you get the waves without the wind. Any tricks to paddling with the waves coming from behind?