Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
03/12/07 #2608

Wow. LeAnne and I left at noon Sunday from Bloedel, and went to the island, and was it was blowing super hard. It took over two hours to get there…we went down the middle…patches of liquid smoke at the south end. The only moment I tried to hug the shore, a big fir snapped hard halfway up and went down in the water exactly next to me. On the return, LeAnne took a spill and her leash broke; it was an MEC coiled leash with the swivel hook. The hardware failed outright at the swivel, in a place you can't even inspect. She caught the boat by the rudder.

Veronica and Tom P. came in as we left, and we passed Simon and Larry B. on the way in. Nice day.

Larry Bussinger <lbussing@…>
03/12/07 #2616

Carter Johnson just sent me a note about his Watertribe race in Flordia and gave me permission to post it. I had given him a leash in San Francisco last year telling him it just takes 5 seconds to put it on, so why even think about not putting it on every time. “You don't want the Coast Guard calling your girl friend saying they couldn't find you.” I kind of made it my mission last year to get everyone to wear one, now you know why.

“Larry – Just wanted to thank you for the Paddle leash you gave me last year. It probably saved my life in the Watertribe. We had small craft advisories for the last few days of the race. The winds would have easily barrel rolled my Surfski even with its 65lb pack of gear. On the last night around 1:30am, I found myself in a 35 mile open water crossing of Florida Bay. The headwinds were 25knots gusting to 40. I was not making smart decisions and got myself hopelessly stuck in some mud. I hopped off the boat and immediately sunk up to my knees completely immobilized. Almost instantly, I felt a furious tug on my waist as the coiled leash pulled taught in seconds with my boat blowing out towards Mexico with conviction. Had the leash not been on, I would have been stuck alone in the bay 15 miles from anybody in the pitch black of the night without my gear or hypothermia kit. I was able to crawl on all fours for a half mile towing the boat via the leash till I could take shelter up in some mangrove roots till the sun came up. I did not wear a leash last year and probably would not have this year had your words not resonated with me. The final Florida Bay crossing that Sally and I did last year in 5.5 hour took me not a minute shy of 16 hours.”

West Wind
Larry Bussinger <lbussing@…>
03/27/07 #2682

Went to Marine Park last night about 5:00. Tide was the lowest I've ever seen. Ground showing way out there. The water was wierd; kind of splashing like a river would have been. As the wind built, I started to get rides. Paddled straight west and surfed back. On my last run about 200-300 feet from shore the boat dumped me. First time in two years (since the surfski championships). Wasn't that rough, but bang, I'm in the water! Then I stood up! Did I say the tide was way out? I was only in 2.5 ft of water. Jumped back on the boat (really easy when standing on solid ground). When I went in to shore I unhooked the waist belt on my leash to make sure if the surf dumped me I wouldn't have to mess with it. When I got on shore, I didn't have my leash. It apparently unhooked at the other end.