Saturday June 18, 2022.
High tide at 2:52AM, 6.4 ft; low tide at 10:01AM, -1.3 ft; sunrise at 5:45AM; sunset at 8:36pm.
Forecast wind: NNW at 2.6 knot, with high wind speed of 10.4 knot at 2:45pm.
Total paddling distance: 6+ miles in relatively calm waters.
I arrived at the Barbara and Jay Vincent Park at 8:15am, which is a relatively short drive from where I live in the Richmond Annex. The day was calm and beautiful, with temperature hovering around the 56F mark at 8am. As this was my “first” time setting up the newly purchased Red Paddle Co inflatable board, it took me some effort to set things up correctly: pumped it up to 1 psi using the provided Titan II hand pump, inserting the battens, pumped it up to 20 psi using my Outdoor Masters Shark electric pump, inserting the fin into the US fin box, attached my ankle leash to the board, attached my GoPro Fusion to the board, and carried it to the beach at the west end of the park to launch around 9am. I guess this was not bad for first-time preparation.
Here I was gathering my essentials, pumping up my inflatable SUP, and testing my GoPro Fusion’s connection to the remote. One newbie mistake that I made was not turning on the Protune option on the GoPro for time lapse mode, so that all the images would come out somewhat washed (overexposed). I’ll experiment with this more in future paddles, including the possibility of using RAW over JPEG.
I was away from California for almost two years, and only came back about 4 months ago in late February 2022. My first and only true SUP outing after being back was at Alviso Slough down in San Jose in early May (I did not have a car prior to that time, so I was mostly stuck at home until then) on my old Aqua Marina SPK-2 inflatable SUP. Today’s paddle would have been my first true attempt on the Red Paddle board. It was near low tide, with the water being mostly calm and there was minimal wind. I began paddling out of the marina shortly after 9am and headed for the southern tip of Brooks Island – the plan was to do a clockwise loop, covering the more exposed side of the island before potentially stronger winds picked up later in the afternoon.
And here was my first attempt to stand up on the board after launch. The Richmond Marina is behind my back.
Midway between the launch point and Brooks Island, I encountered a lone foil surfer heading southeast. I waved to say hello and continued on with my original plan. With the southern tip of the island on my right, I began to stand up and paddled for a bit. The board was, more or less, as stable as my old SPK-2, although it does feel more luxurious with the nice, thick padding, together with a thicker deck (5.9 inches compared to 4 for the SPK-2). There were some birds on the water near the island, and I tried my best to veer away from them.
Oops! It seems like this post isn't published yet. Stay tuned for updates!When I turned the corner of the southern end of Brooks Island, I ran into and chatted with a kayaker going the opposite way. “What’s SUP!” he said. I replied, “Well, I’m sitting down paddling and not stand up paddling, as I’m still getting used to the board, for it was my first time paddling on this particular board.” He then mentioned that he ran into a lot of seaweeds up ahead, and they slowed his paddling down quite a bit. I paid little attention to this at the time, thinking my SUP would just glide over the seaweed harmlessly. He introduced himself as John, and it turned out that he’s a fellow BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayaking) member. We talked for a bit more before bidding goodbye, and I continued northward.
And sure enough, not long after my chance meeting with John, I ran into seaweed, and lots of them. Just past Bird Island, which is situated to the west of the main Brooks Island, was when the seaweeds appeared en masse. My SUP also got slowed down significantly when I went through this side of the island. I was gliding along just fine one moment, and came to almost an abrupt stop the next when the board happened to be over an accumulated mass. Trying to steer the board away from the seaweeds and go between the accumulations did help somewhat, but there was just so many seaweeds that I was bound to be slowed down regardless of my steering effort.
Oops! It seems like this post isn't published yet. Stay tuned for updates!I also noted that my GoPro board mount was on the short side, so that water could easily get onto the camera lens and smeared the picture. I will likely get a longer extension mount, or a different mount altogether for my next paddle. But that aside, I continued to struggle with the seaweed for most of the remaining duration on Brooks Island’s western side. It was a slow march, and I could feel my arms tiring and my breathing quickened. Perhaps another note-to-self is in order here: I’ve got to improve on my stamina if I want to go farther in my next outings. I’m not sure if this played a role, but I was wearing my wetsuit underneath my paddling pants and jacket for the first time ever. Could it be that the added weight and movement restriction was tiring me out earlier? In my previous outings of years past, I only wore my rashguard, swim trunk, and paddling pants and jacket over those, and they were very comfortable to paddle in. Since this particular trip was in the bay, and the water temperature was in the low 50’s, I thought I should be extra careful and wore the wetsuit as a precaution. I guess this is just best practice to follow, so improving my stamina is the only viable option here. In the meantime, my dark chocolate coated almonds from Sprouts provided me with enough energy and incentive to push on =D
When I got to the far northwestern reach of the island, I ran into a group of pelicans playing close to the sandbar. A couple of them was in flight, and my camera captured one in the below shot (at my 11 o’clock). The Fusion could not grab the full details of the group of pelicans, however (at my 2 o’clock). You’ll have to really zoom in to see specters of them.
Oops! It seems like this post isn't published yet. Stay tuned for updates!Just a little beyond this point is the end of the sandbar, where I made a right turn and headed back to the other side of the bay. I was going home now.
You don’t know how happy I was when I survived those seaweeds, and I found none once I was back to relative safety of the northern side of Brooks Island. The paddle from here on out was very efficient and relatively easy, except for the occasional wakes made by a speeding boat or two. Most boaters were very nice, going at a very low speed to accommodate my paddle board. My balance can easily be lost while standing up if a strong enough wave comes through…. definitely another point for further practice.
The image below was taken near Brickyard Cove, where you could see the waterfront houses to my left, and up ahead is Point Potrero, then Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park.
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A spherical snapshot in the Richmond Marina. I got back to the launch point some 3+ hours after starting out.
And I got back to the relative safety of the Richmond Marina shortly after 12pm. There were many people out and about in the Barbara and Jay Vincent Park: a tour guide leading some 20 people for a walk along the marina; a group of men and children fishing from the pier; a mother lounging on the beach while her three children played in the water; and just across the water at the Lucretia Edwards Shoreline Park, a couple was enjoying their lunch along the San Francisco Bay Trail. It was a beautiful day, a fun paddle, and a lot of seaweed to contend with. Time to go home and have a much needed shower.