A couple of bored Eskimos were sitting around one afternoon wondering what to do with their leftover sealskins and some sticks. They already had igloos, so tent-making was out. Feeling that eking out an existence in one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth wasn’t manly enough, one of them had the idea to stretch those sealskins over a wooden frame and go hunt whales by hand.
Thus, kayaking was born. More or less.
The Central Coast is short on rivers with Class 4 and 5 rapids, so most of the kayaking you’re going to do around here is of the sit-on-top variety, rather than the whitewater type where you strap yourself inside.
Kayaking is a great, low-impact form of exercise. Really the hardest part is getting your kayak off the roof rack, and if you’re renting, your first few times you don’t even have to worry about that.
If you do decide to take the plunge and buy your own, be prepared to spend anywhere from $300 to $400 for a used plastic boat you’d have to run over with a Mack truck to damage, up to several thousands of dollars for lightweight high-end composites that get scratched if someone just looks at them cross-eyed.
Sit-on-tops are a good start for beginners: They’re stable and easy to maneuver in, once you get the hang of it. If you do manage to capsize (something I’ve had happen only when I was on a boat that was too small for my weight, or when I was going through ocean surf) all you do is flip the boat back over and do this bellyflop-esque maneuver to get back in. It’s not very glamorous, but not very difficult, either.
Just remember, when you paddle on the right side of the boat, it will tend to go left, and vice versa. After an hour on the water, you should have an easy rhythm going, and most people on their first time out have it down in less time than that.
For that aforementioned and inevitable first time out, there are plenty of places to choose from—from Lopez Lake to Avila Beach—but this time of year, I’d recommend making the drive up to Santa Margarita Lake, just on the other side of Cuesta Grade.
There’s a couple of reasons to make Santa Margarita your first outing. For one, getting in and out of the water is a breeze. There are no waves to contend with, and the boat launch ramp makes getting into your craft as simple as walking into the water until your kayak is waist level and sitting down.
Another reason to hit the lake right now is timing. It’s warm, but not blistering hot like it gets in the summer.
And of course, warmer weather means stripping off all those winter clothes and getting jiggy with it. Animals are no different, and with springtime in the air, the critters are out and twitterpating. Forget the zoo—they don’t let you paddle around the ponds there, anyway.
I’ve seen wild turkeys fighting it out for the affections of the girl-gobblers. Grebes, a type of waterfowl, have given me quite a show with their neat trick of running across the water in coordinated displays.
[image-3] There’ve been bears wandering the shore, deer are a common sight, and I’ve had a bobcat peer at me from the treeline. My last trip out, I even saw a young bald eagle.
Thanks to the wet winter and spring we’ve had, Margarita is at 100.4-percent capacity. That means there are whole new areas of the lake that weren’t accessible before. What were once shallow canyons littered with dried mud and driftwood are now tributaries stretching back into the hills.
As the weather warms up, the lake can get pretty crowded on weekends, but a lot of the new areas are shallow, and even the lightest fishing boat needs more water than a kayak does to float, so you’ll have some privacy exploring a lot of the nooks and crannies. Thanks to the increased water level, there are even sandstone caves you can fit your kayak into.
What are you waiting for? Pack a cooler, put on some sunscreen, get your hands on a plastic boat, and go paddling. The grebes will thank you.
Staff Writer Nicholas Walter speaks grebe. Squawk at him at nwalter@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 8-15, 2010.