Kayaking in La Jolla

To celebrate our success in raising our series A venture capital funding, my company put together a kayaking trip in La Jolla. I had never actually been in a kayak before. Canoes, yes. Inflatable boats, yes. But never a kayak.

At first I thought of those professional kayaks — the really narrow kind with the little hole on top, which kind of worried me. I was relieved to find out it was more of a wider “sit on top” kayak that was meant for two people.


A beautiful day at the beach in La Jolla (4/2/05)

The water was 60 degrees, which we learned about first hand after trying to get on the dang thing. We only rolled it twice in the process. After learning the finer points of balance, we were good for a while. Steering is a little trickier than you would expect however. It all has to do with how far out you row your oar. There’s also another way to steer by using your oar as a rudder, but I could never figure out which side to put it on.

We saw some spectacular sea cliffs, sea lions on rocks, and the 7 caves of La Jolla (we didn’t actually go in the caves, however). And just when we thought we were getting the hang of it … wham … a wave came through and knocked us over again! Climbing back on is one thing when you’re at the shore, but out in the open sea?! Forget it. Luckily our tour guide was there to help us keep things in balance.

Out of the 14 people total, only three ended up in the water completely. Of course being that I ended up in the water three times didn’t exactly boost my ego. Fortunately I had a dry change of clothes on hand for the nice lunch we had afterward.

FYI, in case you’re wondering, I haven’t developed my pictures yet (I knew better than to bring the digital camera on the kayak, so I bought a waterproof disposable camera). So until I get those developed, you’ll just have to make do with one of the pictures that I took when I was back on dry land.