by Eric Soares on September 2, 2010
Typical Tsunami Ranger action
I just returned from a fantastic sea kayaking trip on the southern Big Sur coast. Nine members of our Tsunami Rangers kayaking team spent several days exploring every nook and cranny of a short stretch of beautiful Big Sur. Our team policy prohibits me from naming the exact location, so try to guess from the photos. Here are some of the highlights:
- We saw blue whales, yes giant BLUE whales!
- We saw one sea otter, yes a cute little SEA otter!
- We surfed daily at our private beach.
- We enjoyed kayaking in the amazing rock gardens.
Tsunami Rangers do the obligatory paddle salute
The weather was quite warm for 3 days (80F), and the water was a relatively warm 60F. It then drizzled a bit and the fog rolled in, but we sure didn’t mind. If you are a good paddler looking for a challenging and amazing place to kayak, check out Big Sur on the central California coast. Though Highway 1 was choked with cars and all the campgrounds were full, we encountered NOT ONE PERSON while on the water.
Sunset from our secret camp at Big Sur
Erik the Red says “Check it out!”
by Eric Soares on August 20, 2010
This is my first official blog post, so please bear with me. The Tsunami Rangers ocean adventure kayak team is venturing back to beautiful Big Sur and plans to spend a few days exploring its many rock gardens and caves. I will give a full report when I return in late August.
We first explored Big Sur, located a few miles south of Monterey, California, and a few miles north of San Simeon, in the late 1980s. Our first trip, with Tsunami Rangers captain Jim Kakuk and lieutenant Alan Hillesheim, started at Mill Creek and ended at Willow Creek. Later, lieutenant Glenn Gilchrist accompanied Jim and me on a trip from Rocky Point through Pfeiffer Big Sur. After that, lieutenant Dough Schwarz and our good friend Joanne Turner joined us on an excursion from Gorda south toward San Simeon.
We filmed our award-winning video, ADVENTURES OF THE TSUNAMI RANGERS, near Rocky Point with commander Michael Powers. That led to the WAVE WARRIORS film in the same area done by lieutenant commander Gordon Brown and his filmmaking family for National Geographic Explorer.
Since then, we’ve spent a lot of on-water time at Garrapata, at the north end of Big Sur, but have not had a big exploration adventure in Big Sur in ten years. So, it’s time to return. Stand by.
Sea kayaker explores a waterfall tumbling into the Pacific Ocean along the Big Sur coast.
A Big Sur sea cave ripe for exploration by the Tsunami Rangers' sea kayaks.
