Mavericks - Kayak surf session

Unable to arrange for either the rivers to run, nor anybody to come with me to paddle this weekend, we took playboats out ot Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay, home to the famous Mavericks, reputed to be the largest cold water surf break in the world. The crew was composed of myself, Heather, Håkan, Magda, Anders and Helena. The inside break was pretty small today, and so I followed Håkan and Magda out towards the main break out by the reef at Mushroom rock where it was definitely going off. Even though this is still inside the main Mavericks break it was big, as in BIG!. Watching Håkan and Magda ahead of me silhouetted against the breaking surf I was starting to feel nervous remembering the double overhead hammering I'd taken in Costa RIca 12months earlier, however there was a distinct channel to sit between two breaks and pick your moment so I started to feel more relaxed again as I watched Håkan pick a couple of good rides. Finally I was happy I understood how the break worked and committed to a big ride. For a moment I thought I'd made a bad choice as the face quickly steepened and I felt myself rising up towards the peak. Paddling hard I got the boat upto speed as the wave started to break and I took off on the ride of a lifetime, wohoo!!! Looking round as the wave faded away I was in time to see another huge wave behind me closeout spectacularly and simultaneously along its whole length. Fearing the worst, I looked for the others as the surf dissipated. Sure enough there was Magda swimming by her boat with Håkan assisting. Luckily no more big waves came through and we were soon in a safer area drifting along the breakwater away from the beach. Magda made 2 great attempts at an assisted rescue but it was practically impossible to get into her small S6 without re-flooding it again. And so rather than waste more time whilst we drifted further we started to head back the beach towing. I raced back with the boat passing Heather who had spotted that we were in trouble, alerted the others, and dumped the boat on the beach, returning to help Håkan. Anders had a tow line with him, and with the 2 of them towing Magda we soon got her back to the beach. Amazingly she was in good health and not at all cold having dressed wisely in a farmer john and dry top.