When I found out there was a sea kayak division in the surf contest at the Hobuck Hoedown, I knew exactly who to call Sterling Donalson, the legendary kayak designer and builder who’s helped Heather and I build, fix, modify, tweak, re-design and win races in pretty much every boat we’ve owned since we moved to Bellingham in ’03.
Sterling’s business these past couple years has shifted heavily towards a growing fleet of extremely popular and well-received British-style expedition/coastal exploration boats. I raced one of these boats, the Grand Illusion in the last year’s Deception Pass Dash to see how it stacked up against other designs in the sea kayak class. The boat moves so easily through the water, despite having enough rocker to surf and stay on top of the biggest seas I’d care to encounter, that I easily won the division. So it was a natural choice for me to take the same boat to Hobuck and spend a few days playing with it in its “stomping grounds” – the surf zone.
The waves at the Hoedown were waist-to head high for 3 days in a row, just perfect for, folks like me who only get out in that kind of water MAYBE once a year. With my helmet strapped on and sprayskirt fit tight, I cruised out into and through the impact zone as if it were all green water. Even with a wave breaking right before I reached it didn’t prevent the Grand Illusion from lifting right over it and dropping me cleanly on the safe side to keep heading out. I had a few good ones stop my momentum, but I never got tumbled or pushed back toward shore – unless I intentionally back-surfed (more on that in a minute!)
When I’d cleared the impact zone, I found the fastest way to turn the Grand Illusion around was to lift one knee, stroke on the opposite side, and the boat just tracked around like it was on a rail. It spins with alternating sweep strokes, too, but that forward track-around is too cool. And when I was facing back in, as a swell reached me it was a quick two strokes and I was surfing.
There is nothing in all of paddle sports, in my humble opinion, that equals the feeling of that moment you know you’ve caught a wave, and the ride is on! It’s a mixture of commitment, thrill, joy, a little uneasiness for good measure (at least for the first few waves), and pure stoke! The GI just carried me so sweetly over the green wave face every time. I’d reach a blade and lean my torso way out toward the wave face to carve a turn, looking straight down the line as it reached top speed, and as that first pitch of whitewater spilled over the top. Then an avalanche of froth dumps down and the sidesurf is on! The GI is as comfortable heading at speed toward shore in a full sidesurf as it is ripping across the green faces.
A little more practice and I’ll be throwing window-shades in the bigger piles (maybe next year) but for this session I was happy just bouncing along feeling solid and thinking about my next take-off. If there’s an area the GI really blew my mind, it was on the back -surfs. On maybe a dozen occasions I’d be paddling slowly back out through the lineup when a nice wave was right in front of me, so I’d just throw a few backstrokes and the ride was instantly on. Each time I wondered if I’d pearl, but that stern stayed so sweetly on top and even let me carve some turns before peeling sideways and starting the side surf. It was AWESOME fun. It helped me one-up the other boys in the sea kayak division of the surf contest Sunday. That was my first time at competing in the surf, but I’m hooked. It’s like the anti-competition: you just go out there and ride, and let some folks on shore critique and score what you are or aren’t doing without worrying about how you’re ranking or who else is doing what. Win, lose or draw, I loved it and I’ll be back next year for more!
Thanks, Sterling, for a great boat and once again for helping us get out on the water in style!
Brandon and Heather
