Yellow Bluff

The name instills awe and respect in beginning paddlers. In more experienced paddlers it, well, still instills awe and respect. But it's also a great play spot and training ground. And this is where we played and trained on Saturday.

As the tide on the ocean rises and falls, a huge volume of water passes in and out of the mile-wide Golden Gate. This causes a current as high as 7 miles per hour under the bridge (a good sea kayaker can sprint at 5 mph for short distances).

About 1/4 mile inside the northern end of the Golden Gate, water from the North Bay must go around a corner and through a change in depth to escape to the ocean. This causes the water to get stirred up in a very localized area when the current is ebbing, much like a rapid on the river. If there is a significant wind opposing the current or if there's a large swell coming in the gate, the usual 2-3 foot chop can get magnified into big 6 foot rollers. If there's not a lot of wind or swell, there are always tanker wakes to help make things interesting.

The idea is to get into the current and paddle against it. The chop that opposes the current gives enough of a boost to hold position. And every once in a while, a nice clean wave moves through. As one of these waves lifts the boat's stern, one can paddle hard to catch it, rocketing forward against the current. Then the challenge becomes maintaining balance, speed, and direction for as long as possible, hopefully for 100 yards or more. For resting, there's a big calm eddy next to the rip, which is formed by the current hitting a point of land and reversing.

So on Saturday, 8 of us took to Yellow Bluff. We got on the water around 1, shortly after the ebb out the Golden Gate was starting. We played and played. We tempted fate by taking pictures of each other while bouncing around in the rough water, one hand on the paddle and one on the camera. I practiced a planned self-rescue, the reentry-and-roll, with two other people spotting me (and interestingly, the Coast Guard just happened to motor by as I was bobbing around in the water). By 4:30, we had worn ourselves out, so we headed back to our launch spot, which just happened to be in front of the Presidio Yacht Club Bar, one of the best kept secrets on the bay.

For more photos, see mine and Ed's