Santa Cruz

This was the first time I've ever paddleboarded at Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Marina is a big inlet that stretches for a mile inland from the ocean with tons of boats moored on both sides. (It looks a lot like a river in Florida.)

We rented SUPs at  Kayak Connection, which was a great shop located right by the bridge that runs over the Marina on Murray Street. There was paid parking between the shop and the docks, as well as free street parking. We found a spot right in front of the shop.

After renting boards, and putting on wetsuits (provided by the shop) we walked down to the shop's dock which is about a quarter mile away. The dock is locked, so you'd need to find another place to launch if you want to use your own board.

Since it was Thursday morning, there wasn't much boat traffic in the marina but there were lots of seals and sea lions. We paddled away from the ocean to the end of the marina, then turned around and paddled back.

The Santa Cruz lighthouse is on your right where the marina joins the open ocean. The waves are breaking so you need to stay left as you paddle out. It can be a little hairy but once you pass the lighthouse the waves calm a little bit, but you will still feel the swell of the open ocean and you can see the whole bay and the Boardwalk. We had to go down on our knees and were thankful for our farmer john wetsuits.

Ann and I were a little intimidated by the open water (sharks!) especially when we saw fins. But they turned out to be a pod of eight dolphins that swam across the bay about 100 feet away.

My takeaway about Santa Cruz - the marina itself is kind of boring. The open ocean is wonderful if the weather is calm and you are not afriad.

Unfortunately I pressed the wrong button on my camera and all of my dolphin photos came out in black and white.

Richardson's Bay

The new SeaTrek location is at the Bay Model. There's plenty of parking and easy bathrooms. The only downside is that it's a Sea Trek dock, so if you want to launch your own board, you should probably go back to the beach where they used to be located.

If you make a left out of Sea Trek, it's not quite a mile to get to the houseboats, where you can paddle and explore, out of the wind and currents. There are some really beautiful boats along the way. It's also easy at this point to cross over to the other side of the bay, or you can paddle up to the bridge.

You shouldn't head across the bay to Belvedere right out of  Sea Trek without first checking the wind and currents. It's farther than it looks to get across (a mile) and can be hard to get back in certain conditions.

The best part about today's paddle was the baby seals. Especially the one who popped up out of the water next to his mother - about five feet from my board - and watched me together. Then he got on his mom's back to ride away.

San Rafael

Today I paddled out of 101 Boardsports in San Rafael. I was surprised that you could paddle from practically the center of San Rafael. You get off of 101 at 4th Street and then head east. Within a half a mile you'll pass Whole Foods and then 101 Boardsports will be on the right.
It's a great shop, with a wide variety of boards, located right on San Rafael Creek. The creek looks like a canal in Florida, with houses and apartments all along, and boats parked out back. It's a mile down the creek to get to the Bay. When I went the tide was out and the water was extremely shallow. Unless I was right in the middle of the boat channel, my fin was just a few inches from hitting the ground. I saw a couple of motorboats that were

You hit the bay north of the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and can see San Quentin as well as the Carquinos Bridge in the distance. There are a couple of islands near the boat channel — it's a six mile paddle to go from the shop, around them and back.

It's not as pretty as Richardson's Bay, but makes an interesting and fun alternative for Bay Area paddling. It's also a great place to demo new boards.