After all, I was leaving their plastic kayaks in the dust.

Ha! Well ... watch your group discipline! A few years ago ... in my NDK ... I took a swim in seas that were 13 feet @ 8 seconds. I'm almost always at the front ... but this time I was at the back. Usually I surf the swells but these were just too steep ... with a 2 foot lip on top ... plus side swell ... and my 16 foot NDK Poseidon was broaching on every wave ... and we were about 2 miles out. All of us wanted to get the heck outa Dodge and I just wanted to slow everything down and knock the adrenaline down a notch. Finally I found myself on top of the lip doing an air brace ... got twisted around by the side swell ... dunked ... and blew my roll. Interesting how calm 12 feet @ 8 seconds feels when your swimming vs paddling. So ... not good to be too far in front ... or too far behind!

Ken Blanton