Newport Harbor Pizza Paddle - July 2016

July 27th, 2016
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About once a month a group of us get together and paddle Newport Harbor after work. We launch from the beach at the Newport Aquatic Center and paddle over to Pizza Nova in the main harbor in a combination of kayaks and SUPs. There we dock our boats, partake in feast of pizza and beer, and then paddling back to the cars. We do this all year round and in pretty much all conditions. Light, dark, rain, and the dead of SoCal winter where you're tempted to put a sweater on with your flip flops. 

You can find writeups of other pizza paddles here.  For notifications on when we're doing the next one see our facebook group Pizza Paddle Associates.

We had a good turnout for this month's paddle despite the fact we're still struggling to find a new kayak rental options that allow you to have the boat out overnight.  Since Sports Chalet closed it's been strictly borrow or bring your own boat

We had two folks do SUPs this time and they spent most of the time off in the front of the group.

This time of year is always nice since we launch in the daylight and get to enjoy the sunset along the way.  Sadly there are no water pictures this time since I forgot the waterproof camera and there's only so much risking I'll do of a $1000 cellphone on an unstable sea kayak.

And the award for youngest Pizza Paddle participant goes to...

The paddle back in the dark was pleasant as always thought we fought a tide as we turned in towards Backbay.


When we got back to NAC we found the tide out and the sand a slightly off putting morase of green muck.  However once we hopped out and started slogging through it we noticed whenever water splashed on it small dots would briefly glow.  We've seen glowing worms in the water but this was a first.  We poked around in the muck for a bit trying to identify what specifically was glowing but didn't have any luck.  If you're reading this and have any idea of what it might be please let me know.