Cautiously you approach. Through the maze of rocks and bull kelp you pick a tentative route that will take you as wide as possible around the headland, without treading on the reef. Whitewater roars in your ears. You feel very small. Near the headland now you concentrate on short, rapid strokes to maximize stability.
Water rockets up the jagged crevices.
An enormous explosion of froth blasts over the pinnacle from the other side. . . . Two hundred and fifty pounds of kayak and cargo lift like balsa wood on a choppy wave peak as rebounders steepen the incoming waves. Just as suddenly the the peak collapses and the kayak drops into a short- lived trough. Foam plunges onto your foredeck. You dig your paddle blade into the crest but the wave disappears and you keel forward to regain balance.