Abreojos: Fishing and Surfing Baja

Baja is a beautiful place in the fall. I took a week off of work and headed down to Punta Abreojos for some fishing, surfing, and exploring. We scored some great waves and filled our coolers with yellowtail and dorado. We brought the kayaks and got to spend some solid time on the water. After a week of the dirt, wind, sun, and unique characters in baja, you are always happy to come home.

Harvest Moon

The harvest moon is the first full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. Farmers would harvest their crops under the light of the harvest moon. For me, this time of year marks the beginning of the fall surf season when the wind, waves, and surf aline the best on the west coast. The harvest moon provides another opportunity to surf in the light of night if all the elements align just right. Otherwise, I am happy with just photos.

iPhone

I upgraded to my first iphone this summer and had the opportunity to spend far too much time paying with it because of an unexpected stingray accident that left me on crutches for 6 weeks. I am discovering that cell phone cameras are expanding the opportunities to capture and documents events in life. They are also introducing easy filters and effects that add a new element of art to photography. I suspect that in the not too distance future mobile photos/videos will be everywhere and the image quality may even surpass my DSLR.

Ocean Beach Pier

I am starting to fall in love with Ocean Beach. Living in La Jolla was great for the surf and the stunning beauty of the beaches but Ocean Beach has character. The following photo series is of Ocean Beach pier. I hope to highlight some of the other aspects of OB in future posts.

Working in Tijuana

I have been working at the City of Imperial Beach for the last 2 1/2 years and have learned a tremendous amount about the issues in the Tijuana River valley. The Tijuana River watershed is unique in the since that the water naturally flows from south to north, which means part of my job entails developing partnerships and addressing issues on a bi-national level with mexico.  The Tijuana River Valley also includes multiple federal, state, and local agencies with overlapping jurisdictional authority. For all the complexities of this watershed there is still really good work moving forward on the cleanup and restoration of the TJ river. The photos below are from a tour of some of the wastewater treatment plants in Mexico.

Channel Islands Kayak Trip

I had an excellent trip with my Dad out to the Channel Islands, which are referred to as the Galapagos of north america due to their unique and diverse plant and animal life. We started our trip launching our kayaks at Ventura Harbor and taking a SW compass bearing towards Anacapa Island. It took about 2 hours on the Kayaks until we could see our destination on the horizon and a total of about 16 miles until we made it to the island. It was a surprisingly easy trip and a unique way to travel and get to a camping destination. The camping area on Anacapa was overrun by seagull chicks that had notably just hatched and were vocal for attention. There were thousands of baby seagulls which answers the question where all the seagulls in Southern California originate. We also saw baby pelicans, bald eagles, and the endangered island fox.

From Anacapa we camped for a few days at Scorpion Bay on Santa Cruz Island and explored the deep and numerous sea caves around the island on our kayaks and did a fair amount of hiking. We had great weather and small surf our whole trip. The Channel Islands is a hidden jewel of Souther California that I didn't fully appreciate until this trip.

Channel Island Kayak 2011 from Chris Helmer on Vimeo.