Two double kayak teams crossed the sea channel from Sicily to Malta. 19th June at 16:00 they launched from the harbour of Pozzallo heading south towards Malta. The sea conditions were perfect with a very light wind but, as reported from Dorian, the night was very dark and the sea full of jellyfishes.
Dorian, me and Albert
The four lucky winners never paddle before and this is much more interesting in the aim of sea kayak diffusion. The draw was done with little piece of numbered tickets mixed into the forward hatch of a "SKD 486"...
During the party a group of multi sport instructors started to talk about the possibility to offer a number of activities like wind surf, sea kayak, diving, snorkeling, caving, trekking, parachute and so on...
The street location of the shop /school.
The veranda of the shop.
The launching spot into the little harbour of Ognina.
There is an interesting biological environment, very similar to the north African coast. Some trees are endemic, like the small palms, others come from the South America, like the agave cactus.
short dirt track there is a little beach, very nice place to land with a kayak. 
village of Cava D'Aliga, along the rim of the sea cliff, between palms and agave cacta.
The water was the color of the sand and big waves were running in two different directions. The beach was disappeared and some crushed wooden buildings parts were floating into the foamy liquid with all their nails and screws still attached on. Some seagulls were flying over the breakers looking for confused fishes and a Common sandpiper was looking for a sheltered spot between the exposed rocks.
Also in Donnalucata, a village 10 km north of the Bruca beach, the conditions were pretty wild and after a hot coffee in a bar we just talked a little bit more about the weather, to agree that this (still blowing right now) is the strongest wind in the last ten years...
I was yesterday at the first day of the GGSKS in the "rescue, towing and incident managment" class, with Rob Avery and Bryant Burkhardt as coaches. The class was really interesting and we also had a lot of fun, practicing the rescues into the Yellow Bluff tidal race. All our training was done with the great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the skylight of San Francisco, Angel Island, Alcatraz and the Berkeley Bridge.
Thank you to my friend Fran Sticha, for driving me around California with her car, helping me so much in reaching the beautiful symposium location (Sausalito and Horseshoe Cove) and back to my sister's home in Pescadero.
The day is beautiful, with no clouds of fog. Chris give me the basic equipment, included a helmet, and guide me out of the harbour and through the remarkable waves just behind the famous surf spot called Maverik. One of this 2 meters rollers strike me on the way out and I’m very surprised by the power of this waves! 
Keeping clear from Maverik we paddle for about 8 km, pretty far from the coast to avoid the surfing zone. Than we approach the cliff in a place called Table Rock for the presence of a flat rock right at the sea level and about one mile from the beach. The huge rollers of the Pacific Ocean are bended around this rock and crush over it. Chris explain me how to overcome the first line of rollers and we reach a very large soup zone behind Table Rock. 
On the Maverik’s waves we meet a surfer and Chris suggest him to try at Table Rock (here some surfers have a speed boat that drag them right over the wave). 
Thank you Chris for the beautiful paddling day, my first one in 2009!
Doug and Chris in front of HMB Kayak Co.
Rosanna makes a delicious dinner for the end of 2008: lentils soup, american turkey, potatoes and a marvelous chocolate cake. Also the little Paola waited for midnight and then we all sleeped as babies into the house deep into the forest...
In the 2nd me and Barbara drived (I should say that only Barbara drived because I forgot my driving licence in Italy) the car of Rosanna to Oakland and stopped at the California Canoe & Kayak shop, where we started to talk with the owner, Keith Miller, who called quickly Fran Sticha
(in the picture from left: Keith, me, Fran). She escaped from her work and reached us in few minutes. I purchased some good equipment and then we had a marvelous lunch with 
crab, clam and mussel shells. Fran, who visited us in Sicily the last year and paddled a couple of hours with me, drived us to the world famous Berkley University in which she works.
