As my first little bachelor party before my wedding, I invited my brother–who was living in California at the time– and Luke to come with me to Anacapa Island in the Channel Islands National Park kayak around. Last time I came here with Melody, but we weren’t informed about the wonderful sea caves and kayaking opportunity, instead it ended up being a relaxing weekend away. This weekend was slightly different, we would be renting kayaks, drinking jameson, and singing with the seagulls. I ended up making a little video of our two day stay there, which started with a lot of technical problems with both my DSLR and GoPro, but first take a look here!

The conditions were definitely not made for this little sensored camera, the extreme exposure changes and low light made it a little less optimal quality. Next, both my GoPro and DSLR were kind of on their last legs, my DSLR only had 2 ticks on the battery, which usually meant a few hundred photos. And my GoPro wouldn’t even turn on! I was sad that in the end, I wouldn’t be able to document my adventure, but things turned for the better. Since I thought I had enough battery for the trip, I would keep my DSLR off until I needed it. Here are the last shots on my trip there, first our campsite speckled with the mating seagull poop.

We then headed out to explore some of the sea caves around the area, not knowing which would lead us to some open air, or straight to a dead end–which happened a couple of times.  Here is Luke, as we entered into a little cove area.

This presented some really nice light, and a great opportunity to get a few photos.

Our little friend in the cove.

Just one last shot, before I couldn’t use the camera anymore…

Well, there goes all my opportunities to get any photos.  But as we were wading around, I decided to play around with the GoPro.  I tried some of Luke’s extra batteries, but all was a no go.  But I ended up getting my card formatted, and to my surprise everything was working perfectly!  Here I am just messing around with the GoPro.

Super happy I finally got it to work, so I could get some video and pictures.  What did end up happening, since my hands were soaked from the paddles, water got inside the housing and most of my images and video weren’t really up to my standards.  But its better to have something then nothing.

Headed out for a little snorkel.

The Channel Islands is definitely a very biodiverse area, the seas are full of kelp and is known for the different organisms that reside here.

Luke speeding through a cave.

At the end of day one, we decided to snorkel around in the loading dock area before we ended the day.  We got a few pictures of Garibaldi and other sea creatures.  Marvin unfortunately didn’t have a wet suit and was freezing.

Next day, in the loading docks.  Since there was roughly a 15 foot difference from the dock and the water, we had to haul up the boats, and throw them down every day.

Natural land bridges.

Marvin, with his helmet backwards.

We ended up stopping at a beach for lunch during our last day there, this was after a hectic afternoon where we attempted to surf some waves but all just ate it.  I actually got close to ramming into the side of the island, since the waves were decent size and the boat doesn’t really allow me to steer as quickly as I expected.  But it was great to finally get some rest, and finish off my “bachelor” weekend right. I’ll definitely be going back to the islands and exploring more.