‘We Just Cruised’ in 2-Day Paddle : 5 Brave Current, Shark to Catalina, Then Back

Four state lifeguards and a surfer battled tough currents and a shark visit during their two-day charity paddle to Santa Catalina Island and back but came ashore at Newport Beach on Tuesday afternoon looking barely winded.

“We’re sore, but we’re not wiped out. We didn’t rush it, we just cruised,” Steve Hawkins, 27, of Tustin, said after twice crossing the 26-mile channel.

“Hey, let’s go get something to eat and some cold beer,” said Kris Emery, 27, of Newport Beach, the barrel-chested leader of the group, as he left the water near the Balboa Pier.

The first day of the trip was longer than expected, as a navigational error took the group off course to the north. Then very strong currents off Avalon forced the group to take a boat the last six miles.

“The first day, everything was going against us: the tide, the surf, the currents. It was a nightmare,” Emery said. “We didn’t know where we were. We got lost.”

“Next year,” Hawkins said, “we’re going to have an on-board navigation computer.”

When the group--which was made up of two lifeguards stationed at Crystal Cove and two at Huntington State Beach, plus a surfer from San Clemente--finally got within sight of Avalon, the current became so strong that for two hours they could make no headway on their 12-foot paddle boards.

“We hit a current that was just hellacious,” Hawkins said. “We’d stop paddling, and the island would disappear as the current pushed us back.”

To top off a rough day at sea, the boat taking them into Avalon ran out of gas 500 yards from port, so the group had to paddle in for help.

Tuesday, paddling on their stomachs and knees, with the winds and the swells in their favor, the group was having a much easier time--until they sighted a hammerhead shark.

Hawkins said: “The shark was 15 to 20 yards away. . . . It was close enough.”

The group brought their boards together. Each of them lay flat for 20 minutes, then quietly paddled away, Hawkins said. The support boat had left them earlier when they sighted Newport Beach’s Fashion Island towers from 14 miles offshore.

“It’s a little bit of a boost when you see a shark,” said Dane DeBoer, 25, of Newport Beach, a triathlete who had never before paddled long distances.

“I am sure it will be a year before I do this again,” DeBoer said.

The group--which also included Joe Long, 24, the San Clemente surfer, and Beau McCraney, 18--raised about $1,000 in pledges for the Orange County Youth Awareness Program, a group that helps underprivileged and abused children, Hawkins said.