A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: “Point Conception to Mexico, a

Common Man Kayak Adventure”

Publisher: David Powdrell

To order: (805) 681-3161 or https://www.amazon.com

If you don’t kayak, surf, paddle or love being in and around the ocean, then this book probably isn’t for you.

But if you have a sense of adventure, you’ll probably enjoy David Powdrell’s account of a journey he and several of his friends recently completed aboard kayaks and paddleboards. The book is a quick and easy read and leaves one wondering, “Why don’t I ever do something like this?”

Powdrell, Derek Levy, Mark Levy, Tim Ritter, Lee Walker, John Beardsmore, Jim Doughty and a few other “watermen,” have completed all sorts of wild jaunts. Most are in their 40s, have jobs, families and responsibilities. This is their escape.

On this trip down the lower third of the state, completed in six legs covering 344 miles over a period of three years, they plunge into 58-degree water off Jalama Beach, surfboards in tow, and immediately encounter sharks and bothersome sea lions, but they’re stoked because there are perfect waves rolling in and the view of the rugged, unspoiled coast is spectacular.

Finding places to camp among the cliffs and rocks--and often on government or private property--is tricky, but they manage. Closer to home, with little or no open land, they merely stay in hotels.

Farther south, after a precarious landing in heavy surf at Seal Beach, the group is amused to see a family of three waddling to the water wearing swim fins, masks and snorkels, obviously with no clue what they’re getting into.

Finally, the adventurers complete their journey and paddle through more heavy surf at the border. By Powdrell’s figures, they paddled a total of 19 days, averaging 18.11 miles a day--26 on the longest day.

“It’s nice to know that we’ve completed the journey and I hope that others will take on similar challenges in life,” Powdrell says.