Over the past few months I’ve been piecing together everything I’d need to take my kayak out lobster fishing.

For those who don’t live in Southern California, the spiny lobster is a local treat that grows along coastal waters. And while it’s not fished extensively for commercial purposes it is one of the most popular (read delicious) seasons for Southern California fisherman.

The Danger Zone

Lobster fishing is also the most dangerous fishing season in San Diego. It’s popular, which means it brings out lots of boats and lots of inexperienced fisherman. It’s cheap, basically you can only use a hoopnet baited with something nasty like fish guts or raw chicken. It’s easy, a rookie has basically the same odds as someone who has been out 1000 times. And it’s dark, lobster are most active at night.

Last weekend’s opening saw a diver in San Diego drown. And then there was a close call last weekend with one of San Diego’s most experienced kayak fisherman. He got flipped by an unexpected wave, and despite having experience and all the right gear, this video of a local diver helping him shows just how close he was to complete disaster out there.

Watching that video raised my blood pressure big time. Being dark and on the water makes everything more dangerous.

And Saturday, north of Santa Barbara, a kayak fisherman was attacked by a great white shark who mistook his boat for a seal.

Go Time

My fall schedule is tight. With 6 Cartel events going between September and November amidst the normal day-to-day stuff, I’ve got to jump on opportunities to get stuff done.

So the schedule was just right for me to try to get out on the water last night and catch some lobster. The problem was that I didn’t have anyone to go with me. I even posted on a couple local fishing forums trying to get someone to go with me… nothing worked out.

So a quick trip to Wal-Mart to grab some chicken livers and I pulled into the lot at about 6:30 just as the sun was going down. There were two things I hadn’t anticipated. First, the parking lots were packed. I’d been to that spot several times, even at night, and never seen more than a few cars. But for some reason every family in Point Loma was having a party down by the water last night. Second, I didn’t anticipate the amount of boat traffic. It seemed everyone with a boat was out Saturday night, which meant that the water was very choppy with tons of waves crashing on shore. (A Navy ship was headed out to sea, as well. So there were people there to watch that.)

The Tipping Point

After about 20 minutes of relaying my kayak and all the gear through the parties to the shoreline, sweat was pouring off of me and I got ready to launch. With the waves piling in one after another I put my kayak in the water and waded out a little bit into the darkness of the bay. This wasn’t a surf launch but the amount of boat traffic sure made it feel like one.

As I swung my legs into the boat I finally was seated and ready to go. Just then it became evident that I had more weight on deck than I was used to, making me top heavy. And as I unleashed my paddle to get going I got slapped with a big wave. Literally, a minute after launching, the kayak leaned hard to the right, I couldn’t counter it enough, and I went over the side.

Cuss words.

Really… I was in no danger. My rule is that everyone always wears a life jacket. Plus, I was like 20 feet from shore in a sandy spot. I stood up in the waste deep water, did a quick gear check to realize everything was still in place, shoved the hoop nets back in position, and hopped right back on no worse for wear… just wet!

But, as I started to paddle out towards some sail boats anchored in the harbor, with adrenaline going full blast, I took a little timeout to drink some water and get my bearings.

I desperately needed to calm down. My heart rate. My breathing. My mind. Everything was moving too fast. 

My d5Q Moment

After a few minutes of slowly paddling around things began to fall back into focus. To my right, sailboats bobbed in the wakes of passing boats. To my left, partygoers sipped cocktails under tents while kids ran up and down the beach. To my right, bells, wind chimes, and ropes slapped against sleepy boats. To my left, chatter and laughter

All the momentum in the world was pushing me out to continue with the plan, into the darkness:

• I’d spent money on gear for this moment.
• I’d waited for the season to start.
• I’d run around to get all the last minute stuff.
• I’d practiced for this.
• I’d driven all the way there and spent all the time to get my gear set up.
• I’d even told people I was going out, so surely they’d ask how it went.

But in that same moment I had what I’d call my “Don’t die doing something dumb and dangerous moment“:

• I didn’t have a buddy.
• Lobster season just opened but it lasts until March.
• While I’m an experienced kayaker, I’m not experienced at kayaking at night.
• The ocean is really, really scary at night. It’s disorienting and even though I don’t have a fear of the dark, well… it’s scary out there.
• While I have all the right gear, this is still really, really dangerous.

I like risk, almost to a fault, but I have learned to trust my instincts.

I turned around. The conditions weren’t right. With conditions like that I needed at least one other person with me. At a minimum, the hoop nets I’d brought along were just too heavy for the amount of chop in the water.

By my calculation there was a 95% or greater chance that everything would be fine. Yet there was a legitimate 5% chance that I’d end up tipping again. And, of that, there was a very tiny chance that I’d get into serious trouble. Like if I tipped over and in the course of trying to get back into my boat got exhausted. Or if I tipped over in shallow water I could get stuck on the rocks.

The d5Q

I’m not a super fancy social scientist like Dave Livermore. I’ll never be able to prove that you can measure a cultural intelligence quotient (CQ) like you can measure intelligence. (IQ)

But I do believe some people have high d5Q while others don’t, the “Don’t die doing something dumb or dangerous quotient” is a real thing!

I can think back to specific instances where I calculated a risk and decided it wasn’t worth it. Whereas, I can think of other times where I’ve calculated that risk… a real risk… and everything was just fine.

And I can think of tons of times in my lifetime where I’ve heard of someone dying doing something dumb.

Having high d5Q isn’t the absence of taking risk. In fact, you could have low d5Q if you are overly cautious. (cough, suburban American parenting today celebrates debilitating, very low d5Q.)

High d5Q isn’t about age, it isn’t about experience, it’s something in certain people who look at something and go: “Yeah, that’s not worth it to me.”

The difference between high d5Q isn’t just about one between life and death. It’s just about on-time risk management.

How has high d5Q kept you out of trouble?