When most people get a three-day weekend, they dream of spending the time off lying on the beach or taking a short vacation.
Not local resident Mitch Michino; he dreamed of kayaking from the coast of Malibu to San Diego.
“This was my dream,” Michino shared. “I just wanted to explore the physical challenge of my age. I am going to be 74 in September, so there are not too many years left that I can do this courageous thing.”
But Michino couldn’t embark on the trip alone. He needed a partner.
“He finally met someone stupid enough to do it with him,” Matt Humphreys, Michino’s neighbor, said with a laugh. “[Mitch] has been paddling for 15 years … he’s always dreamt of doing a long distance trip — he wanted to do it for many years.”
Michino got Humphreys on board with the trip, and the two started planning and training together.
“Mitch paddles every day — he’s always been training,” Humphreys said. “Prior to the trip, we paddled together for the month before, primarily on the weekends. We started doing longer distance trips on Saturday and Sunday, building up tolerance and preparing for the longer trip.”
Some of their training included trips from La Costa Beach to Leo Carrillo and back.
“I go out [to kayak] almost every morning,” Michino explained. “If you see someone in the ocean at 6 or 7 in the morning, that is likely me.”
Michino arrived in the U.S. shortly after he finished college. The four-day, 130 nautical-mile trip the two planned was particularly special to him because he has lived in both Malibu and San Diego. The two began at La Costa Beach, traveled to Long Beach the first day, Dana Point the second, Oceanside the third and San Diego Harbor the fourth.
“This was a pretty punishing trip,” Michino said. “[It was] four days of kayaking almost 10 to 12 hours per day.” Each day, the two would depart from their stop around 6 or 7 in the morning, and would arrive at each stop around 6 p.m. While on the water, which Humphreys explained put them up to five miles offshore, the pair were followed by Humphreys’ wife Katy and their four dogs in a support boat.
A highlight for both kayakers was on the second day when they saw a blue whale.
“Matt and I got so excited,” Michino said.
“We heard this huge, expansive breath,” Humphreys added. “It scared us, but we watched it for 15 minutes.”
By the second day, when Humphreys said there was a lot of boat traffic, people started asking Humphreys and Michino about their trip.
“People were shocked and amazed,” Humphreys shared, “that was cool.”
By day three, they were greeted by a crowd when they docked at Oceanside.
“We showed up to a round of applause,” Humphreys said.
The last leg of the trip — Oceanside to the San Diego Harbor — was the most challenging for the team.
“Once we hit Point Loma,” Michino explained, “the headwind started in the bay of San Diego.” The wind pushed their last arrival time to 6:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon.
But despite the extra challenge of facing the wind, the two completed the trip and fulfilled Michino’s dream.
And the trip was for more than just fun: Michino and Humphreys used the trip to raise awareness and funds for the CORAL Reef Alliance, an organization dedicated to saving and protecting coral reefs around the world.
“Our mission is to unite communities to save coral reefs,” CORAL Executive Director Michael Webster explained. “We work with communities around the world who rely on coral reefs.”
The organization currently is focused on four locations: Fiji, Indonesia, Hawaii and Honduras. The team works with communities in these locations to implement solutions that work for both the people and the reef.
Webster explained that Humphreys and Michino helped CORAL in two ways with their trip. The first was by raising awareness, which helps draw attention to the importance of coral reefs. The second was by taking donations that were made in honor of their trip.
“[Mitch is] passionate about ocean conservation,” Humphreys said, sharing that Michino travels all over the tropics to kayak along the coral reefs.
