Denise Harrington and the Oregon Coast Lava Tube

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In this episode of The Dubcast with Dubside, recorded at SSTIKS 2025 at Vista Park on the Columbia River, Dubside sits down with Oregon sea kayaker Denise Harrington. Based in Garibaldi on the rugged Oregon coast, Denise shares stories from nearly two decades of paddling some of the Pacific Northwest’s most dynamic and challenging waters.

The conversation explores Greenland paddles, kayak choices for different conditions, and the unique attractions of the Oregon coast, including a remarkable water-accessible lava tube, sea caves, bird sanctuaries, and remote paddle-only beaches. Denise also recounts a memorable rescue involving a panicked paddler in rough conditions and discusses the skills and judgment required for safe coastal kayaking. Along the way, she reflects on her first SSTIKS experience, her appreciation for the paddling community, and what keeps drawing her back to the water.

Transcript

[ANDREW]
Hello everyone and welcome to the Dubcast with Dubside. In this episode, Dubside talks with Denise Harrington, a sea kayaker from Garibaldi, Oregon. Denise has been kayaking for nearly two decades and regularly paddles the exposed waters of the rugged Oregon coast.

In this interview, recorded at SSTIKS 2025 at Vista Park on the Columbia River, she talks with Dubside about Greenland paddles, Oregon coast paddling, sea caves and lava tubes, rescue situations and her first visit to SSTIKS.

[DUBSIDE]
Tell me about your use of the Greenland paddle and what you like about it.

[DENISE]
So I have two Greenland paddles. I have a Don Beale paddle. I still have my Don Beale paddle.

And I have a carbon fiber, I think people call it.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, carbon fiber.

[DENISE]
Yeah, that you can break in half. And what I like about the break in half one is that it's a good tool to use when I'm traveling for, like if I'm a long time in the water, if I'm like, you know, a month or two months in the water and I have lots of miles and I’m,  different pressure points, I like to switch off, like switch off different paddles. So I have a, I also have a Euro paddle.

So I do Euro and my carbon fiber. So that is the one that I use when I travel more.

[DUBSIDE]
So when you, when you go paddling for a long trip, like how, like how many miles would you do in a day?

[DENISE]
It depends. It's like, I don't know, from a quarter of a mile to 20, 30 miles. No, I don't do, I don't do more than like 30 miles, 20 or 30 miles.

I'm not like pushing myself.

[DUBSIDE]
What kayak do you use?

[DENISE]
That depends too, right? You know, these are all tools in our toolbox. Like we don't, we have our, you know, running shoes and we have our hiking boots.

Right. So we have our, you know, we have our, a variety of paddles. We have a variety of boats.

[DUBSIDE]
Describe some of the tools in your, in your toolbox as far as kayaks go.

[DENISE]
So from the shortest, let's go just, from the shortest is the Necky Jive. And that would be like play around in a river or go surfing. And then the larger, on the larger end of my quiver is the NDK Explorer and the Prijon.

The Prijon I use if I'm like, if I need like three bear canisters, if like I need to fit bear canisters in my boat, then that one's good for bear canisters. It's also good if I'm by myself and I have to drag my boat around places because I don't like to drag the NDK Explorer as much. NDK Explorer is better for big waves.

You know, like if you're going someplace where you have to do surf landings or you're out in open ocean and it's kind of sketch, that one's better.

[DUBSIDE]
Have you, have you done stuff on the Oregon coast down here?

[DENISE]
Yeah. Oh yeah. That's where I live.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay. That's some pretty serious water out there.

[DENISE]
Yeah. People that don't live there. Yeah.

It's, yeah. It's serious water. Yeah, it is. It's serious water.

Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Tell me, tell me about some, some of the cooler things you've done out there.

[DENISE]
Well, so, so there are so many cool things. Like there's so many cool things I can't, you know, begin to tell you. There's this little lava tube that's like, we always take paddlers when they first come to visit.

We take them to this, I, this is where I take people. Like if I, if I have somebody that's coming to visit and, and they really want to see something, you know, I want to show them the coolest of the cool things. There's this lava tube that's like an eighth of a mile long.

It has five different entrances. It has cathedral ceilings.

[DUBSIDE]
Does this do like, you walk in or you paddle?

[DENISE]
Oh, you can only paddle to it. It’s a water borne lava tube.

[DUBSIDE]
Water tunnel.

[DENISE]
Yeah. Water. It's a water tunnel.

So you go in, in your kayak and there's the bat entrance that's at the north. That it's like practically a waterfall if it's, if it's high swell and you get like shoved into there and then you're inside it and it's like, boom, boom.

You know, it's like, it's like…

[DUBSIDE]
Do you, do you need lights to see where you're going?

[DENISE]
Uh, there's one part, the South on the South end. Um, there's a spot where the waves will go up and they'll, um, it, this, it looks like it's close out, but it's not really, it's just like the wave swells up and then the, the light, it blocks the light. And so there's times when in that South segment where it gets dark, but I wouldn't wear a light.

You just got to, you know, cross your fingers.

[DUBSIDE]
Now, is it wide enough for two kayaks to go side by side in there or do you have to?

[DENISE]
There's parts of it that are wide where you can fit multiple kayaks in. There's like, uh, two chambers where multiple people can fit in it.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[DENISE]
And then there's, um, little segments between them and going between the two big chambers. Um, it's one person at a time.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. All right.

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Have you gone in there in all different seasons? Like in wintertime, would you go in there?

[DENISE]
You know, it all depends on the angle of, well, it depends on the height of the tide and it depends on the angle of the swell, like which way the swell is coming. Facing the center entrance—the center entrance is the largest entrance—and so if the swell is hitting directly on that center entrance, it magnifies the swell.

So you can be on the outside and you can think, oh, it's going to be great on the, you know, it's going to be a great day to go in the lava tube. And then you get in there and it's just rip roaring because the swell. The angle that the swell hits that center entrance is something to consider.

[DUBSIDE]
So have there been any big mishaps in there that you know of?

[DENISE]
My worst mishap was that the worst, my, my, my least favorite kayaking experience was in that location.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. And what happened?

I don't want to, I don't want to reignite any PTSD or anything, so we can pass on that if you want.

[DENISE]
No, it was just, it was, it was unfortunate.

[DUBSIDE]
Do you, do you wear a helmet when you go in there?

[DENISE]
Absolutely.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
It's a must.

[DENISE]
Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah, that's a must.

So, um, we were paddling through from north to south and we get out at the south end of the lava tube. And, um, the person that I was paddling with came out of their boat and, um.

[DUBSIDE]
Did they capsize or something?

[DENISE]
They, sometimes when you, when you come out, there's like a swell that, that'll push you up into a wall.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[DENISE]
And so, um, I think they just got nervous in that situation and went over. And came out of the boat and, um, didn't want to get back in the boat.

[DUBSIDE]
Really?

[DENISE]
Yeah. And I, I had to coax them back into the boat.

[DUBSIDE]
What was, what was going on in their head there? That's hard to…

[DENISE]
Well, that's why, that's why it was my least favorite experience.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[DENISE]
Because I didn't know what was going on in their head and I had trouble communicating with them. And it, and it got worse and worse as, as they got…

[DUBSIDE]
I haven't, I haven't seen that in rescue scenarios.

[DENISE]
As they got colder and colder. Well, I think that's the most critical rescue scenario is when you have a person that, I don't know if they're hypothermic or if they're, but they're not cooperating. They're not cooperative.

He was a non-cooperative. Um, so I probably got him back in his boat, um, I don't know, like 10, 10 plus times.

And, um, and then he just said, “I'm just going to swim back.”

Well, there's no swimming back from that because they're sheer cliffs. Like there's no, he, he, he wouldn't have made it.

And I said, “No, we're going to, we're going to sit here. You're going to drink some water and we're just going to chill out.”

So I had to…

[DUBSIDE]
So you had him in his kayak and he was going to swim back to, you know.

[DENISE]
He would fall out of his, I'd put him back in his kayak and he would fall out of it.

[DUBSIDE]
Wow.

[DENISE]
He would just bloop, go right back out of it. He was just not present. He was just, he decided, I think he panicked.

He, he freaked out on me. And then, and then I had an uncooperative person that I had to get probably four miles back to a place where he could land.

[DUBSIDE]
How many people were there on this?

[DENISE]
Two.

[DUBSIDE]
Just, just you and him?

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh. Well, that’s… but you got him back eventually.

[DENISE]
I got him back to a landing spot and then I left him there and, uh, walked away. I said, “I'm out of here.” 

So I just kept walking.

[DUBSIDE]
With his kayak there?

[DENISE]
Both of the kayaks. I didn't, I didn't have the energy to take my kayak or his kayak off the beach. I just walked back to my house and summoned, summoned the cavalry to go, go deal with the wreckage.

[DUBSIDE]
Wow.

[DENISE]
But I wasn't, I was just, I just, I was, that's where that's, I got him to safety and then I bailed.

[DUBSIDE]
Hmm. All right.

[DENISE]
That's what happened. Happy ending.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
So besides the lava tube, what else is cool there?

[DENISE]
Oh, so there's, um, I don't know, I go north to south or go, there's, well, there's Three Arch Rocks, which is…

[DUBSIDE]
You can paddle under.

[DENISE]
…close to my house. It closes from March 15th to September 15th because it's a nesting. All offshore rocks in Oregon are, are bird sanctuaries.

All offshore rocks.

[DUBSIDE]
All offshore rocks in Oregon are bird sanctuaries.

[DENISE]
Right. Okay. March 15th to September 15th.

So you, so you just don't go on offshore rocks and you keep distance so that the birds can nest. And these three rocks, um, are one of the first, um, if not the first, I think maybe the second, uh, wildlife sanctuary, wildlife refuge. It was Theodore Roosevelt.

Oh yeah. That, uh, established it because people were using it for target practice. They'd go out there and they'd shoot the birds.

And so two guys built a raft and paddled out there and took photos of it. Some of the early, really cool photos. Um, there's great children's book about this story.

[DUBSIDE]
What kind of birds are we talking about here?

[DENISE]
Well, there's, uh, just tons right now. There's tons of murres out there nesting, um, common murres. And then there's the, there's puffins there.

There's more and more puffins every year. They're, they seem to be, I'm seeing more of them at Three Arch Rocks than I am at Cannon Beach now. I don't know what the deal is there.

[DUBSIDE] 
All right. Wow. Cool. 

[DENISE] 
Yeah, so that's one of my favorite spots to go paddle. I was just there last week.

And it's, and, uh, but not in the rocks. You can paddle along the shoreline. Okay.

And get just as much of enjoyment. But in the wintertime, it's fun to paddle around those three rocks.

[DUBSIDE]
Wow.

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Cool.

[DENISE]
I could just go on and on. There's so many great places. I mean, the whole coast is.

[DUBSIDE]
Tell us one more thing.

[DENISE]
Oh, one more thing. So, so Indian Beach, um, which could, you know, probably, there's probably better names for it. But, um, Indian Beach is a beautiful, a lot of the beaches in Oregon, um, when you, when you walk on them, you can see the Native American presence.

[DUBSIDE]
Like, like contemporary Native American presence or artifacts from years and years ago.

[DENISE]
Artifacts. They're shell middens. Like, you see, you can see.

Any, any time you go to a wayside in Oregon and you pull out in the wayside, look back at the cut bank and you'll just see right there all the, um, the shell middens right there.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[DENISE]
Because they've taken, they've basically, the highway department took all the Native American, the sweet spots, you know, where the Native Americans were villages, were summer villages. And they just paved them. And called them waysides.

So the state waysides are all villages.

[DUBSIDE]
Wow.

[DENISE]
And Indian Beach is, is a beautiful, beautiful beach with, with a gorgeous, um, old growth forest. Um. And, and there's a shell, as you're walking down the trail, there's the shell middens are right there and, uh, gorgeous rocks.

I have my favorite, like right around the corner, there's the next beach north that you can't get to is Trash, I call it Trash Beach and it has really good trash on it.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. You can't get to it, you mean you can't walk to it.

[DENISE]
You can't, right. You have to paddle. You have to paddle to it.

It's a paddle-only beach. There's so many paddle-only beaches around here.

[DUBSIDE]
What, to enjoy these areas you're talking about on the coast of Oregon, what kind of skill level do you want to see before you would take somebody out there? That's not a first time paddling trip, is it?

[DENISE]
No.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[DENISE]
No. I think you definitely have to be able to get in and out of your boat comfortably in the water.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay.

[DENISE]
Um, self-rescue, I have a philosophy that everybody's the master of their own vessel, so, um, you have to be able to rescue yourself, like. Um, you have to go through the surf.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay, to get out there.

[DENISE]
To get out there, yeah. You have to be able to paddle in wind and waves. Wind comes up in the afternoon.

[DUBSIDE]
So you need some, certainly beyond beginner skills, maybe beyond the intermediate skills, like this is some…

[DENISE]
Yeah, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, all right. And what kind of attire do you wear in the summertime out there? Is the water still really cold?

[DENISE]
I always wear full immersion.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay. Dry suit?

[DENISE]
I always wear a dry suit. I have a wet suit, a five mil wet suit.

[DUBSIDE]
Okay, all right.

[DENISE]
That I use sometimes, depending on what I plan on doing.

[DUBSIDE]
Uh-huh. Well, are you coming back to SSTIKS next year?

[DENISE]
Absolutely.

[DUBSIDE]
Mm-hmm.

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. Well, this new location here seems to be working pretty well.

[DENISE]
I love it. I'm just shocked.

I had a bad attitude about the Columbia River, and I've been put my place, because I love this. This specific location on the Columbia River is awesome. It's awesome!

It's like, ahhhh, I'm moving here. I'm like scoping out which campsite's going to be mine.

[ANDREW]
What are the highlights of SSTIKS for you this weekend?

[DENISE]
Oh, well, definitely Dubside's rolling class. You saw what I learned. “Happy hands!”

I think that was one of my highlights. I really like that. 

So, this is called Happy Hands by Dubside.

Yep. That was super awesome. Thank you so much for coming out.

[DUBSIDE]
You're welcome.

[DENISE]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
Well, you're going to be on my list of cool people. 

[DENISE] 
Teaching me happy hands. 

[DUBSIDE] 
Cool people to check for every time I come back in this area.

[DENISE]
Absolutely. And you guys are welcome to come hang out at my spot. I'll show you the lava tube.

[DUBSIDE]
That should be cool.

[DENISE]
We can go noodle around in a lava tube. Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. Thank you for being on the Dubcast with Dubside.

[DENISE]
Yeah. You bet.