Kayak

Amateur Eddie Murphy impersonator Kevin Pullum earns a mention in a list of America's "greatest prison escapes" in the current issue of Stuff magazine. Pullum, you'll recall, was the inmate who sneaked out of L.A.'s Twin Towers jail with the help of a fake employee ID card that bore a photo of the actor. Stuff salutes Pullum as "the Nutty Prisoner." The magazine also recognizes the work of Forrest "Woody" Tucker, whose greatest feat was escaping San Quentin, then paddling away into San Francisco Bay on a 14-foot kayak he built in the prison wood shop.

The U.S. Olympic Festival this week at Oklahoma City will provide different opportunities for the 75 or so Orange County athletes who will participate. For athletes such as 1988 Olympic shotputters Jim Doehring and Bonnie Dasse and Peter Campbell, a two-time Olympic water polo player, the Olympic Festival represents a chance to get together with friends--and rivals--while competing largely free of high stakes and pressure.

It's difficult to know when to buy an airline ticket and when to wait. Some sites offer to guide you on the timing of your purchase. I recently examined the fare prognostication tools used by Kayak and Bing, which advise travelers whether to buy plane tickets while searching those websites or to wait. Both sites use data from scores of past searches to predict whether you're finding a fare at its lowest point or whether it may fall. I examined 10 random routes and dates of travel, and the companies were generally united on their predictions, with one exception: For a hypothetical trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., in mid-April, Bing and Kayak both brought back the same fare - $178 on both Delta and Alaska airlines - but differed in their recommendations.

The search continued Tuesday for the missing companion of a young woman killed in a shark attack last week, while news of the UCLA graduate student's violent death stunned classmates and faculty members on the Westwood campus. Members of Roy Jeffrey Stoddard's family were arriving at his Malibu home, still hopeful that he would be found alive, even though it has been more than five days since he set out from Malibu on a short morning kayaking excursion with his girlfriend, Tamara McAllister.

Four years ago, Costa Mesa's Mike Barrowman won an Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. Now he is trying for an encore as a kayaker. Beginning today, Barrowman, who holds the world record of 2:10.16 in his swimming specialty, will bid for a berth on the American flatwater canoe/kayak team in preliminary Olympic trials at the Arco Olympic Training Center.

Divers found the body of a Lake View Terrace man whose kayak capsized in Castaic Lake Sunday afternoon, authorities said. The body of Noel Tumaliuan, 41, was found shortly after 2:30 in the lower lake of the Castaic Lake Recreation Area, said Deputy Irma Becerra, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. Tumaliuan had been rowing in a one-person kayak in the lake when the kayak capsized, she said. Tumaliuan, who apparently did not know how to swim, was not wearing a life preserver.

Air New Zealand marks 30 years of flying from Los Angeles to London with an offer of special airfares in all classes. Prices start at $830 round-trip in coach, a good post-Olympics price for those of us who have watched summer airline ticket prices to England and Europe remain high. The deal is good until Monday, so book quickly if you want to go. The deal: Flights go from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Heathrow Airport in London (LHR) for $830 in economy class, $1,406 in premium economy and $3,030 in business premier.

One kayaker was killed and another injured in an accident over Memorial Day weekend, Channel Islands National Park officials report. The Coast Guard plucked Ying-tzu Huang, 26, from the ocean May 29 after she suffered head injuries and hypothermia. She died that evening. A big wave swept her and a friend, both Taiwanese nationals, and their tandem kayak into rocks on the east end of Santa Cruz Island. They had been camping with a group at Scorpion Bay, and it was their first time kayaking.

Relatives chartered a plane to continue searching for a woman who may have been blown out to sea while kayaking last week off Doheny State Beach, a friend said Monday. Claudia Mathieu, 37, was reported missing Thursday, and authorities in boats and helicopters spent the next 24 hours scanning 1,000 square miles of ocean from Dana Point to Catalina Island.

The kayakers negotiate the crease in the rock and follow a narrow passageway into a spacious cavern, where they pause, as if with great trepidation. But it's mostly just awe. No more daylight. No trees or grass fields waving in the wind that blows across Santa Cruz Island. No pelicans soaring beneath a bright blue sky. No bright blue sky. Just enough penetrating sunlight to illuminate the watery fringes of this great chamber an emerald green.