January 6, 2012 Friday

Son O Sea Wooden Surfboards

Marty rushed up to my car as I was putting on my shoes after my session at the Patch, "Loren come quick and bring your camera, Jeff is putting his board away. Now's your chance to get a picture of it."

He was referring to Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic's wooden surfboard that he made. Now Jeff is a craftsman. Last year he had emailed me 'work in progress' pictures of the hydrophane boat that he built (another sport of his is racing small hydroplanes at 100+ mph). From his photos it was clear that he was a master wood craftsman. A few months ago, he casually mentioned that he was building a wood surfboard and periodically Marty and I would inquire about his progress. Recently someone mentioned that Jeff was out in water with his beautiful new wood board and that it was stunning. Jeff was out at the Patch this morning on his new board. I saw him from a distance. He was way outside with Jacek the tattoo artist at the furthest peak going for the big sets. I was sure it was him that I saw coming down some overhead set waves. Now I had a chance to see his unique board.

"Jeff wait. Let me take a picture of you and your board."

There it was lying in an unzipped board bag. Jeff proudly showed it off: classic longboard shape, wide nose that comes to a point, eight-inch squaretail with a single removable nine-inch bamboo Wingnut fin. That's Jeff with his new board in the above photo. Check out the woodwork - laminated old redwood and Alaskan yellow cedar, formed around an interior wood fame that consists of ribs glued to a central spar and covered with 4 oz fiberglass and epoxy resin with a high gloss finish. Dimensions - length 9' 4", width 22" and 3" thick and weights 20 pounds.

The first detail I zeroed in on was a metal valve flush with the wood near the nose. It looked like a small stem valve of a tire. "What's that? Is that to drain water out of the board?"

"No, that's for air. You know the board is hollow and the air inside can heat up and expand."

"Jeff you told me before that you purchased the wood from that guy in Dogtown."

"That's Robert Buckenmeyer. He collects big pieces the old wood and stores it there in Dogtown." I have heard from other woodworkers, like Jimmy the Stinson Beach wood carver and Doug the carpenter that the grain of old redwood (200 yrs) is very tight, easy to work with and buffs and varnishes to an incredible finish. Jeff traded boat repairs with Robert for the wood. Robert claimed that the redwood was rescued from a demolition of an old building in Novato that was built in the 1920's and that the Alaskan cedar came from a demolition of an old pier in Vallejo that was built in the 1930's. Jeff re-sawed and milled the wood timbers himself at his shop in Dillon Beach.

"Jeff, this board is so beautiful, I would hang this on my living room wall as a work of art. Aren't you afraid that you will put a hole in this, run into a rock or someone else will accidentally clobber you?"

"Already have," he calmly said. "I was out at Dillon on a fairly sizeable day and was ready to come in. So I rode one all the way to the beach, connected with the shore break, thinking I could go right up to the sand and step off. I stayed in the curl, the wave sucked out and I dropped straight down into dry sand and busted the nose of the board." He then explained how he patched the broken nose by laminating new redwood strips on the end of the board, reshaped the nose and glassed over it. Jeff kept pointing at lines to note where the patch went. I swear I could not see anything that suggested that the board had been repair. His patch job was perfect.

"So how does it ride?"

"It rides great. I'm really proud of how well this board performs."

"Do you have a label on this board? A signature, something that says you made it?"

"Yes I have." He rolled the board over and there written in script:

SON O SEA - Wooden Surfboards

Being from Southern California where everything has Spanish names I thought his logo was "San Osea" - you remember Saint Osea - the famous early Californian priest who forced hundreds of Indians into Christianity?

"No. That's Son of Sea. S-E-A are my mother's initials and she's the one that introduced me to the sea."

Later, via email I asked Jeff how he became interested in building a hollow wooden board. As he said in his response, it's a long story but here is a summary:

Several years ago Jeff was searching Craig's List for a good used longboard. Being a fan of the old stuff, an ad for a classic balsa and redwood-chambered board caught his eye. He began researching wood boards and discovered that several old surfers were building classic wood boards. He was blown away by the beauty and varying construction methods. He thought that maybe he could build his own.

More research led him to Brad Tucker and Jack Young of Wood Surfboard Supply who sold wood surfboard kits. Jeff's timing was good. Brad and Jack were just starting their company. Jeff had several phone conversations with Brad, who was impressed and interested in Jeff's wood-framed hydroplane boats. Brad wanted someone to prototype one of their designs and thus he sent Jeff the template for what today is their 9' Cruiser model. Jeff incorporated a couple modifications to the design - added a few inches of length, squared the tail and reduced the concave in the nose - and crafted one beautiful board.

The website for Wood Surfboard Supply (www.woodsurfboardsupply.com) had an interesting historical detail worth noting here - Over 75 years ago Tom Blake patented the first hollow wooden surfboard. With the advent of foam cores the surfing industry took another direction. But with today's modern tools, techniques and materials surfers are going back to their roots. Discover what surfers have found - wood surfboards have beauty, flex, glide and personality that cannot be matched by a foam board.

Jeff certainly agrees with that last statement and would encourage you to build your own. Per Jeff, it's not that difficult. By the way, he is busy building another one; one based on his design.

Click in the link below to see photos taken by Jeff and Marty of Jeff's SON O SEA - Wooden Surfboard.

Jeff's Wooden Surfboard

January 4, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:20 am to 12 noon	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid outgoing tide	No wind
Sunny and warm	Good session

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was foggy and cold. Today the fog was gone, the sky was bright blue, the sun was out and the air was warm. The waves had changed also. Yesterday they were bumpy, uneven and powerful. Today the swell had dropped in half (6 ft at 12 seconds) and had cleaned up. Powerglide, old man waves, my favorites - long clean lines, glassy smooth, consistent, easy going rides, no fear factor and no crowd.

Like yesterday the Channel waves were shortboard classics - steep, fast peeling curls - a little too fast for us old longboarders. Again Nate the co-owner of the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley was out there ripping it up. That's him in the above photo on a good one. Marty caught a couple of fast rides and then was humbled by several hard-breaking close outs. He recommended that since the tide was dropping that I head for the Patch.

The early morning Bolinas crew was exiting the water when I arrived. I was late due to collecting water samples for Surfrider's water testing program. Stand-up guys Frank and Russ caught several waist long ones at the Patch. Jack the Dave Sweet team rider praised the clean lines at the Patch and insisted that I go there.

Jack then proceeded to entertain us with photos of his latest duck hunting trip and his vigorous detailed description on the best method for butchering them. He then pulled out a picture of this huge goose that he had bagged - six foot eight inches wingspan and weighted 12 plus pounds after it was dressed. He had his favorite butcher smoke it for him.

When I entered the water six surfers were at the far north end of the Patch at the area know as Green Africa (I don't know why it is called that). No one was at the middle peak or the south edge of the reef. Thus I was facing the long paddle to join the others. Paddling out over Robinson's Reef (inside edge of the Patch reef), a temping wave came through that I couldn't resist. I turned around and stroked into it. I was up and cruising right across a well-formed swell when I had to cut around the exposed inside rock and then weave through several shallow spots. The wave died and I gingerly dismounted in six inches of water. "What am I doing?" A few months go I clobbered my head on a rock in this same location. It was a good ride but why take the chance of landing spread eagle on the rocks. I paddled north, around the Patch reef to join the others.

After a few minutes, two of the surfers headed south to the middle peak. The remaining ones were beginners and were way, way on the inside, and they too soon exited the water. There I was all by myself. The closest surfer was fifty yards to the south and a few moments later he too was gone.

For over an hour I had the north peak to myself. I caught one long, clean left wave after another. I couldn't believe my good fortune; this was ideal - blue sky, sunny, warm, no wind, glassy conditions, long three to four clean waves and no one else in the water. And to think that due to the frustrating session I had yesterday that I almost didn't go out this morning.

January 3, 2012 Tuesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets overhead
Mid dropping tide	Slight offshore breeze to no wind
Low dense fog to high fog	Frustrating session

At 6:00 am the NOAA weather radio reported a big swell (10 ft at 16 seconds) and a dense fog alert for the entire Bay Area including the coast. From Mill Valley I drove through fog up to the Panoramic Highway and then broke out into bright sunshine over the mountain. On the other side a blanket of on-the-deck fog covered the entire Stinson-Bolinas bay from the shore to the horizon. I descended back into fog at the outskirts of Stinson and remained locked in it all the way to Brighton Ave in Bolinas.

From the seawall I could barely make out the few surfers who were at the Patch. The gray-white background prevented the automatic focus feature on my camera from functioning. But I could faintly see that the waves were big, bumpy and unclean, and I watched Mary connect on a long head-high left wave.

At the Groin, ten surfers were bunched together on the north edge of the Channel peak. I could barely see the waves, but they were strong, big, fast peeling lines. I aimed my camera at the Groin sign to obtain some contrast in color so that it could focus. Then I would swing slightly to the left and hope the camera could pick up a surfer coming down a wave. Luck was with me. As you can see in the above photo I captured a good shot of the size and shape of the waves. I also caught Nate the co-owner of the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley locked in a head-high curl near the Groin wall. The Channel waves were shortboard classics - steep and fast walls - definitely not good for us old longboarders, thus I decided to head to the Patch to join Mary, Hank, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, David who rides the Becker board and Ray the Petaluma fireman.

Again as I was entering the water the early birds were coming in. Mary exited while I was strapping on my leash. Ray had already gone in. Dexter paddled in after Mary. I chatted briefly with Jaime as he was working his way in. I watched Hank catch a wave and then continue paddling to shore. Only David the surf fanatic remained out there. The regulars did report that they had good sessions. Ray connected on several long powerful rides. Earlier at high tide, the backwash reflecting off the cliff put a large bump in the impact zone. While paddling out one backwash wave picked him up by surprise and pushed outside to the line-up. It was larger that the waves he rode in. Mary had a good session. She worked herself north to separate from the crowd and connected on several good left rides. Jaime was more cautious and hung on the south side of the impact zone to go for the rights. He was glad to be back in the water.

The waves were a frustrating combination of wind swells on top of ground swells with a sideways wind chop rippling through the path of the ground swells. The peaks were inconsistent and all over the place - to the north, then straight out front and then to the south. The wind swells caused the waves to jump up and break, but only on the top. One had to push over the edge of the ground swell to get into the waves. On my first wave, I stroked into one that was breaking, dropped down a steep face with considerable speed, the wave broke and then it died. I didn't have enough momentum to push into the reforming ground swell. Break and die, brake and die was the story of my session this morning. The waves had to be breaking for me to catch them. On one I dropped down a head-high peak with great speed, coasted out in front of the wave, my momentum died, and I glanced back to see a wall of waist-high white water bearing down on me. The foam hit the back of my board, my feet shot straight up and I plunged into the turbulence - typical of this morning's waves.

After an hour and a half of frustration, the cold was setting in. I caught a sizeable wave, took it in as far as I could and started paddling toward shore trying to catch another wave, which never happened. David followed me in a few minutes later. I was glad to be out of the cold water and hoped for a better day later this week.

December 30, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:40 am	3' to 4', sets to 5', occasional overhead
Low tide	Slight onshore breeze
Fog, drizzle and cold	Good session

The waves at the Channel were good - clean fast peeling lefts. One hour into my session I connected on my best wave of the morning. The crowd was a consideration today - 30 people were in the water when I began my session and 30 people were in the water when I left. The surfers around me went for the first two waves of the set, leaving me alone and in position for a well-formed five-foot wall. I paddled hard and felt myself almost in the wave. I hung at the top looking over the edge of a vertical drop. It instantly reminded me of the videos I saw of the recent Rip Curl Pro surf contest held at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I was amazed how the pro-surfers would hang at the tops of the waves with the noses of their boards sticking out of the water and then they would quickly jump up, drop down the steep faces and lock themselves under the lips of the curls. For an instant I felt this was happening to me. I jumped up, shifted my weight forward to push over the edge and dropped vertically down the face. I thought I was going to lose it. The nose of my board dipped into the water and bounced back up. I hung on and cut left at the bottom of the wave. From the momentum the board shot back up to the top of the curl, I leaned forward and again vertically dropped down the face and shot back up the top. I quickly regained control of the board, set the rail under the peeling lip and cruised through another steep and fast section. The wave continued building on the inside. I cut back, let the swell build up, leaned into the curl, climbed back to the top, cut back down, climbed back up - and up and down I went until the wave closed out inside the Groin wall. What a great ride! I had several other fast curl rides as well as several close outs this morning. The waves were right on the edge between incredible locked in the curl rides and blasting walls.

Everyone this morning stated that the waves have been consistently good all week. A series of west swells were driving right into Bolinas. Kevin and I came out here Monday, the day after Christmas, when waves were bigger and the crowd was thicker. We caught some incredible fast curls and got blasted on several hard breaking walls.

Several of the Bolinas regulars were here this morning. Mary was at the Patch and Francine went to join her. Hank was thinking Patch; he walked all the way down there, turned around and walked all the way back to the Groin to join us. Marty and David who rides the Becker board were already out at the Channel. Martha and I arrived at the same time and walked down to the Groin to check out the waves. She saw two good rides, decided that was all she needed to see and headed back to the car to suit up. Professor Steve and his four-year-old son Johnny were suited up and about to enter the water. Johnny had received a new little kid's soft-top board for Christmas and Steve was taking him to try it out. Yes, Johnny was excited.

Paddling out I said hello to Martha, David and Hank at the north edge of the Channel and continued out to the far peak to join Paul and Dexter. Dexter was on a classic longboard - I mean a real, made in the sixties, glassed on single fin, '9 6", sun-yellowed, beat to shit longboard. He claimed it was his first time ever on a heavy old classic. Well, he did fine. The board paddled fast and allowed him to catch all the waves. He could stroke into flat waves, jump up, position himself in the waves, drop down the faces and then cruise across the middle of the swells. When exiting the water, I looked out at the waves and watched Dexter, with his back to the wave, drop down an overhead wall, cut left, climb to the middle of the swell and glide across the face for several yards before the wave exploded around him.

After half an hour, Barry the management trainer and excellent surfer paddled out. I had not seen him in months. Following his normal pattern, he stroked out to the furthest peak at the Channel and patiently sat there waiting for the good set waves. His patience paid off, he caught at least one wave of every set. I asked him if he had been getting any waves lately. He said that he made it out for every big swell this season and that he was currently on a roll of surfing ten days in a row. To him the waves had been fantastic and he was capitalizing on the good consistent surf.

Today the water was cold. After and hour and an half, I was freezing, my hands were turning numb and my leg muscles were beginning to cramp up. Time to go in. I paddled around for another ten minutes before connecting with that elusive last wave, but it was a good one - a three-foot curl that went on and on, all the way inside the Groin wall. I looked back in time to watch David come down a spectacular wave. He dropped down the face of a head-high wall and with his back to the wave David stepped to the middle of his board, climbed to mid-swell and hung-on. He passed through one steep section, shifted his weight to let the inside curl build up, crouched down again and shot through another steep section. As the wave was collapsing near shore, David grabbed the outside rail and pulled himself out over the top of the wave. What a great ride - typical of today.

As I left the water, the waves were still good, the crowd was still pegged at thirty and I was freezing. Despite the cold and the crowd, it was a great morning.

December 14, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
10:15 am to 11:30 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Mid upcoming tide	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Sunny, clear and warm	Fun session

Correction: Lorenzo's Surf Journal has a correction.

"Loren, by the way I make my lunch every morning, not the night before," David who rides the Becker board said to me while paddling out to the Channel after a long ride. He was referring to the Surf Journal's September 21st entry that was posted on December 13th, which stated that David prepared a lunch every night before a surf session. His lunch is always the same - a cheese and lettuce sandwich, a piece of fruit and some carrot sticks. "Hey, I can't have stale cheese and wilted lettuce on my sandwich."

"Well, excuse me, I will correct that error," I said in jest. "David, tell me something. You make your lunch every morning, you live in Berkeley and drive an hour plus to get here and you usually enter the water between 7:00 and 7:30. You must get up earl." I asked as we were walking down the beach after our session.

"Four o'clock. I get up at four o'clock, putter around for an hour or so and leave the house at five thirty."

So here is my correction: to David surfing is as important as work. He is like a dedicated stockbroker who is up before sunrise to get the latest quotes from the New York Stock Exchange. David is up and out the door before sunrise to beat the wind and the crowd to the beach.

This morning was another pleasant surprise. I had no expectation of waves. The swell that came in last Friday was fading, and today's buoy reading was 4 ft at 11 seconds. Mill Valley was freezing with a low Tule fog that trapped the cold air at ground level. At the top of the mountain I broke through the fog into bright sunshine and warm air. It was ten degrees warmer on the ocean side of the mountain.

While suiting up I chatted with the early morning crew who had just finished their sessions. Stand-up guys Frank and Russ said that conditions were improving because it was warmer. They froze when they entered the water at 7:00 am. Marty and Hank confirmed that the waves were getting better from the push of the incoming tide. That's Marty in the above photo.

David, Jacek the tattoo artist and Francine were at the Channel when I entered the water. Francine caught one more wave and went in. A few minutes later Pete from Napa joined us. Thus the four of us had the Channel to ourselves for over an hour. I paddled out to the line-up, paused, looked around and took a deep breath. Conditions were ideal: here it was mid-December, the sun was out, the air was warm with no wind, a glassy surface, nicely formed two to three-foot left peeling waves and a friendly crowd. The waves were smooth, gentle and long. They weren't much to write about except that all of us caught several long rides that took us all the way to inside the Groin wall.

Pete proudly announced that his daughter had been accepted to Georgetown University - one of the nation's better schools. Pete has the double whammy of twin daughters who were seniors in high school and were applying to colleges. Obviously his daughters were doing well in school to be applying to the high-powered universities.

"Congrats," I said. "Now comes the hard part."

"Yeah, like paying for it!"

We will continue Pete's saga later. But for today, the sun was out, the scenery was beautiful and we exhausted ourselves in these small fun waves.

December 9, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 10:40 am	4' to 5', sets overhead
High tide (6.1 ft)	NW cross wind to no wind
Sunny and cold	Great session

"Seas seven feet at twenty-one seconds," squawked the mechanical female voice of the NOAA weather radio. I couldn't believe it. "Seven feet at twenty-one seconds," I kept repeating to myself. "Oh today is going to be a good day." A new swell came in last night. Two days ago, the waves were flat and I didn't bother going out and Monday they were a weak barely rideable two feet.

No one was out at the Channel when I first saw the waves from the seawall at the base of the ramp. Expecting big waves, at first I was disappointed and surprised that the Channel was flat. The swells would come through but they wouldn't break, the water was too deep due to six-foot high tide as shown in the above photo.

Five Bolinas regulars were at the Patch: David who rides the Becker board, Marty, DB the Safeway checker and stand-up guys Russ and Frank. They were just sitting there. After several minutes, a set of long line waves came through and David connected on a good inside right, revealing that the waves had power.

While strapping on my leash before entering the water I watched DB skillfully come down perfectly formed head high right that continuously peeled in front of her, taking her from the far outside peak to ten feet from the shore. The waves were perfect: big, steep and fast; long lines that jumped up over an outside reef, curled over at the top, landed halfway down the swell, slid the rest of the way down and would continuous break to the right all the way to the beach. With such waves, everyone connected on several good rides.

While paddling over a set wave, from the side I watched Hans drop down an overhead face. From the back I could tell the white water was in front of him. He drove under it, got back into the swell, crouched down and cruised all the way into shore. Hans' nephew Troy got the ride of his young surfing life as he dropped down a head high wave, cranked a big turn at the bottom, climbed back to mid-swell, crouched down and hummed across a beautiful wall for fifty yards. On my first wave I took off late on a five-foot wall, cut right, climbed high in the curl and screamed across a well-formed face, cut-back to the let the wave build up and cut right again to fly down another section. After catching several rights, I connected on a good left. I dropped down a steep face, lean left at the bottom, the wave began to break in front of me, I leaned on my front foot to trim the board and sped along the bottom of the wave just behind the breaking curl for several yards until the wave jumped up and collapsed in front of me. It was a great ride.

All of us were puzzled that the Patch would break with perfection while the Channel didn't break at all. Surfers know not to question such things; they just flow with the conditions that the ocean presents. It was a great morning.

December 5, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:45 am to 10:45 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
Mid outgoing tide	NW cross breeze to no wind to NW cross breeze
Sunny and cold	Exercise session

"Loren do you have a band-aid?" Ray the Petaluma fireman greeted me as I jumped out of my car this morning. He was holding a paper towel over a gash on his forehead.

"Better yet, I have a first-aid kit." I retrieve the kit that I always carry in my car as part of my surf equipment and handed it to Ray.

"Thanks, I usually have one in my car," Ray continued. "But on Thanksgiving I unloaded my car to carry six people and forgot to put it back." I was wondering why a fireman/paramedic wouldn't have a first-aid kit in his car.

"Ray what happened? Did you get hit by the skeg?"

"No I was going left (Ray is regular foot thus his back was to the wave) and the board got sucked up the curl, the rail turned up and I slammed my head on the rail. At first I thought I was ok and started to paddle back out. Then I wiped my forehead and noticed the blood. Then I came in."

"Ray don't tell Loren about your wound, he will write about it in his blog," Mary chimed in.

"I was thinking about taking a picture of it."

"Please no pictures. The last thing I want is more stitches." Ray pointed to a scare on his chin, but all I could notice was his bleeding forehead. "See twenty stitches from a previous surfing accident."

Frank the stand-up guy joined us. Frank is a retired fireman and thus now two professionally trained first-aid experts were conferring over the wound. "Boy you are going to have a bump with this one," Frank commented. Swelling now rimmed the gash on Ray's forehead.

"Thanks," Ray handed the first-aid kit back to me. "I'm going to the station to get some ice for this," and he jumped into his car and drove off.

The early morning crowd (Mary, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, and stand-up guys Russ and Frank) had finished their sessions and every one of them complained about the cold. Mary had lost feeling in her hands and had difficulty turning the key to unlock the door to her car. The big winds this past weekend had stirred up the ocean and brought the cold water to the surface. With everyone complaining about the cold I decided to wear my gloves. Friday I didn't and my hands froze. Gloves were a must this morning.

Hans and I checked out the waves at the base of the ramp. Two surfers were leaving and only David who rides the Becker board was in the water. The waves didn't look good but the sun was out and the air was warming up. "I'm going to suit up and get some exercise," Hans turned to go back to his car and I walked down to the Groin wall to take some pictures. Jacek showed up and also decided to go out. "One hour," I thought to myself. "Join my buddies and get some exercise."

At first the surf looked good, but it deteriorated as the tide went out. The current began to flow out of the lagoon; it picked up momentum and quickly became a river. Jacek and I sat at the apex of the Channel peak hoping to connect on the set waves. But the current kept dragging us out. We continuously paddled in, stopped and within minutes the current had pulled us back out. No set waves appeared, and we froze paddling around and watching David and Hank who were inside and to the north catch the small inside waves. Jacek and I gave up and paddled in to join Hank and David.

Jacek managed to connect on two classic lefts - long line peeling curls with him crouched down mid-board, back to the waves, locked in with spray arching off the tops of the waves. David scored on a couple of long inside curls. He always has a knack of knowing where to line up. I paddled over to where he was and managed to connect of two long-left curls. But that was all. I spent most of the time fighting the current, paddling and missing waves and trying to keep my hands and toes warm. After an hour I was spent and freezing. Exercise was all that I accomplished this morning.

"How is it out there?" Another surfer, who I didn't know, pulled up, and jumped out of his truck while I was changing after my session.

"Pretty crappy," I responded. "The current is pouring out of the lagoon and the water is freezing." After he had checked out the waves I asked him if he was going out.

"No. Looks like a good day to practice the guitar."

"What about exercise to keep your arms in shape? You have to be ready for when the good waves arrive."

"No thanks. I have this problem with surfer ear. My ear canal is closing down due to the cold water." A condition I know all about. I could tell he had made up his mind and nothing was going to change it. I couldn't disagree - today was a good day to practice the guitar.