March 4, 2008 Tuesday

Stinson Beach	Right out front
8:40 am to 10:15 am	Consistent 4’, sets 6’
High tide – 5.8 ft	No wind
Warm sunny day	Fast powerful waves

The morning buoy report looked good: 4.5 ft north swell at 10 seconds and a 1.2 ft south swell at 14 seconds. Since there was an early high tide (5.8 ft at 8:40 am) I thought that Stinson might be good. I parked by the Parkside Café and was putting the lens on my camera when Scott drove by. We had a good chat about Surfrider Foundation participating in David’s film festival in June. Then Doug arrived. 

“Bolinas must be flat for you to be here,” I said to him. 

“There’s nothing! Absolutely nothing! The tide is too high,” was Doug’s response. 

Nate, one of the owners of Proof Lab Surf Shop, and his girl friend came by on their way to check the surf. “How was Hawaii?” I asked. Nate then launched into an empathic five-minute description of surf paradise and his wonderful trip. They were at the North Shore during the big swells I caught in Ventura the week of February 20. Sunset, Pipeline, Backdoor, and Vezeyland, they surfed them all without having to rent a car. The breaks are so close together on the North Shore they rode bikes to get to them. They friend proceeded to suit up. Marty then drove up and he too had given up on Bolinas. I didn’t even bother to drive to Bolinas, I joined my friends to ride Stinson this morning. 

A little north of the main restrooms the waves were breaking left into a channel. That’s where Doug, Marty and I headed. We separated ourselves from four locals who were directly out front. After having ridden Bolinas for the past several months, stroking into Stinson waves is a challenge. They are bigger, steeper, faster and more powerful. All three of us had a confidence hurdle to over come. The waves were bigger than they looked from shore; consistent four-foot waves with sets overhead. One had to wait until the waves were cresting to catch them. Once into the wave you would hang at the top for a second and then drop to the bottom, turn quickly and try to keep ahead of the pounding white water. 

I did not make the first couple of waves I caught. Finally I got a good one, a big fast left that I rode nearly to the beach. That boosted my confidence. From then on I caught several good, sizable waves. Marty and I rode one long left together. We were ten yards apart when the wave came through, I was more into the peak, Marty didn’t think I would catch up to him, but due to the speed of the wave I quickly caught up to him, we continued down this four foot swell with Marty in the lead and me right behind him. On the inside the wave began to close out, Marty went up over the top and I quickly straighten out. We both rated this one as a “great wave”. 

After and hour or so, I caught a long, fast right wave. I was just north of the main restrooms when I caught the wave and south of them afterwards. The wave and its steep curl just kept going and going. I paddled straight out. This put me in the middle of the locals, who were all excellent surfers and who know this break very well. It’s intimating to be around guys who are always in position when the sets come, who calmly and effortlessly stroke into every wave and who always manage a great ride. I had to maneuver around them thus I didn’t catch another wave for several minutes. Meanwhile, the locals drifted to the north, because the peak was moving in that direction and Doug and Marty drifted south. We had reversed positions with the locals. 

I announced to Doug and Marty, “One more wave and I’m going in.” They too were ready to call it a day. A steep wave came, I turned and started paddling for it, the momentum of the wave picked up my board, I remember looking over the edge of a steep four foot drop, as I pushed on my arms to get up (this move is like doing a push-up), the heel of the palm of my left hand slipped off the rail of the board and WHAM my mouth slammed into the top of the board. I went head first over the falls and into the turbulence of the just broken white water. While swirling around under water I thought to myself, “That was bad!” When I surfaced, I immediately put my hand in my mouth to feel if all my teeth were still there. I could taste blood. Fortunately my teeth were ok. I spit into my hand and saw blood; I was bleeding on the inside of my mouth. 

“Are you alright?” Marty called. “No!” I answered. Marty helped me in. I was stunned. “It’s Tuesday, I’m at Stinson Beach, it’s ten o’clock,” I said convincing myself I didn’t have a concussion. Marty fetched me some gauze from a first-aid kit he keeps in his car. One of the local surfers who work at the Parkside Café obtained a small bag of ice for me to put on my lip. It was bleeding and swelling up. With my tongue I felt a sizable hole in my upper lip. Within a few minutes the bleeding had subsided and I was going to be ok. 

My left hand still had the bruise caused by the puncture wound from my skeg hitting me last Friday and now four days later I have a split lip. With two surfing accidents back to back, maybe I’m too old for this. 

No, let’s get serious. I’m having too much fun to ever quit.