April 30, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:30 am to 10:30 am	2’ to 3’, sets were waist high
Mid dropping tide (4.4 ft at 8:00 am)	Stiff offshore breeze
Sunny, breezy and cold	Beautiful nose riding curls

Wind! That’s what I heard when the alarm went off this morning. Lying in bed I could see the redwood trees on the ridge across from our house swaying back and forth. With all this wind the waves will be terrible. What am I thinking? Shall I kiss it off? It’s Wednesday and I’m obligated to gather water samples for Jamie. It’s important to keep Surfrider Foundation’s water testing program moving. But there is too much wind. I could email Jamie that there won’t be any samples today. I went downstairs and logged onto the computer. Per the morning NOAA buoy report the wind was NNW at 24 knots. That’s a lot of wind for 6:00 am in the morning. The swell was 9.5 ft at 8 seconds, which are merely wind waves. But the wind could be offshore. I remember the strong offshore winds on February 13 held up the waves to form perfect nose riding curls. I’ll go to have a look and to gather water samples.

From the ridge at the Pantoll ranger station I could see white caps far at sea, but when I rounded the last bend of the redwood forest I saw nothing but smooth water in the Stinson-Bolinas bay. Great, the northwest winds are offshore at Bolinas and there was plenty of white water indicating there were waves. 

At Bolinas straight out from the ramp there were five surfers in the water including Marty, Doug, and Lou the boogie boarder. Waist high perfectly shape left curls were marching in. In the above photo, Marty is cruising down a nicely shaped left wall. That’s it I’m going. 

The cold really hit me when I entered the water. April’s strong northwest winds have stirred up the water causing the super cold water from the bottom to come to the surface. For the last three weeks, the water temperature at the San Francisco buoy, the one closest to Bolinas, has been pegged at 48 degrees. Cold water combined with a cold strong offshore wind makes for a freezing surf session and instant ice cream headaches anytime one has to put their head under water. 

But the waves were great. On my first wave I connected with a great long left curl. I turned into a good fast breaking line, stepped to the center of the board to gain some speed, crouched down to shoot under the lip of the breaking curl, stepped to the nose, climbed high in the curl and as the wave as about to close out the tail block of my board came out of the water causing the board to free fall sending me flying into some very shallow water. I had several other similar rides in this session. The wind was holding up the waves creating curls that seemed to last forever. Everyone out this morning was connecting with great long left waves. 

Out in the water, Lou thanked me for mentioning him in my Marin’s Other Athletes article that was printed in the Marin IJ. He had an interesting tale about it. He didn’t see it in the paper. Someone had taped the article on the door of his Laundromat in Fairfax. In the early morning when he arrived he scanned the article in the dim light. “What is this?” he said to himself, and then he noted the mention of a boogie boarder who owned a Laundromat. He quickly unlocked the door, turned on the lights to read the article. “Who wrote this?” Then he saw my name at the top and understood its source. Lou appreciated the article. 

Due to the cold I got out after only an hour. All four of us, Marty, Doug, Lou and I, were freezing, felt great about the good waves and vowed to be out here again when the first big south swell arrives on Friday.

April 28, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2’, sets 2 ½‘
Mid dropping tide (0.2 ft at 12 noon)	Steady onshore breeze
Sunny and warm	Fun session

Knee high curls again. In the above photo Mary lines up a swell, catches it and gets a descent ride. What started out to be disappointing conditions turned out to be a fun session. This morning’s buoy report had west swells at 6.2 ft at 11 seconds, 1.2 ft south swells at 12 seconds and NNW winds at 15.5 knots, not exactly stellar conditions. 

When I arrived at Bolinas, Mary was already in the water, Matt was suiting up, and few moments later Robert the Larkspur carpenter arrived. I watched Mary catch a few waves from the overlook and was disappointed; small mushy waves again. Also the wind was a surprise, it was onshore. What happened to the strong NNW winds in the buoy report? Should I go out or kiss it off? I have a lot of other things to do. I’m at the beach, my friends are going out, I haven’t surfed for a week and it’s warm and sunny, thus I decided to do it. 

Mary and Matt were at the peak south of the ramp when I entered the water. I went straight out hoping to connect with great lefts I rode here last Monday. There was a small ground swell running resulting in two foot walls that lined up across the Bolinas beach. The first few waves I caught closed out. I moved further north. The last couple weeks I lined up at the north end of the seawall to catch the good lefts. I tried that again and connected. The shape of the bottom forces these walls to peel to the left. I got one good small left curl and then another one and another. I managed to get up quickly, turn sharply to left, step to the middle of the board to hum through the first section, let the swell build and then step to the nose as the wave closed out in the shore break. I did this nine times this morning. Keep in mind that I do have a loose definition of a “nose ride”. Anywhere beyond the midpoint of the board is a nose ride for me, but all of them were long in the curl rides. 

When Robert paddled out he immediately turned and stroked into a good left curl. Later I saw Matt on a good left kneeling on one knee with his back to the wave and going on and on until the wave collapsed on shore. After a while all four of us were at the north end of the wall connecting on these small clean left waves. Mary and Robert kept eyeing the Patch. Every ten minutes or so an appealing set of waves would be breaking beyond the outside rock. Around 10:30 am they began the long paddle to the Patch to take advantage of these waves. I had to take the water samples to Branson thus after another long left curl that put be in ankle deep water at the shore I decided that was it for me. 

The warm sunshine felt good when getting out of my wetsuit. After gathering a water sample, Matt came in and a few minutes later Mary and Robert returned from their journey to the Patch. They claimed it was great, but I didn’t believe them. A surfer never admits that a long paddle to get to some distance break was not worth it. All four of us agreed that it was a beautiful morning and a fun session, and we were all looking forward to the reported arrival of the first big south swell of the season that is supposed to arrive late Thursday and last through the weekend.

 

 

 

April 2, 2008 Wednesday

 

Bolinas	Straight out from the Ramp
9:10 am to 10:40 am	2’ sets to 3’
High tide (5.1 ft at 9:18 am)	No wind, perfectly still
High overcast	Great fun session

“What am I doing?” I said to myself. “I’m the King of the Knee-High Curl and I’m standing here watching my friend Professor Steve ride these perfect knee-high curls. I’ve got go to out!” 

I had convinced myself to kiss it off today. I wouldn’t even take pictures. Stormsurf.com’s prediction was, “No swell of interest forecast – less than 2 ft.” Small waves were breaking out front at Bolinas. The Patch was barely breaking and the Channel waves were breaking inside the Groin wall. Besides I had things to do: taxes, take water samples to Branson, catch up on the Surf Journal entries, pay bills, work in the yard, finish my book on Visa, etc, etc. 

At the top of the Ramp, Professor Steve pulled up in his ancient Volvo, wetsuit on for his morning exercise. 

“Hey, I hear you are quite a journalist,” he greeted me, referring to my article that was printed in the Marin Independent Journal this past Sunday. Steve had not seen it but was told that he was in it. I promised to email him a copy. He pulled out his longboard and I accompanied him down the ramp. Steve asked if I would also email him the photo I took of him last week. Of course I would. 

“Steve, get out there, I’ll take your picture this morning.” As soon as I got back on the seawall and the camera turned on, Steve was taking off on a nice little left peeler. I quickly focused and captured the end of his ride. I thought to myself that I would hang in here for a few more minutes to see if I can get a couple more shots of him. Within a brief ten-minute period, he caught another three great little waves. I got pictures of him on all of them. He would finish a ride, paddle out, here would come another one, he would turn around and stroke into another glassy curl. That did it. I’ve got to go out. 

While suiting up, Steve, who never stays out very long, was already out of the water and came driving by. “There’s some great little waves out there,” he waved and drove on. 

There was nobody out there when I entered the water. Surely others will show up. Often when one person catches a few waves others observe it and join in, but not this time. For an hour and a half I had the break all to myself. 

The waves broke in one small area, just north of the Ramp about mid-point in the seawall. With a small swell and a high tide the waves were breaking close to shore, much closer than Monday. They were two feet with sets to three feet. The peak was a perfect “A” frame with waves peeling both left and right. I would ride one left and then one right, then left again, and then right again, left, right, one after another. I never caught so many waves in such a short period. The waves were consistent. I would finishing riding one, paddle back out to the peak, wait thirty seconds and here would come another one. On the lefts, I would get high in the curl, step to the center of the board, lean into the wave to pick up speed and cruise across the faces of these small waves right up to the shore, within three feet of dry sand. 

The rights were even more makeable than the lefts due to the deeper water on the inside near the shore. I would go right on the set waves, which were solid walls of water across the entire impact zone. The right curls would hold up. I could drop into them, cut right, climb high in the curl and lock the inside rail under the lip of the curl, stand there frozen and glide to the shore, literally into six inches of water. 

At one point between sets, I paused, took a deep breath and looked around. “This is surfer paradise,” I thought to myself. It was perfectly still, there was no wind, breeze or breath of moving air. The surface was tabletop smooth and the water had warmed up a few degrees. The high cloud cover cast a grey glow over the hills behind the Bolinas Lagoon and Stinson Beach. It was beautiful, in front of me was a continuous pulse of perfect little curls and I had it all to myself. I was stunned by it all. 

This is a day I won’t forget for a long time.