May 28, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2’, sets to 3’, occasional 4’
Mid outgoing tide	Slight onshore breeze
High overcast	A So – So session

Scott who only surfs on Wednesdays and I were sitting outside during one of those long lows between sets when about twenty yards away something big broke the calm surface. Earlier while walking down the beach to the Groin, Marty mentioned that Mary told him that Professor Steve who was out earlier had a bad feeling about this morning. He saw something huge moving along the bottom and was afraid it was a shark, thus he got out. I reminded Marty that a shark attacked Lee Fontan here six years ago on the Seadrift side of the Channel on May 31, 2002, so sharks are around this time of year. “Thus we have three days to go,” was his response. 

This morning I had no expectations for waves. Kate and I had just returned from a great trip to Providence, RI to visit daughter Allison. I had not surfed for six days and I was anxious to get back into the water. Stormsurf.com had rated today a 0.5 on a scale from zero to five. Their prediction was: “No swell of interest forecast, 2 ft or less.” However, the morning’s buoy report had a SSW swell of 2.6 ft at 14 seconds with hardly any wind. South swells go right into Bolinas thus there is some hope. Also, the water temperature had risen to 54 degrees, up from 47 degrees during the big NW winds. Maybe there will be some decent knee-high curls. 

When I arrived at Bolinas, Mary and Marty were already in the water and Scott who only surfs on Wednesdays was suiting up. There must be something there. I charged down to the beach with my camera at the ready. Marty and Mary were into some good small left peeling walls. The above photo is Marty on a decent inside curl. Great I’m going. 

By the time I entered the water, Mary was leaving and Marty had moved from the Groin to the north end of the seawall. “Marty why are you here and not at the Groin?” I asked. “The current is too strong. You can’t hold your position there.” The outflow from the lagoon was at full strength. Even at the north end of the seawall there was a strong pull to the north. But the waves were smaller and walled here. After a couple of frustrating waves all three of us decided to return to the Groin. 

Marty waited on the sand while Scott and I paddled out past the Groin pole. My strategy was to locate a shallow spot and stand in the water to prevent the current from pushing me out to sea. Easier said than done; the shallow places were too far inside to catch the swells. I would have to paddle through the white water of the first wave of a set to be in position to catch the rest, but the strategy basically worked. I was able to remain more or less in the same location despite the strong current. 

The waves consisted of long two to three foot lines that stretched across the bay and broke in one direction. The surface was glassy smooth, the waves were beautiful, but they broke off too fast to make them. Scott and I kept trying to find that point in the bottom that would allow us enough time to make the waves. We never found it. We both managed to go down some fast curls for a second or two before the waves closed out. There were long lows between sets and then a good set of five would appear and then we would sit through another long low. I did connect with one really good wave. I got up fast, almost slipped, climbed high in the wave, planted my front foot two feet from the nose, crouched down through a well-formed curl, shuffled closer to the nose, my board was now parallel to the curl, gained a lot of speed, and felt for an instance my tail-block coming out of the water as the wave finally closed out on me. That was my best ride of the day.

During one of those lows is when it broke the calm surface. We could plainly see that it was an elephant seal and it was huge. We saw its complete body go by as it dove back under. “It must weigh at least a 1000 pounds,” I thought to myself. It surfaced a couple more times. Then it really elevated out of the water with a big fish in its mouth. It flung its head back and forth and slapped the fish onto the surface of water. Again it surfaced with the fish in its mouth and flung it around again and again. After a three or four such encounters, the fish began to break into parts. The seal repeatedly surfaced furiously chopping on another component of its prey until all evidence of the fish disappeared. After about ten to fifteen minutes the attack was over and the elephant seal did not resurface. 

Soon after that we headed back in. Onshore as we were taking off our wetsuits I commented to Scott, “Scott I didn’t want to mention this out in the water, but I think that elephant seal had a shark in its mouth.” 

“So did I. At first I thought it was a salmon, but no it was a three to four foot shark. I sure hope its mother isn’t around.”

To put it mildly, shark talk put a solemn tone on our after-session discourse. 

May 17, 2008 Saturday

 

Manhattan Beach	30th Street
9:30 am to 11:30 am	3’, sets to head high
High dropping tide	Slight onshore breeze
Sunny and hot	Good session

 

It was a classic summer like day for Manhattan Beach. 

I flew to Los Angeles this weekend to attend the Sonic/Shares Reunion, which is the 40^th anniversary of the implementation of Continental Airlines reservation system. I worked on Continental’s reservations programming staff from 1973 to 1983. The reunion was that evening, so I called my good friend Jay about getting some waves in the morning. No problem, Jay had an extra good 9’0’’ board and an old wetsuit. 

Jay, Floyd, a good friend of Jay’s and I marched over the sand dune from Jay’s house to 30^th Street. The above picture was taken at the top of the hill, which was our first glimpse of the waves. The photo shows something unique to the beach towns and something I love, which is walk-streets. The walk-streets remove the impact of cars. The houses face each other and are separated by public sidewalks. Behind the houses are narrow alleyways for the cars to enter garages. There is no public parking accept for the few cross streets and a few pay lots. The impact of this layout is amazing. The warm beach weather brings people out of their houses and the closeness of the public sidewalks out front results in a high level of interaction between neighbors and creates a strong community ethos. Everyone who lives in these houses is there because they love the beach, the waves and the outdoors. So as we walked to and from the beach we chatted with several locals in their front yards about the sunny weather and wave conditions. Believe me, the walk-streets of Manhattan Beach are paradise to a surfer. 

At 9:30 am the sand was already hot. We entered the water in front of the lifeguard tower and connected with some descent two to three feet peaks. On my first wave I dropped into a fast breaking left, positioned the board mid-way down the face, crouched down to put my weight over the center of the board and shot through a good inside section. That set the tone for me and I caught several good ones after that. 

While we were out there wave conditions changed. At first the swells were pushing smaller waves in from of them, often forming double waves. Rideable waves occurred when the two came together. We had to wait until white water was forming on the upper swell, paddle hard to get plenty of board speed, jump up and push the board to drop into the front swell, which by this time had formed into a fast breaking curl. After an hour the two small waves combined into a single wall of water. We were now paddling into the front edge of the combined harder breaking waves. They also became bigger. The previous three footers were forming into consistent four footers with the sets to head-high. The take-offs became flatter and easier to catch, but the waves were bigger, walled and harder breaking. I was quickly humbled by a couple of crunching walls. 

Jay and I were sitting together when a big set wave came through. I looked at this huge wave coming right at us and I thought, “it’s walled, paddle over it.” Jay, however, turned and with two strokes was into it. I looked back and saw only his head screaming above the feathering top of a fast breaking wall. “He has no leash and he is about to be crushed,” I thought to myself. I then I saw his board come knifing through the green and white collapsing wave the result of an expert kick-out. Later Jay admitted in waves of that size he should wear a leash. 

By now I was tiring and started to stumble and pearl when taking off. That’s a sign it’s time to go in. After a couple more sets, a good left wall came through, I caught it, hung high in the wave, cut left, slid under white water coming off the top, climbed back up the face of the wave which reformed into a fast inside curl, which I rode until it collapsed near shore. That’s it, time to quit. 

It’s a small world. Before we started out I discovered that Jay’s good friend Floyd and I had something in common. We both had worked at Continental Airlines reservations programming staff. Floyd started after I left, but via the “do you know” game we had several mutual friends, a few of whom I met that night at the reunion. Floyd is currently working as a project manager on Warner Brothers IT staff. 

Like I said before, it was a classic summer day in Manhattan Beach.

May 14, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 11:00 am	2’, sets to 3’
High dropping tide	No wind
Hot and sunny	Fun session

There’s nothing like a heat wave to get a surfer’s juices flowing, that’s beach weather: hot sun, no wind, tee-shirt, shorts and sandals. It was 72 degrees in our house at 6:30 am this morning. Kate quickly closed up the house to keep the heat out, windows closed, shades down and the curtains drawn. A low pressure to high pressure gradient caused our recent big NW winds. The low pressure has moved on and the high pressure has settled in. The San Francisco Bay Area was in for four days of record high temperatures. 

With high pressure the wind dies and so does the swell. All we have is residual wind swell left over from last week’s big winds; eight feet, eight second NW swells, which little if any reaches into Bolinas. 

Marty, Doug, Robin and two other guys were out at the Groin when I arrived. It was high tide (four feet) and turning. A small peak was breaking about fifty feet out from the end of the Groin wall. They were going for the infrequent, soft-mushy two to three footers. The surface was glassy, the waves looked beautiful but they had little force. 

Doug was smart. He was way on the inside catching the Malibu like rights that formed next to the Groin pole at the end of the wall. Often with a high tide good inside right curls form. In the above photo Doug is on one of them. I was standing on the Groin wall, which is buried in sand, as Doug came cruising by. He had positioned himself at the peak of the wave as it was breaking. He caught the white water as it was starting to slide down the face, swung right and worked back into the swell and then cruised for a long ways. I watched Doug catch three such waves in a brief period. 

I joined Marty and Robin at the outer break. I caught a few nice lefts but was unable to connect with the inside curls. The waves just didn’t wave any power. All my effort was trying to force my board to stay in the wave, which meant pretty much going off straight. 

About 10:00 am Marty and Doug got out and starting heading for the Ramp. I had to catch up with Marty to give him the water samples I had already gathered that morning to take them to Branson for processing. Marty had injured his back, which was why he was getting out so soon, a pulled muscle or muscle cramp. While we were standing there, Robin came up still in her wetsuit completely frustrated. She had just locked herself out of her van. It was a pure accident. She had just opened the door, threw her keys on the front seat when the woman in the car next to her startled her, Robin jumped and shut the door in the locked position. We helped her out by calling the Triple A, who responded quickly by sending a truck from Point Reyes Station, a mere twelve miles away. 

I went back out. By now the tide and current had turned. There was a strong out-flowing current that had knock down the outside peak. I moved inside to catch the rights that Doug had ridden. These too were impacted by the current. I did manage to catch a few that built into good fast right curls and several others that did not build up but just died. I lasted about forty minutes at this and at 11:00 am I called it quits. 

The enjoyment of the morning was the weather, beach weather, the kind that compels you to get in the water. The water temperature had improved. This morning’s buoy report had the water temperature at 49 degrees, which is cold. But at Bolinas the sun warms the water in the shallow lagoon and at low tide pours all that warm water into the sea. 

It was just another typical heat wave in paradise.

May 8, 2008 Thursday

Surfrider Foundation Marin County monthly meeting	Wipeout Bar & Grill in Greenbrae
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm	Jonathan Kathrein talk

Meet Jonathan Kathrein, shark attack survivor. 

Scott Tye, chairman of the Surfrider Foundation Marin County, invited Jonathan to speak at the chapter’s monthly meeting held May 8^th at the Wipeout Bar & Grill in Greenbrae. 

On August 26, 1998, the last day of summer, a shark attacked sixteen-year old Jonathan while boogie boarding at Stinson Beach. The waves were small, his friend Sean had just gone in when Jonathan’s hand hit something hard in the water. It felt rough and solid. Jonathan at first thought it was sand and pictured a pile of sand under the water. Maybe it was a seal, but seals surface and would look you in the eye. Maybe it was a jellyfish. Jonathan turned to head in. The shark hit the back of his right leg, lifted him into the air and then took him under water. He tried to grab the shark but the shark was so big he could not wrap his arms around it. Fortunately Jonathan had the sense to open his eyes underwater, reached for and grasped the shark’s gills. The shark immediately let him go. 

Jonathan then managed to swim ashore and Sean who witnessed the attacked sought help. A rescue crew arrived shortly and took him by helicopter to the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek where emergency doctors administered over 400 stitches to save Jonathan’s life. 

After his recovery, experts told him given the size and teeth pattern they assumed he was hit by a twelve-foot great white. Jonathan who was dressed in shorts emphasized this point by showing us the long strings of scares on his knee and the back of his leg. 

From that day on Jonathan’s life changed. First he encountered the public’s fascination with shark attacks. While recovering in the hospital the next day, his dad mentioned that some reporters were outside who wanted to talk to him. Jonathan responded, “Sure, let them in, it won’t be news tomorrow.” How wrong he was. Over a hundred reporters interviewed him while he was in the hospital. In Germany he became a hero. Chancellor Helmet Kohl presented him with Germany’s Person of the Year award. 

Why the fascination with sharks? They don’t eat humans thus shark attacks are rare, less than ten people a year worldwide die from shark wounds. The reverse is not true. Humans do eat sharks, mainly shark fin soup, and about 10 million of them are slaughtered every year. In fact sharks are becoming an endangered species. 

Second, Jonathan feels no animosity towards sharks, has learned a lot about them and works to help protect sharks and the oceans they live in. He has taken his near death experience and expanded it into a message of peace and understanding. He is an inspirational speaker who heads Future Leaders for Peace organization and has written a children’s book, Don’t Fear the Sharks.  He gives talks to school age kids and his message stresses animal to human relationships, which he easily extends to human-to-human interactions. Sharks don’t dislike humans. Once in a while when humans enter the sharks’ environment sharks become frustrated and lash out, much like frustrated children often do. 

By the way, Jonathan is back to surfing. 

David McGuire, coordinator of World Ocean Day, invited Jonathan to sign copies of his book along with big wave rider Grant Washburn at the June 6^th World Ocean Day event sponsored by Surfrider Foundation Marin County and the Wipeout Bar & Grill.

May 3, 2008 Saturday

Corte Madera	Book Passage
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm	Gerry Lopez book signing

Last night 80 avid surfers and myself crowded into the small speakers area of the Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera to listen to surf legend Gerry Lopez present his new book, Surf Is Where You Find It. The bookstore was overwhelmed by the turnout. They gave it little promotion but the word-of-mouth network of the surf community quickly spread the word. Employees scrambled to set up more chairs and they sold out of Gerry’s book before the talk began. Luckily I managed to purchase one of the last copies and gladly stood in line for a half hour afterwards to shake Gerry’s hand and to get his signature. Before the talk I counted the attendees; I stopped at 83. It was an older surfer crowd but there were several young surfers in attendance also. My surf buddies Mary, Marty, Jock were there as were Surfrider Marin members Christie and Michele. 

The book is a collection of 41 of Gerry’s stories. In the book’s introduction Gerry states that though surfing is an individual endeavor the stories can be enjoyed by anyone. Through his fifty years of surfing Gerry has put these talking stories into written form. He wants to spread the wisdom of a lifetime in the water. Gerry read his story Pakala about his discovering surfing as a small boy at his grandmother’s sugarcane workers home in Kaua’i and then presented slides of the photos that begin each story. He briefly described the origin of the photos, the people and the stories they represented. 

Gerry has lived an interesting life, mixed with incredible characters and has achieved fame and success from surfing. Yet he is quiet, humble and unassuming. An air of calmness surrounds him that moves one to want to be around him. In the Q&A session, someone asked how he stands out from others. “Stand out? I’m always trying to blend in,” was his response. 

I was impressed by the short sayings Gerry had about life and surfing. Here are a few: 

Buzzy Trent, a big surfer from the 1940s and 50s when asked about the difference between surfers of his day and those of today stated, “Surfers of today are better fit, better trained and better fed.”  Gerry somewhat disagreed with this statement because early surfers like Buzzy Trent were extremely fit and tough as nails.

“The best surfer is the one having the most fun,” was Gerry’s response to an Australian journalist who was pressing him to state who was the best surfer in the world. This was in the 1970s when the world’s champion surfers were Australians. The journalist pressed Gerry to name someone. “Tommy Zahn,” Gerry finally said. Tommy is another great surfer from the 40s and 50s. “What’s so great about Tommy Zahn?” the journalist snapped. “Well, Tommy Zahn slept with Marilyn Monroe.” Well that does it in my book. 

“When the surfing bug bites, things change.” In his 20s, Gerry was surfing everyday. He noticed that in the water were older surfers and young kids. Men in their prime were working. Gerry wanted a flexible schedule that would allow him to surf when conditions were good. That’s when he became a shaper, started the successful Lightning Bolt line of boards and managed to expand into other phases of the surf industry to maintain his flexible schedule for the past fifty years. 

“The first twenty years of surfing are just a test to see if I was interested.” Gerry claims he is still learning. 

“Surfing is a metaphor for life. Life doesn’t hold still.” Gerry made this statement when comparing snow skiing to surfing. Mountains don’t move, but waves do. For this reason surfing is like life because life is always changing. 

“We’re going backwards. We need to heal our planet. First we have to get control of our minds.” This was Gerry’s lead-in to the next statement. 

“Live with aloha, breathe through your nose and keep paddling,” which is Gerry’s extension to the Delhi Lama’s “peace is within you.” 

Question: “Is surfing art, sport or a religion?” Gerry, “It’s all three, like an onion. We’re just going through layers. I’m just scratching the surface.” Later on he stated, “Surfing is a never ending challenge.” 

“When in doubt, paddle out,” which is a lesson Gerry learned from his friend Herbie when Gerry was just beginning to surf. 

“There’s always another wave,” one of Gerry’s main lessons in life. “Don’t be bummed-out because you missed that wave. Get the next one.” 

“Just keep paddling. One little wave keeps you going for months.” There’s a feeling of satisfaction about catching a wave that lasts and lasts. “Get it while you can. The moments are brief but they last for a long time.” 

Question: “Do you understand why Greg Noll quit surfing?” Gerry, “No.” After a short pause he continued, “I have teased Greg several times that he is still riding that wave from 1969.” Gerry is referring Greg Noll’s riding of the biggest wave ever ridden. In 1969 during a storm of the century, at Makaha Greg Noll paddled into the biggest wave ever ridden. He wiped out, barely survived and quit surfing on that day. He has not ridden a wave since then. 

Question: “In all your travels what is the most interesting culture in the world?” Gerry, “Bali. It’s an incredible place. The people seem happy, even tough they don’t have much. In fact the further you go from the city the happier the people are.” Bali is the land of the surf spot G-Land that Gerry and friends discovered, which is the place that in Gerry’s opinion has the most challenging and intense waves. 

To Gerry conditioning is key to keep surfing. He follows a strict regiment of yoga and swimming to stay flexible and in shape. As long as he can do it, Gerry will keep surfing. “There’s always another wave.” 

Through setting down these talking stories, with this well put together book, with these presentations and his quiet, confident demeanor, Gerry shares with us his wisdom of a life in the water.

May 2, 2008 Friday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
8:30 am to 10:30 am	Consistent 4’, sets head high
Mid upcoming tide	Stiff offshore breeze
Sunny and cool	Epic session

 

All the elements came together this morning:

• A strong south swell (3 ft at 17 seconds),
• Consistent 4 ft waves with frequent head-high sets,
• Mid-up coming tide (4.5 ft at 10:00 am),
• An offshore breeze (NNW),
• A bottom contour that forms fast left peeling curls, and
• It’s my birthday.

The only negative is the cold water, which is 48 degrees. Mark Sponsler at Stormsurf.com had predicted the arrival of this swell a week ago. Everyday he updated the advance of the swell from New Zealand to California. For a Friday morning it’s unusual to see all the parking places at the tennis count taken at 8:00 am. Obviously surfers everywhere were reading the predictions on the Internet and rearranging schedules, work plans, sick days, etc to meet the arrival of the new swell. Here are three examples. 

Coming up the ramp was Scott who only surfs on Wednesdays. “What are you doing here? It’s not Wednesday,” was my greeting to him. I continued, “Don’t tell me you have been watching the surf reports on the Internet and you knew Friday was going to be good so you cleared your calendar.”

With a big smile on his face Scott replied, ”That’s right. On Wednesday I did all the things I normally do on Friday, thus clearing Friday for surfing.” 

“So how was it?” 

“It was fun!” 

I ran into Nate, one of the owners of Proof Lab Surf Shop, suiting up to go out. I told him about Gerry Lopez speaking at Book Passage tonight at 7:00 pm. “That’s interesting, but the surf is too good,” was his response. His plan was to surf Bolinas this morning, go open up his shop and work until 2:00 pm then head for Fort Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands for more surfing. He told me that Cronkhite should be twice as big as Bolinas because south swells bounce off the Potato Patch reef to focus in on Cronhkite. He didn’t say it but logic told me that he couldn’t be at Book Passage at 7:00 pm because he will be in the water until sunset. 

After my session I met my Surfrider friend Christie who introduced me to two other guys that I have been sharing waves with. One of them was a fifth grade teacher at the Ross School. I asked him if he was taking the day off. “I’m playing hooky,” he said. “Yes, he has a board meeting,” Christie added. This reminded of the tales of famed big wave rider, Fred Van Dyke, a teacher at the Punahoe school in Honolulu in the 50s, would “play hooky” whenever the waves got big at Sunset Beach on the North Shore. 

The waves at the Patch looked good, long lines marching in, breaking way out there with lots of white water everywhere and thirty people in the water. Set waves were head high with some overhead. The lefts were tempting with long steep walls continuously breaking left for hundreds of yards. Maybe I should go out there. No way, the fast curls in from of the ramp looked great. 

The good left that we have been seeing since January was still working. I knew to line up at the north end of the seawall. The waves would look walled but the bottom had them breaking left and the offshore wind would hold them up. I caught one memorable head high fast wave. I took off, quickly turned left, climbed to the middle of the wave, crouched down, gained speed, looked down this beautiful green wall of water, feathering sway coming off the top and I heard the “fizz” from the board shooting down a perfectly smooth swell. The fizz happens only on glassy waves when one hits “cruising” speed. Sailors will understand. The fizz occurs when sailboats hit “hull speed”, which is maximum efficient speed for the hull. For two hours I caught great wave after great wave. 

Several of the Bolinas regulars were there. Lou the boogie boarder came out about 9:30, “Better later than never.” Professor Steve showed up for his morning exercise, caught three great waves and headed home. Robyn, who always sits way outside, caught the best of every big set. Grant who is a long boarder, good surfer, no leash with a beautiful wood laminated board paddled over from the Patch and caught several big ones. He let me have a couple of waves and I always deferred to him when he was paddling for a wave. I saw Matt from the shore as he was coming in from the Patch. He gave me the high-five wave after I connected on a good fast curl. From the water I saw Mary walking in from the Patch. I could tell it was her by the distinctive design on the bottom of her board.  I bet she was in the water at 7:00 am this morning. Christie claimed she got four great waves at the Patch, but the cold drove her out of the water after an hour. Jock drove by as I was toweling off to tell me that he enjoyed reading my surf journal. I asked him about his session. He said it was great, he was exhausted and somewhat intimated by the size, wind and the crowd. 

While wiping off my board to put it into the car I discovered a huge gash in the bottom of my board, a deep puncher through the fiberglass eight inches long and up to my first knuckle in depth. How did this happen? I don’t remember it and it didn’t impact the performance of the board. It must have been early in my session when I ran up close behind a short boarder who took off in front of me. This is my strategy for people who drop in on me. I come up as close as I can to borrow a line from the movie Bull Durham to “announce my presence with authority.” The idea is to let them know I’m there and to prevent them from doing any maneuvers. In this case I was very close to him, within one foot, when the wave finally closed out close to shore. We both dropped into the water and our boards collided. I thought it was a gentle bump, but it must have been severe. I asked him if was ok. He said he was. Thus my arrogant tactic just bit me, but that guy didn’t drop in on me again. 

I’m writing this while sitting on the seawall after my session. I’m exhausted and feeling good in the warm sunshine. It’s 12:45 pm and the surf is still epic. Far out to sea I see lines of swells marching in. The waves are still head high, fast barreling lefts. Ten guys are out there screaming down some epic waves. I have to call son Kevin.