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.