June 26, 2008 Thursday

Pacifica	Linda Mar Ave.
9:10 am to 10:50 am	3’ to 4’, sets to 6’, occasional overhead
Mid dropping tide (2 ft at 9:00 am)	NW breeze
Sunny, warm and hazy	Good fun session

“Damn, there’s another hole in the bottom of my board.” I’m rinsing it off after an hour and a half session at Pacifica and noticed a fresh puncture in the bottom of my board about three feet from the nose. 

I came to Linda Mar because the conditions looked best here. Monday I went to Bolinas and due to an extreme low tide and a small swell there was no surf. The NW winds swells don’t reach into Bolinas. The wave prediction for today was 0 to 1 ft at Bolinas and 6 to 8 feet at Pacifica. When I arrived I saw consistent, bumpy three to four foot wind waves with sets of four to five closely spaced big walls. The crowd was located at the south end of the cove for good reason. Waves there were makeable whereas at the north end the waves were huge and closing out. At the very south end there was a definite left peak, that’s where I decided to go. 

After weeks of riding two to three foot gentle waves at Bolinas paddling out into five to six-foot walls is intimating. At first I was hesitant and highly selective. As I reflect back on this session I was proud of myself for over coming my fears. On my second wave, I connected with a long left wall, which built my confidence. I thought about the unique two-step combination of surfing that Steven Kotler identified in his book, West of Jesus. One, surfing consists of an adrenaline rush to catch the wave, especially big ones, and two Zen-like concentration needed to ride the wave. I also reminded myself to observe two key laws of surfing: watch what the locals are doing and study the pattern of the white water. I picked out one Hawaiian looking big guy on a soft-top longboard who sat way outside and caught all of the big set waves. He took off on huge walls that I thought for sure would close out, but they didn’t. This guy would drive down these waves for a long ways and kick out when they finally closed out on the inside. I also noted that he usually went left. The white water showed a definite left pattern. Even for waves that looked right broke left. The shape of the bottom was forcing all the waves to break to the left. Observing this built my confidence. I started taking all waves to the left regardless of where the peak was, and I moved inside and started taking off late as the waves were breaking.  I relaxed, felt more comfortable in the water and all the sudden I was catching one great, fast ride after another. 

Towards the end of my session, a big set came in. I paddled out, here was a six-foot wall cresting to the north, I turned around to go for it, scratched to get into it, dropped down the face as it was breaking, turned left, climbed to the top of the wave and screamed across a well formed face. All of the sudden I noticed a surfer on a short board paddling out. He screamed and I froze. I was locked in the curl, standing in the middle of the board where it is impossible to turn heading right for him. I leaned into the wave in an attempt to climb over the top of the curl, which helped decease speed, I dove over the top of the wave, the other guy bailed out and my board went over the top of his board. I didn’t think our boards hit. The other guy claimed he was ok, I apologized, and he glared at me and mumbled under his breath as he paddled off. As I am rinsing off my board I realize that our boards did collide and the new, neat, round hole looks like a stab wound from the sharp point of a short board. I already have eleven patched holes in the bottom of my board and this one is the 12^th. Maybe it’s time for a new one. 

I ran into my old Visa friend Ben when I was taking pictures of the surf. I was glad to see him. I asked him if he had a good session. He stated it was his 500^th. 

“I started surfing three years ago at age forty. I’m now 43 and my goal is 150 sessions a year,” Ben proudly claimed. That’s an ambitious goal I thought. That’s three sessions a week, two on the weekend and one during the workweek. Ben had to shower, dress and head for work.

After I dressed I met another work friend Roger for lunch. After a long illness, Roger had retired from Visa. Last summer I connected with him at a barbeque at a mutual friend’s house in Redwood City near Visa’s headquarters. There I learned that Roger lived in Pacifica. I promised him that the next time I went surfing at Pacifica I would give him a call and we would go to lunch. Well, after twelve months I finally delivered on this promise. We had a great time talking old times, saluting retirement and gloating that we no longer had to put up with all the pettiness, egos and politics that dominate modern corporations. 

After lunch I purchased a brisket of beef from Pacifica’s best boxcar outlet, Gorilla Barbeque. 

All in all it was a great morning.