June 9, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
8:50 am to 11:15 am	2’ to 3’, occasional 4’
Low tide (0.2 ft at 10:15 am)	Slight NW breeze
Sunny, clear and warm	Fun session

“Nobody is here. I don’t believe it. Nobody is here.” 

There’s a two foot, twenty second south swell running, which comes right into Bolinas, and nobody is out. I pulled into the first parking spot and while sitting in my car I could see swells coming in off in the distance. This morning’s buoy report had north swells at six feet every eight seconds, 2.1 feet 190 degree south swell at twenty seconds and a NW breeze at nine knots. The California Central coast had a three-foot south swell at twenty seconds, thus the south swell is building. 

I walked down to the seawall to check it out. There was one surfer who had just finished his session walking by. 

“So how was it?" I asked. 

“Fun. I got some good waist high lefts out by the big rock.” He confirmed what I was seeing. It was low tide, most of the Patch rocks were exposed and long lines of waves were breaking beyond the outside rock. The Groin and the Channel were flat due to the strong current flowing out of the lagoon. 

I went up to the overlook to see if there were any waves on the Seadrift side. Just on the other side of the out-flowing current I observed some tempting long peeling rights. Maybe I should go out there. I didn’t do it because: that’s where Lee Fontan got hit by the shark in 2002 about this time of year, I’m by myself, and I would have to paddle through that strong current to get there. I’ll go out at the Patch instead. 

Back at the parking area, another retiree, who I have seen here several times before, was slowly driving by in his pick-up with his longboard in the back. 

“Hey, you going out?” He asked. 

“Yes, there are some good lefts by the outside rock at the Patch.” 

“Good, I’ll go out too.” 

Then Cathy from the Russian River area arrived. “You going out?” 

“Yes, the Patch looks good.” 

“Great, I’ll join you.” 

The waves weren’t spectacular but they were fun: gentle, long, long lefts that were breaking thirty yards beyond the outside rock. I caught several waves where I took off beyond the rock, swung left, went under white water which was breaking in front of me, climbed back into the swell, which would reform, went through a section, cut-back, let the wave reform again, went through another section, cut-back again and on and on I would cruise, gliding over patches of sea grass and would end up north of the rock outcropping of the Patch reef. Here the water was shallow, maybe two feet, but deep enough to keep cruising. I would turn around, make the long paddle back out beyond the outside rock, wait a couple of minutes and do it again and again. 

Cathy was out there on her Bolinas battle cruiser. She is about 5’ 1” with a stocky athletic build and she is riding a 10’ 1’’, four-inch thick tanker. Yes she caught a lot of waves

At one point I remarked to the other two, “Isn’t this ideal? Look at this. It’s warm, sunny, the sky is blue, the waves are consistent and fun and there are only three people out.” 

“Yeah, don’t wake me up, this must be a dream,” Cathy responded. She had blown off a client and had driven 90 minutes to get here. She wasn’t going to waste this opportunity. 

After two hours I had totally exhausted myself. My arms and shoulders ached from the long paddles out and my legs muscles were beginning to cramp. Time to go in. I didn’t want to but my body was telling me it’s time. It took me eight minutes to paddle in, that did it, but what a fun session and what a beautiful morning. I can’t wait to do it again.