January 15, 2009 Thursday

Ocean Beach	Sloat Avenue
8:45 am to 10:00 am	3' to 5'
Low upcoming tide	Stiff offshore wind
Sunny and clear, heat wave	Fun, somewhat frustrating session

This morning I met son Kevin and his friend Eric at the Sloat Avenue parking lot at Ocean Beach. They work for Sun Microsystems and on Thursdays Kevin works out of their “drop-in” office in the City instead of traveling to their main campus in Menlo Park. Thursdays are Kevin’s day to surf before work.

I hate Ocean Beach due to its treacherous currents, huge waves and difficult paddles outs. I only come here when everywhere else is flat. Kevin called the other day claiming the waves at Sloat Ave where just my size. With this heat wave we’re having (high pressure causing offshore winds and small swells) Sloat Ave was ideal, great long board waves. The NOAA San Francisco buoy reported 3 ft swell at 13 seconds resulting in three to four foot waves at Ocean Beach. Great, I can handle that.

The waves were beautiful, long lines breaking into a couple of well-defined channels. We decided to head out to the peak out in front of the entrance of the parking lot. Reason: the path down the bluff was there and so was one of the channels. We saw several good lefts breaking into this channel. Twelve others, who had seen the same thing, were bunched together at this one peak.

The waves were flat on the take-off and difficult to catch. Definitely long board waves, the ones that require lots of board speed to get into them. Every decent wave had three to four surfers going for it. Kevin and Eric paddled north to the next peak to beat the crowd and to find steeper waves. On my first wave I pushed into a four-footer that broke in front of me. I was surprised by a girl who was sitting much further outside was in front of me. I didn’t notice her paddling for the wave. On my second wave I caught a good left shoulder and managed to work it a long ways to the inside shore break. This put me in the middle of the channel. By now Kevin and Eric were on the other side of it. So I paddled over to where they were.

No crowd was there thus we were hopeful, but no waves came. We were in deep water. Kevin paddled south in search of the elusive better peak. Eric and I remained on the north side of the channel. As sets came through I kept drifting south to get into the impact zone. Soon I was back where we started. The crowd was here because the peak was here. I caught another soft shoulder left.

Eric told me this was his first time out at Ocean Beach. He had just returned from ten days of surfing in Costa Rica in 80-degree sunshine and 80 degree water. What a shock it was to get back into freezing Bay Area water. He surfed nice two-foot waves one day on the Caribbean side, but the Pacific side was bigger and better. Eric connected with a surfing buddy he had met on a trip to Ecuador. The friend had a board for Eric and knew all the spots in Costa Rica. In Ecuador, Eric had purchased a 7’ 10” balsa wood board, and his friend had a 6’ 0” balsa wood fish. Balsa wood grows in Ecuador and Costa Rica is a popular material for surfboards. Eric regretted not having his balsa board today. He was on a foam short board, but he certainly caught his share of waves.

Eric and I paddled south back to the peak we had started at. Kevin was there. His exploration further south didn’t find results. The waves were the same (flat take offs) all up and down the beach. We agreed to one more wave. Kevin again paddled south while Eric and I stayed put with the crowd. My last wave was my best ride of the day. A four-foot wall peaked right in front of me. I wasn’t sure which way to go. Another surfer paddling for the same wave asked me which way I was going, left or right. “Right,” I shouted, but once in the wave my instincts told me it was better to the left, thus I jumped up, swung left and dropped into a well formed left curl. Staying high in the wave, I stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down, cruised through a fast section, cutback and turned into a fast inside section. It was a good way to end the session. Despite the heat wave the wind and water were cold and my toes and hands were turning numb.

I’m sitting on the sand dune at the end of Judah Street sipping a coffee and writing this entry. The view is wonderful. I’m in the warm sun, looking at some long lines of well-formed waves with only seven surfers out there. Kevin and Eric had hustled off to work and I went to a popular local spot, Java Beach, for coffee. My last two years of commuting to Visa, our car pool used to stop here every morning for coffee and a muffin. Java Beach is definitely a “surfer eatery.” It has an Irish flare with oatmeal for breakfast, Guinness stout for happy hour and a free local Irish newspaper. The same women who served us then were still there. As usual the place was jammed and for good reason. Java Beach pre-dates Starbucks and accomplishes everything Starbucks tries to be: the local gathering spot. I highly recommend this place.

My old surfing buddy from ten years ago, Kenny, used to say to Kevin and I that anytime there is “east” in the wind (east, NE, SE, etc.) go to Ocean Beach, it will be good. Today he was right.