June 29, 2009 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
8:00 am to 10:30 am	Consistent 3' to 4', sets head high
Mid outgoing tide	Slight onshore breeze
Sunny and warm, fog on the horizon	Fun session

What a difference the weather makes. Today was ideal: warm, sunny and great waves. Last Friday it was miserable. June gloom, overcast, misting, strong south wind, choppy surface, and white caps that obliterated the impact of a decent three-foot swell. As I turned the corner onto Brighton Ave in Bolinas I saw Cathy from the Russian River area drive by in her pick up truck, and then Mary drove by, shortly followed by Marty. It was 8:00 am and they were leaving. I didn’t bother going out. That afternoon a high-pressure heat wave moved in. Saturday and Sunday were hot and this morning the heat was subsiding but it was still warm with a lifting fog, sun breaking through high clouds and ten surfers out at the Channel.

Marty, Doug, Jim and Hans were out there. From the overlook I saw a decent peak mid-Channel with rights peeling continuously for a long ways towards Seadrift and the lefts were closing out due to shallow water. The path of the outflowing water had shifted. It now swung north just beyond the Groin Pole forming an island of sand straight out from the mouth of the lagoon. The peak was a hundred yards out from there. Lines of water that stretch across the Channel marched in. The sandbar shaped the good right waves, causing them to break consistently at one point and peel along the contour of the beach to Seadrift. The NOAA buoys reported 58-degree water, which is warm for Bolinas, an eight-foot north wind swell combined with a 2.4-foot south swell, remnants from a gale off the coast of Chile. Despite ten surfers already there, I decided join them.

On the beach I met Cathy from the Russian River area who introduced me to her husband. They were camping in Bodega Bay and decided to check out Bolinas this morning. Out in the water I asked Marty about his trip to Kauai where he connected with some great surf and then stepped on a bed of sea urchins whose spines kept him out of the water for a few days. I asked Jim about his gig last Friday. Jim is a jazz guitarist and lands jobs playing at hotels in the wine country. Due to the recession the hotels are down and so are the gigs, but this one went well, standing room only. I asked Professor Steve how his book project was coming. He is co-authoring a study on Hamlet. Steve said he was building the index, which means the initial draft is done.

After taking a couple of waves, one left and one right, I implored the same strategy I used three weeks ago here when the rights were firing. The approaching swells were flat and would jump up when the hit the shallow sandbar. I would sit way outside, position myself at the apex of the peak, wait for the bigger set waves, paddle hard, get into the waves early, set high in the wave and be in position to hum down the curls when the waves jumped up. The strategy worked and I connected with numerous long rides. I would jump up, swing right, glide through the initial section, cut back into the breaking part of the wave, swing right again as the wave jumped up into a steep curl and shoot through a second and sometimes a third section. The larger waves looked like they would close out as they approached. On one I took off late thinking I wouldn’t make it but I would give it a try. I cut right, looked down a beautiful head high blue-green wall that was feathering ten yards in front of me, trimmed through the first section, stepped to the middle of the board and sailed down a second section. It was a great ride. After an hour the tide dropped some causing the lefts to break in deeper water, and I applied the same tactics to a few lefts.

The others were getting good rides also. While paddling out, I got a good side view of Professor Steve locked in a four-foot curl, crouching down mid-curl with white water of the fast breaking wave pounding right behind his head. I paddled over the wave while he shot by and watched him travel on for another fifty yards. I caught another good side view of Marty connecting on a long well formed left. Jim, who was also sitting outside with me, caught a few good long ones.

I met David a longboarder in his 50s, on a Stewart black and white board, on the right side of the peak. He got some good rides. After observing one of his long rides I complimented him as he paddled back out. He gushed with excitement about how good it was, how much fun he was having and how today was the best of the last three days. He lives in San Rafael but this week he and his family were renting a house at Seadrift.

“Stacation,” I said to him. “That’s what the locals call what you are doing. Vacationing close to home. The local businesses are doing well here in Bolinas and Stinson because people are taking local vacations.”

“Wish I could say the same,” he replied. “My business is tanking.”

“What do you do?”

“I own four radio stations in the Midwest and like newspapers, revenues are down.” Meanwhile he has moved his family back here and commutes to Chicago. The good waves were definitely getting his mind off his economic woes.

I also met Jeff a young shortboarder from Sebastopol. He was an expert surfer connecting on both lefts and rights. His local break is Salmon Creek and sometimes Dillon Beach. He was here due to the strong winds up north.

“The water must be five degrees warmer here,” he said.

“That’s because of the lagoon,” I said. “It’s shallow, the sun heats up the water and the low tide then pours the warm water out here.”

“Marty, this is like surfing at the Seal Beach Power Plant,” I reminded Marty. “Do you remember that?” Marty learned to surf in his high school years at Seal Beach and the south end of Long Beach. The Power Plant used seawater to cool the stream boilers, and they pumped heated water back out into the break. The water was 85 to 90 degrees, bath water that would melt the wax right off of your board.

“Today the stingrays have returned,” Marty replied. “They love the warm water and have taken over. You can’t surf there anymore.”

Bright sunshine, warm water, mellow crowd and good waves made for a great session. In an exchange of emails later on both Professor Steve and I agreed that today was special.

June 19, 2009 Friday

The Big Drop, edited by John Long

John Long’s The Big Drop (copyright 1999) a collection of 32 classic stories about big wave riding is a fantastic read and highly recommended for surfers of all ages. The book has been around for ten years yet I never heard of it. In the middle of the shelf of Border’s good inventory of books on surfing sat one copy. It had six stories by Bruce Jenkins, yes, the noted sports columnist of the 3 Dot Lounge for the San Francisco Chronicle. Jenkins is a surfer, lives in Montara, is a contributing editor to Surfer magazine and has written numerous articles and books on surfing. A few years ago I purchased and read his excellent book, North Shore Chronicles. Other renown contributors are surf journalists Ben Marcus (former editor of Surfer), Matt Warshaw (another former editor of Surfer and author of the Encyclopedia of Surfing), and Phil Jarrett (author of Mr. Sunset, the Jeff Hakman Story) and famous surfers, Gerry Lopez, Greg Noll, Mark Foo, Brock Little, Fred Van Dyke, Ken “Skindog” Collins, Buzzy Kerbox and Peter Cole. With all these big surfing names assembled in one book, how could I go wrong? Despite being a tight SOB, I splurged and bought it.

Who is John Long? I never heard of him before. Long is an extreme rock climber and author on the sport. His instructional Advanced Rock Climbing has sold over a million copies, and his award winning short stories are known for taut action and psychological intensity. He grew up in Southern California and loved the surf culture, often paying his buck to watch the surf films shown at local high schools. On a movie assignment on Oahu, a massive swell hit Waimea. He witnessed the giant waves and heard the exploring carpet-bombing sound of the enormous breakers. He watched four guys trying to paddle out, three made it out and one didn’t. The one went over the falls and his board explored into three pieces. Thinking the day was over for this young warrior, Long was amazed that this determined surfer grabbed another board, paddled out and caught several huge waves. That did it for him; big wave riders are a breed apart. He began a quest to assemble the ultimate stories on big wave surfing, a true adventure sport. Small wave riding doesn’t count. Adventure sports have one overriding constant: a break in form or an error in judgment can kill you. He apologizes for omissions but feels these stories are the ones that had to be told.

“Big Wave Surfing Timeline,” by Ben Marcus, the last article in the book, lists the famous milestones and events in big wave surfing. This collection covers several of them.

“Death of Dickie Cross,” as told by Woody Brown to Bruce Jenkins, December 22, 1943 gives an eyewitness account of the first surfing death at Waimea Bay. Woody Brown and Dickie Cross got caught outside on a monstrous day at Sunset Beach. Brown was a pioneer of Hawaiian surfing, inventor of the catamaran, a well-known fixture at Waikiki and was featured in the movie Surf for Life. A clean-up wave appeared on the horizon, they barely scratched over it and decided to get out of there. They paddled several miles to Waimea thinking the deeper bay would present a better opportunity to paddle in. A huge set came through the Bay and Dickie lost his board. Brown was paddling in to get him and Dickie was swimming out when another huge set arrived. Woody turned and paddled out trying to save their only board. He wasn’t going to make it, he let the board go, dove for the bottom and when he surfaced he never saw Dickie again. Dickie’s death cast Waimea as unsurfable for 15 years to until 1957 when Greg Noll and crew successfully challenged the Bay.

“Outside Pipeline 1964,” by Greg Noll and Andrea Gabbard, November 1964, describes the epic day depicted in the above photo. As Greg puts it, “What many people don’t realize is that the wave in the picture is just the shorebreak. Horrendous as that shorebreak looked, it was small change compared to the monsters breaking nearly a mile beyond.” Greg and friend Mike Stang went out and it took them one hour to get beyond the shorebreak. Greg spent seven hours in the water and caught one wave, a 25-foot bomber that grew in size as he sailed down it. He rode it all the way to the inside break and charged on instead of pulling out. The speed was so great he was skipping down the face in 15-foot jumps until the speed and wind blew him off the board, ending in a horrible wipeout near the shore.

“The Last Wave,” by Greg Noll and Andrea Gabbard, December 4, 1969, describes the once in a century 1969 swell and Greg Noll’s riding the largest wave ever paddled into. The epic swell closed out all the breaks on the north shore, so Greg drove around Kaena Point to Makaha on the west side of Oahu where the waves are smaller. He paddled into a monster wave, dropped down a face that could have held two eighteen wheelers stacked on top of each other, then into a cavernous green room where there was no escape. Tons of white water collapsed on him, pushed him under and trashed him around, but soon released him. Now he had the difficult task of swimming in. As he was swimming parallel to the beach to avoid the rocks he could see his good friend Buffalo Keaulana sitting on shore in his lifeguard truck. Greg finally flopped on the beach. Buffalo shoved a beer into his face and said, “Good thing you make ‘em Brudda. Cause no way I was commin’ in after you. I was jus goin’ wave goodbye and say Aloooha.”

“Man Imitates Abalone,” by Jeff Clark as told to Lawrence Beck, winter 1992 describes Jeff’s ordeal of being stranded on top of Maverick’s Ship Rock. On the inside of Mavericks lies an outcropping of three huge rocks, the biggest one known as Ship Rock. Normal rides move the surfer down the line away from these rocks. But in this case, the wave doubled up early in the drop and dumped Jeff in front of them. The strong current and huge waves pushed Jeff onto Ship Rock. He scrambled to the far side, made like an abalone and clung onto the crevices of the rock while ten waves pounded over the top of him. Friends came to his rescue but they could not get to him. Another friend stood at the base of the cliff and shouted to Jeff when the waves were coming. Finally the friend yelled to Jeff to swim for it, which he did and made it to safe water. Jeff refers to this ordeal as “just another day at the office.”

“The Apprenticeship of Jay Moriarty,” by Jason Smith, December 21, 1994 begins with 16-year-old Jay Moriarty describing his famous wipeout that put him on the cover of Surfer and into national notoriety. Jay did an ass first free-fall down the face of a 25-foot wave that drove him to the bottom and bounced him off the reef. He wasn’t just some inexperience kid paddling out there for the first time. Under the tutorage of Rick “Frosty” Hesson, Jay had prepared for Mavericks for three years. At age thirteen Jay knew he wanted to ride big waves so he began hanging around Frosty and the older Santa Cruz big wave riders. After some reluctance 45-year-old Frosty agreed to teach Jay how to ride the big ones. Frosty’s approach with Jay was a comprehensive study of surfing. With Jay feeling like the Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi (Frosty) assigned him an essay to get his thinking processes down. During his tutorage, Jay wrote over 55 essays while excelling in the physical exercises of distance paddling, surfing, swimming and biking. During extreme low tides, they would study the rock reef at Mavericks and draw diagrams of it. Jay’s graduation came in April 1994 on a late-in-season Mavericks 15 to 18-foot day. Jay left Frosty in his wake in the paddle out, went straight to the peak and connected on a clean long wall. He was ready.

“Death of a Legend,” by Matt Warshaw, December 23, 1994 gives an in-depth account of the drowning of big waver rider Mark Foo at Mavericks. It was Mark’s first time out at the northern California break, he took off on a medium size wave, half way down the face pitched forward and splashed into the water. There was nothing special about this wave. Everyone’s attention immediately turned to the next wave, a bigger one where Block Little and Mike Parsons were taking off and both were buried in white water and were soon being swept into Sail Rock. No one noticed that Foo didn’t surface. Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo had flown all night from Hawaii, landed in San Francisco at 5:30 am, connected with friend Doc Renneker at Ocean Beach and arrived at Mavericks at 9:30 am. Cold water, warm day, slight offshore breeze and all the Mavericks regulars, boats and photographers were there. The waves were average thus a mystery revolves around how Mark actually died. Warshaw sums it up this way: Foo drowned, Parson nearly died and Little had what he called a “heavy experience” all from a single set of waves. Along with Pipeline Mavericks is one of the most deadly big wave spots in the world.

“Laird Hamilton,” by Bruce Jenkins fills in the growing up years of this surfing legend from the incredible story of two-year-old Laird choosing big time North Shore surfer Billy Hamilton as his father, to his hanging around with big wave riders Jose Angel and Butch Van Artsdalen to his pioneering of tow-in surfing at Jaws off Maui. Laird was an energetic holy terror of a little kid. When surfers lost their boards at Pipeline, Laird would grab them and bury them in the sand for a joke. He lit off firecrackers under the decks of parties and threw cans filled with sand at passing surfers. In school Laird was the only hoale (white kid) and had to fight his way to respect. On his first day of school in the 11th grade, Laird got into a fight and decided then that school was not for him. He dropped out, learned the trades becoming an expert craftsman and surfed. Laird has overcome his raging side and has become a perfect gentleman. On a tour of Laird’s old haunts on Kauai, Billy Hamilton showed Jenkins the hills, forests, moss covered rocks, cliffs and trails of Laird’s playground where he ran around full tilt barefooted for hours everyday. They encountered Bobo Ham Young, long time friend of Billy and Laird’s. Per Bobo, his grandfather practically raised Laird. He was always with them at their family gatherings. Laird may be white but inside he is Hawaiian, pure Aloha spirit. He always stops the car to come over and greet the old ones of the family.

Laird’s story reads like an ancient Greek myth. Laird’s mother commented that her brief encounter with Laird’s father was just to have Laird, and she married Billy because Laird had chosen him. Hercules, Achilles, Jason and Laird Hamilton could all be part of the same legend.

The Big Drop, edited by John Long, gets the Lorenzo Five Star rating, so check it out.

June 8, 2009 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
7:50 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide	Offshore (N), to cross-wind (NW)
Overcast, high fog	Fun session

The rights were firing today. At 7:00 am nobody was out as I stood south of the Groin wall to take some photos. The minus 1 foot low tide had just turned, ebb tide was still flowing out of the lagoon but was slowing. At mid-Channel, two to three-foot walls were peeling left and right. The south swell was still with us. The rights looked good with long continuously breaking fast curls shooting into the bay towards Seadrift. The lefts were sucking out in six inches of water, impossible to ride. The rights could be breaking too fast to make, but with the tide coming in conditions should improve.

Back at the cars, the crowd began to arrive. Kathy the biology teacher with board in hand headed for the Channel. Hans was suiting up. I told him the Channel looked better than the Patch. Doug and Jim pulled up and were glad that the call was the fast breaking Channel instead of the slower breaking Patch. Marty arrived and was ready to go. A couple other surfers showed up and by the time I entered the water we had a small crowd of eight at the mid-Channel peak.

The waves were tricky to catch. The swells were true ground swells, not wind waves. They stretched across the impact zone, approached flat and would jump up when they hit the sandbar and would break quickly to the right. On my first wave, I took off late on a two-foot wall, jumped up and was quickly dumped as the wall collapsed all around me and sent me flying. Then I knew I can’t take off late; I’ll have to get into the waves early, stay high in the curl to make the first section. This meant going for them when the swell was flat before they hit the sandbar and paddling hard to gain board speed to get into them as they jumped up. The sandbar forced all the waves to break to the right. Don’t even think of going left (my favorite direction) because they all are going to start breaking at the apex of the sandbar and quickly peel to the right. Each wave I caught proved I was right. I kept positioning myself closer to the apex instead of sitting on the shoulder. With board speed I could get into the wave early, turn sharply to the right, hang at the top of the curl and shoot through the first section. Having locked in my strategy, I had one of the best sessions that I have had in weeks.

The others got good rides also. Marty and Kathy caught several good ones. Doug took the strategy of sitting on the right-hand edge of the peak, waited for the sets, connected with the four-footers and cruised on several long, long, rights until then died out on the Seadrift side of the Channel. Jim was having a difficult time with the fast peeling rights. Many a time I saw him bear hugging his board as the nose pearled coming down three-foot peaks. But he also connected with a couple of set waves, got up cleanly and shot down long clean right walls.

After two hours, I worked my way in. The tide had come up and the lefts were now rideable. Joe the unfriendly local surfer was at the north end of the peak straight out from the Groin Pole. From a distance I saw him connect on two fast left breaking curlers. I’ll go for a couple of those to end my session. I caught two of them. First one was slow and the second was a sucking out two-foot curl that I made. I rode that wave for all it was worth, driving through the small curl, straightened out, dug my skeg into the sand and stepped off in a few inches of water. It was a great session.

June 5, 2009 Friday, Evening

Wipeout Bar and Grill	World Ocean Day Celebration
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm	Surfrider Foundation Marin County

If you didn’t attend Surfrider Foundation Marin County’s celebration of World Ocean Day Friday June 5th, then you REALLY missed it.

Forty surfers, ocean enthusiasts, environmentalists, concerned citizens and lovers of Marin’s beaches crammed into the backroom of the Wipeout Bar and Grill in Greenbrae and braved the noise of a busy restaurant to hear about the meaning of World Ocean Day, surfing, the Plastic Vortex, water quality in Marin, the movement against desalination, Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastic program and surfing in the old days.

Guest speaker, Steve Hawk (pictured above), read his humorous article “Getting Drilled” about having his ear drilled out due to surfer’s ear, a condition where the ear canal closes down due to continual contact with cold water. A friend asked if he considered giving up surfing to preserve his hearing. “No way, get out of my house.” A true surfer would never give up surfing regardless of the price. Steve has made surfing his profession through writing. He was the editor of Surfer magazine from 1990 to 1999, executive director of the Swell.com website, author of the book Waves and numerous articles about surfing. He spoke of the changing landscape of publishing and it’s impact on surfing magazines. One company now owns both Surfer and Surfing magazines, thus they do not compete and both have a large presence on the Internet. The recession is taking its toll and advertising is down. Surfer has gone from 180 pages to 140. A different business model, which is working, is Surfer’s Journal that relies on hefty issue price ($12) instead of advertising.

George Orbelian, avid surfer, head of the San Francisco Global Trade Council, board member of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary, and executive team member of Project Kaisei, spoke about the “Gyre” (also known as the Plastic Vortex). The Gyre is an Ocean vortex northeast of Hawaii that due to ocean currents has been accumulating millions of tons of plastic waste in a mass the size of Texas that is killing marine life, growing bigger every day and impacting people’s health. Every piece of plastic ever made still exists because its molecular structure resists biodegradation. Over time plastics disintegrate into ever-smaller pieces due to weather and UV impact. The smaller particles resemble food and are becoming part of the zooplankton mass consumed by small fish at the bottom of the food chain. Smaller fish are eaten by bigger fish, and bigger fish are eaten by humans. Thus plastic, a carcinogen is becoming pervasive through out the entire food chain. George is an executive team member of Project Kaisei, a United Nations Environment Program. Beginning in the summer of 2009, Project Kaisei will examine the Gyre by making two swaths through the Plastic Vortex to study how to capture plastic waste and detoxify and recycle it into diesel fuel. Its mission is to understand the logistics needed for a successful clean-up operation. We will want to follow the progress of this important effort.

Mill Valley lawyer Kerry Stoebner spoke about the efforts of the newly formed Marin County Water Coalition, a group of civic groups of which Surfrider Marin is a member, to oppose Marin Municipal Water District’s proposed desalination plant. The negatives of desalination are numerous: uses nine times more energy than treatment of land water, requires continual operation regardless of needs, will flush untreated brine waste containing concentrations of harmful chemicals such as cyanide, ammonia, PCB’s and fire retardants back into the bay, will dump a toxic sludge into the overtaxed Redwood Landfill, is highly destructive of marine life by killing fish, fish larvae and marine mico-organisms in its in-take machinery, and extracts water from San Francisco Bay, a known “toxic hot spot.” The solution is aggressive water conservation. Through the sponsorship of Food and Water Watch, James Fryer, a water management and conservation expert and former head of conservation for MMWD, just published his eight month study, Sustaining Our Water Future – A Review of the Marin Municipal Water District’s Alternatives to Improve Water Supply Reliability. His report concludes that increased conservation, reduction in landscape irrigation, improvements in reservoir operations, reduction is system leaks, increased usage of efficient toilet and urinal retrofits and additional water recycling will supply more than the district’s projected water deficits. Kerry and other Coalition members had copies of James’ report for everybody to review.

Kathy Soave, head of the Science Department at the Branson School, marine biologist and avid surfer introduced Kevin McGovern and Will Harvey, Branson Students, who presented their World Ocean Day video. The video, which the was shown on the restaurant’s numerous video screens, discussed the origin and meaning of World Ocean Day and interviewed high school students about the importance of the world’s oceans. It was well done and well received by this ocean-loving crowd.

In the corner of the room sat a six-foot long, four-foot high a model of a tubular wave made of plastic bottles, the result of an eco-project by teacher Ann Brown and her students at the Neil Cummins school in Tiburon. With the help of Surfrider’s Michelle Slade, the students participated in Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastic Program that instructs about the destructive consequences of plastic to our environment. Ann, two of the wave builders and their parents were there to receive congrats from audience. Their wave will be in the Larkspur Fourth of July parade. Look for it.

I gave a brief talk on Surfrider Marin’s water testing program. Once a week two retirees who surf gather water samples at Bolinas and Stinson, drive them to Branson School where students under the guidance of environmental science teacher Jamie Brandt (who is also an avid surfer) test the quality of the water. Surfrider Marin provides the equipment and chemicals, the students carefully add the testing agent, incubate the solutions for 18 hours, measure the amount of bacteria and post the results on Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force website. The process tests for enterococcus, bacteria found in human sewage. We in Marin are fortunate; our tests show that the ocean water quality is excellent.

The surprise of the evening was Fairfax resident John D’Amato showing up with freshly restored copies of his 1964 surf film, The Young Knights – A Hymn to Surfers. Wipeout’s manager Frank queued up John’s movie and we were treated to classic longboarding in Southern California (Hermosa, Manhattan Beach, County Line and Huntington Beach). As the film’s promo put it: Longboards only, short hair and no tattoos. Check out the film at John’s website – www.youngknightssurf.com.

Everybody had a great time, spirits were high and the enthusiasm to carry on the efforts to protect our precious oceans filled the room. Next time be there. Don’t miss it.

Check out my photos at:

http://gallery.me.com/lorenlmoore1#100068

June 4, 2009 Thursday

Bolinas	Channel
7:40 am to 9:40 am	3' to 4', occasional 5'
High upcoming tide	No wind, occasional offshore breeze
High overcast	Fun session

After yesterday’s fun session and with the prediction of a building south swell I was determined to get out there early. The night before I got my surf gear ready and set the timer on the coffee pot for 5:30 am. The plan was to be on the road at 6:00 am. Alarm went off at 5:30 am, the coffee was ready; I loaded the car, filled my travel mug, brought Kate a cup of coffee and was out the door by 6:15 am. At Bolinas I chatted with Russ and Pete who were suiting up. I took some photos from the cliff above the Groin and was suiting up when Marty pulled in.

“Check your watch,” I said to a surprised Marty. This was the first time I ever beat him to the beach. I entered the water at 7:40 am. Not bad. This was the earliest I have been in years.

I was worried about the crowd. The only rideable peak was in the Channel and four surfers were on it when I took my photos. Doug and Jim had just headed for the beach, and Russ, Pete, Marty and I were suiting up. That would make ten surfers at one break. But luck prevailed. The four surfers ended their session; Doug, Jim, Russ and Pete paddled over to Seadrift and that left only Marty and I at the peak in the Channel. For a half-hour we had it to ourselves.

The waves were smaller and more infrequent than yesterday. I was disappointed. All the Internet sites were predicting the south swell to be building. But the set waves were good. Long power glide left waves like yesterday. Russ and Pete paddled back over from Seadrift. Thirty minutes later, Doug and Jim paddled over. Seadrift was walled and closing out, they reported, big slammers on the sand. Eight of us ended up at the one peak in the Channel, and as the tide came in the waves became more infrequent. With patience we sat through the long lulls and waited for the good sets waves. We were a mellow bunch and enjoyed sharing the waves.

After two hours my arms were giving out, and despite 55-degree water, which is warm for Bolinas, I was cold. I finally caught a good one that took me near the shore and decided to go in instead of making the long paddle back out. My hands we so cold and numb I had trouble turning the key in the lock and had difficulty pulling off my booties and wetsuit. When the hands become numb they loose strength to grip anything.

Professor Steve showed up in his newly detailed old Volvo.

“Wow! Is that a new car?” exclaimed Marty.

The usual crust of five years of dust, dirt, mud and junk had been removed. The old surfboard racks were gone. The silver gleam had returned and the tires were a shinny Armoural black. Steve had received a two-for-one offer from a detailing shop in San Rafael. We couldn’t believe the difference and we gave him a boatload of grief about it.

Today was the second day of the good south swell, we were on it and appreciated it.

June 3, 2009 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:30 am	Consistent 3', sets to 4'
High tide (3.9 feet)	North cross breeze
Patchy high clouds, some light rain	Fun session

Today was a pleasant surprise, the weather changed and the south swell arrived. A low-pressure system had moved in and pushed out the June Gloom that had been plaguing us for the last month. A light rain fell on me in Mill Valley as I loaded my board into the car, it cleared up by the time I reached Bolinas and high patchy clouds with on and off sunshine came out. A light offshore/cross breeze put a light ripple on the surface of the water.

My surf expectations were low, but this morning the NOAA weather radio reported a three-foot 14-second swell giving me a glimmer of hope. “Maybe the south swell has arrived early,” I said to myself. Stormsurf has been announcing Swell #2S, meaning the second major south swell of the season, for a week, predicting first remnants arriving Wednesday (1.6 feet at 15 seconds), growing on Thursday to 2.0 feet at 14 seconds, raising more on Friday at 2.3 feet at 17 seconds and peaking on Saturday at 2.6 feet at 16 seconds.

At Bolinas, Mary, Marty, Russ, Dan and Pete were out at the Channel when I arrived. From the seawall I saw them at a beautiful three-foot peak in the middle of the Channel. A peak that broke continuously, without sectioning, in both directions a long ways. The south swell had arrived and it was going to be a good session. The peak consistently broke in the same spot, the initial break was the steepest and fastest part of the wave, after the first break the waves slowed down but continued breaking for a long, long ways. Marty and Mary connected on two long lefts and then had to make the long paddle back out. The above photo is Mary on a good one. After the wave drought for the whole month of May, these waves looked great to me. I was excited.

Back at the cars, Russ and Pete were changing after their session. They were hyped up. I got that, “where were you? It was great earlier.” Russ was in the water at 7:00 am. He even beat Mary out. At lower tide the waves were steeper and faster. The patchy sky and early morning light rain produced a spectacular setting for some great rides. “Loren, tomorrow you have to be here early,” Russ insisted.

“Mary, where’s the take-off spot?” I asked Mary after making the long paddle out to the peak.

“I have been just watching the white water,” she said. “I can’t believe how good these waves are. What a change from yesterday.” Marty also comment on the change and the beauty of the waves.

“What’s better? The lefts or the rights?” I asked.

“The lefts, definitely,” Mary answered. I caught two waves one left and one right and knew Mary was correct. The rights were breaking into deep water and died after they broke.

After riding a few my strategy was set: sit way outside and wait for the set waves, move to catch the exact center of the peak, and paddle hard to gain board speed to get into the waves early. After the initial break, the momentum of the waves significantly dropped. The take-offs were best part of the ride, thus getting into the waves early was important. On my first good left, I stroked into a four-foot peak, turned left, looked down a well-formed wall of water, leaned into the wave to climb to the top of the swell, coasted down a good section, turned back into the breaking part of the wave, let the wave build up again and turned back onto the shoulder and coasted through another section. What a good ride and it was long. The paddle back out took a while. The rides were smooth: coast down a section, make a swooping turn back into the white water, turn back into swell, cut-back, swoop back into the swell again, and repeat these maneuvers three more times until the wave ran out of gas. The surface had a small wind ripple that cause the board to make a chatter sound when cruising down the first section. The sound was similar to that a small sail boat makes when tacking at four knots across a smooth yet textured surface. These were classic “power-glide” waves similar to those at Waikiki, or San Onofre, Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes, the reef at Cardiff by the Sea or the Patch on a good day.

We all were elated after our sessions. I considered staying out another hour or so, but I knew the swell was building and tomorrow could be even better. I should save my arms for tomorrow. A good one came through, I stroked into it, cruised high in the curl, turned back into the breaking part of the wave, turned back onto the shoulder and on and on and on I went. I was getting close to shore, so this was it; I milked the wave for as long as I could. I ended up inside the Groin pole and about 50 yards south of it. That was it. I was going to save my remaining strength for tomorrow. While walking back to the car, I mentioned to Marty that I might be making a classic surfer mistake. In surfing, if there are waves, you surf. You never know what tomorrow will bring. We’ll see.