December 24, 2009 Thursday

Pacifica	Linda Mar Ave
12:15 pm to 1:30 pm	4' to 6', sets to 8'
Low upcoming tide (2.1 ft at 11:30 am)	Stiff offshore wind
Sunny, high clouds and cold	A 'just get wet' session

“Where shall we go?” I asked son Kevin as we loaded up the boards at his apartment in San Francisco.

“South,” he replied. Since it was Christmas Eve and we had a family obligation in the early evening, we could not blow the time traveling north to Stinson or Bolinas. South to Kevin meant anywhere between Linda Mar in Pacifica to Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay.

Stormsurf predicted a new ill-defined north swell, 5 ft at 14 seconds with a larger swell (Swell #7) of 6 ft at 17 seconds to arrive at sunset. To us the swell looked much larger.

At Rockaway Beach, the cove north of Linda Mar, the waves were huge and a few guys were out.

We stopped at Linda Mar. The lot was full, 100 surfers were in the water and the waves were walled. The sets stretched from one end of the bay to the other with the north end being twice the height than at the south end. It didn’t look inviting so we pushed on.

At Montara we parked in the lot next to the new Peruvian restaurant, La Costenera, which sits on the bluff at the south end. I’m anxious to give this place a try. Again the waves were huge and nobody was out. Big boomers peaked and exploded over the rocks at the south point. We pushed on.

A few surfers were out at breakwater of the Half Moon Bay Harbor. Even though the tide was dropping the waves mushed up against the breakwater and were barely breaking. We continued on.

Six surfers were going for the big drop waves at Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay. The steep beach at Kelly causes the swells to continue building into vertical faces and to crash a few feet from shore. It’s great for paddling out, but the rides are short and thrilling. The crowd was spread across two peaks, one left and one right. The waves were big, steep and fast. They looked like they had shape. If you could be in the right position, you could get an incredible ride. For fifteen minutes Kevin and I watched one surfer after another free fall down the faces of the waves. They were breaking top to bottom. Just as one pushed into the wave and started to jump up, the wave would pitch out sending the rider tumbling. It didn’t look inviting.

“Kevin, let’s go check out Mavericks. I bet it’s breaking,” I said to Kevin pointing at the white water at Pillar Point. Kelly Ave is about four miles south of Pillar Point and you can see the big rocks and white water of Mavericks. Off we went.

With luck someone pulled out as I entered the Mavericks parking lot to grab the last spot. We walked straight up the hill to the cliff that overlooks Ross’ Cove, which is just north of Mavericks. From there we could see one surfer sitting way outside at Mavericks but we didn’t see any waves come through. However, just below us in Ross’ Cove ten surfers were connecting on some beautiful double overhead waves. The above picture was one of them. Neither one of us has surfed here and the waves were too big for us to venture out to an unfamiliar break.

Instead we walked around the lagoon to the end of Pillar Point where the breakwater begins to Mavericks. The break is about a half mile out from the point. We climbed up the bluff for a better look. One lone surfer sat way outside and he sat and sat and sat. Some stunning waves broke just beyond the inside rock outcropping and exploded against them. They were too close to the rocks to be rideable. I snapped shots of some of the big ones.

“Let’s go back to Pacific,” Kevin suggested, which was what we did. By now we had that “just get wet” attitude. After witnessing the big closeouts down the coast, the walls at Linda Mar looked tame. For one hour, we paddled around in cold water, ducked under tons of white water and coasted down several head-high walls. It was invigorating and we were glad that we did it.

All in all it was a great morning, a leisurely drive down the coast filled with good conversation and marvelous sights; such as: two 300-ft cranes attempting to save an apartment building from sliding down an eroding cliff in Pacifica, and the engineering feat of the Devil Slide tunnel project, which was making great progress. Add to that the bright sun, blue water, offshore winds, spectacular shoreline cliffs and huge waves crashing against the rocks.

December 7, 2009 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low tide (2.6 ft)	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, high clouds and cold	Fun session

As I drove by the post office on Brighton Ave this morning, I passed Jeff the Bolinas local walking down the road. He waved and gave me the thumbs up. I saw Mary, Russ and Hans’ cars parked by the tennis court with their boards gone. They were out at the Patch. Professor Steve was suiting up. All good signs that there were waves. I had serious doubts about getting any waves today. Surfrider Foundation’s water testing program got me here this morning. I had to collect water samples and drive them to the Branson School. The San Francisco buoy reported four-foot swells at 16 seconds with a slight breeze, nothing spectacular. The weather had just changed, a cold front moved in yesterday bringing light rains. All the weather guys reported more rain and south winds for today with a bigger storm to arrive Wednesday and to last through Friday. NOAA weather radio predicted a big swell with this storm. The Chronicle had a brief article last Friday stating that they might call the Mavericks contest for Tuesday. The contestants were going to vote on it Sunday.

But when I drove over the ridge at Pan Toll, I broke out of the clouds into this beautiful panoramic view of the Stinson-Bolinas bay and the ocean: the sun was shinning, the sky was clear and blue and the sea surface was smooth. The Farallon Islands stuck out on the horizon and Point Reyes could be seen from the ridge. From the seawall at Bolinas I watched two surfers connect on some long decent left curls at the Groin. In the above photo, this guy caught the wave out where the other wave was breaking and rode a continuous clean shoulder all the way to the inside where I snapped this shot. Four were out at the Patch getting some decent rides. Conditions looked good. Knee-high curls, my kind of waves, plus I figured I had to go out this morning because the big storm was coming.

I paddled out to join Professor Steve and two others. The ebb tide current was pushing us out and to the north, thus we had to keep correcting our positions. The waves were ground swells that stretch across the impact zone, but the sand build up on the bottom forced all the waves to break to the left. They were difficult to catch. After missing two in a row, I connected on a three-foot wall as it was breaking. I thought it was going to close out in front of me, but it didn’t, it held up. I shot down a fast section, cut back to let the wave build up and turned into a fast shore break. It was a good ride. Paddling out I got a glimpse of one of the others on a good one. This guy was riding a thick soft-top sponge board, the type all the surf schools use for beginners. But he was no beginner. He stroked into a good looking three-foot curl, pushed himself over the edge, turned left, crouched down in the middle of the board and hummed through a clean section. The wave continued to build. He stepped closer to the nose, crouched down again and with spray flying from the thick nose plowing through the water he cruised through another beautiful section.

For an hour I managed to catch several good small curls. The morning was incredibly beautiful. Yesterday’s rains had cleared the air, big fluffy clouds hovered over the mountain and the air was crisp. Despite the beauty it was cold. After an hour my toes were numb. A basic surfer formula kicked in:

Cold water + Cold air = Really cold.

The NOAA buoy reported water temperature of 52 degrees, cold but normal. Per Pete the coffee stand guy Bolinas was 37 degrees this morning. Professor Steve had seen a dusting of snow on the ridge from his house this morning. He said this while showing me a hole in the seam of his wetsuit, time for a new one. But the sunshine, clouds and the beautiful little waves made the pain of the cold all worthwhile.