April 26, 2010 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
8:50 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid incoming tide	Offshore breeze to no wind to NW cross wind
Sunny with a fog bank on the horizon	Fun session

Ten people were out at the Patch at 8:15 am when I walked up to seawall with my camera in hand. Two more went out while I took pictures. By the time I entered the water the number had grown to fourteen. What gives? The waves were ok but not spectacular.

“Mary, why the fourteen people in the water this morning?” I greeted Mary when I paddled out.

“I think it’s because there is a storm coming tomorrow and everyone knows that today is the day to go out.”

Later I asked David the same question.

“There’s a storm due tomorrow.” All the weather guys on the tube were predicting rain Tuesday and Wednesday. As I have always known, surfers pay attention to weather predictions and schedule their days accordingly; this proved it.

Several of the Bolinas regulars were there: Mary, Marty, David who rides the Becker board, Frank the standup guy, Russ, Hans, Jaime the cartoonist, Ray the Petaluma fireman, and Robert the now Terra Linda carpenter. The Internet surf sites predicted modest conditions: 5 ft NW swell at 11 seconds with a 2 ft south swell at 16 seconds. From the seawall the waves at the Patch looked good. A well-formed peak peeled in both directions around the submerged outside rock. I watched Ray connect on three long right waves. The outside waves were fairly steep; they would slow down after the initial break and would build up again on the inside for a long continuous right curl. Three times in succession Ray glided into long right rides. After that he remained on the inside, away from the crowd, and caught one good right after another.

Walking down the beach with board in hand, I saw Hans on one of the long inside rights. While strapping on my leash, Mary connected on one of the good rights and rode it up to within a few feet of the shore. She calmly knee-paddled the near quarter mile back out to the far peak. Paddling out I saw David skillfully coming down the face of a four-foot face.

“Russ, where’s your standup board?” I called to him as he was paddling in.

“I was out on it all day yesterday and today I had to give it a rest.” Last week Russ purchased a used standup board and was giving that a try. He has a bad back thus switching to standup makes a lot of sense. I saw it for the first time last Friday.

For one hour the waves were great: the wind had stopped, the surface glassed off and consistent sets kept coming through. Though fourteen surfers were spread across this one peak, the crowd was mellow with lots of hooting and encouragement with every wave. Everyone was having a good time. Paddling out after a long left I got a good view of Marty trimming down a beautiful three-foot peak. Time and time again I watched her take off while I was paddling over the waves, and a minute or two later I would look back and see her three hundred yards inside knee paddling back out. I caught two good rights in succession. A set came through, everyone went for the first wave and I was in position for the second one, a four-foot wall that stretched across the impact zone. I stroked into it, cut right, dropped down the face watching spray feather back off the top, climbed to mid-curl, stepped to the middle of the board and stood there for a good four seconds cruising through a fast section. The wave eased up a bit, I cut back into the white water but I went a little too far, I turned right again as white water broke in front of me, I tried to get back into the swell but couldn’t. For several yards and with good speed I moved along just behind the breaking part of the curl until the wave collapsed in the shore break. It was a great ride. Paddling out a second set came through, Ray took off on a good one, and right behind it was another steep wave that was cresting. I turned and stroked into it and was up on another fast inside curl.

Around 10:00 am, the regulars were slowly calling it quits. Soon only David, Robert and I were out there. David and I like to sit outside and wait for the sets. But by now the tide was filling in and the waves died, and a few minutes later they literally disappeared. Being optimists, we sat there waiting and waiting, scratching for promising swells but caught nothing. Robert finally went in. David remained sitting outside. I kept drifting further and further in. Soon I was within ten yards of the rocks on shore. Sets waves would break on the north side of the reef. I drifted over there and connected on one two-foot right curl that ran up to near the shore. The ride ended in two feet of water over rocks. I was pushing it. I unsuccessfully tired for a couple more before I gave it up and rode white water to the beach. While walking back to the ramp, David paddled from the outside peak at the Patch to the Ramp. There he caught a couple of small two-foot walls. He would not give it up. After I had changed and was chatting with Mary and Robert, David finally came up the ramp. It was a beautiful morning with fun waves before they died and David was there milking it for all it was worth.

April 23, 2010 Friday

Bolinas	Groin & Patch
8:50 am to 10:30 am	2' to 4'
High dropping tide	Onshore wind (blown out conditions)
Overcast - high fog	So - so session

“Shooting the Breeze”

A fun aspect of surfing is hanging around with other surfers just “shooting the breeze.” You know, just talking about surfing, sharing stories and experiences. In these sessions the topics jump around as the camaraderie builds.

Matt and I were returning from purchasing coffee in town after our “so – so” surf session. David who rides the Becker board had just changed out of his wetsuit and was putting his board away.

“David, you got out early,” I greeted him. “It’s 11:30 and that’s only three hours for you. What gives?”

“I was the only one out there, sitting and waiting for nothing.” The surf was non-existent this morning.

Mary joined us. Fighting the flu for the past two weeks, she had to come to out to the ocean to nurse her cold. The sun was finally coming out, warming us up and turning the morning beautiful. The conversation turned to the distance each of us travels to surf. David travels 50 miles a way from Berkeley, a one and half hour journey each way. Matt spends an hour plus getting here from Santa Rosa. Salmon Creek and Dillon Beach are closer, but he hates those breaks. It takes Mary 45 minutes a way from Larkspur. Her route is through Mill Valley. My path is shorter by ten minutes leaving from the center of Mill Valley.

“Hey, David is about to take a safari to La Jolla,” I told Matt and Mary. “We have to help him plan his trip.”

“My girl friend is going to a conference there. We’ll stay with my uncle who lives just south of La Jolla.” This led to a series of “Have you ever surfed at (fill in the blank)?”

“Blacks?” Which is an excellent break situated at the cliffs below Torrey Pines and UCSD. David had body surfed there as a little kid before UCSD was built and when Blacks was still a nudist beach. He remembered the long walk down the cliff to the beach.

“La Jolla Shores?” I had surfed there years ago. It is located in the middle of the town, has a large parking lot, a grassy park and long slow waves.

“San Onofre?” Both David and I had surfed there. David surfed there when he first took up surfing; he stayed away from the crowd and didn’t catch much.

“I heard that San Onofre is like the Patch,” Mary injected.

“No it breaks harder,” I piped up. “But like the Patch it has long gentle waves. It’s called ‘Old Man’s’ because it’s a haven for old men and longboards.” Half mile north of Old Man’s is Church’s and another quarter mile north is Lower Trestles, the premiere surf break on the California coast. These spots are part of the San Onofre State Park. “In the old days all of this used to be part of Camp Pendleton and the Marines used to arrest the surfers.”

“Doheny?” a state park that sits between Dana Point and San Clemente, a classic old-time large campground with a decent break. Matt and his son recently had a good trip there. They wanted to go to San Onofre, but since it was a holiday weekend with hot sunny weather, the park was full and the park rangers were not letting in any more cars. In San Clemente Matt rented a board and the young guy running the shop recommended Doheny and told them of a little used parking lot. They went and had a great time. Though the water was crammed with surfers, the crowd was mellow and they managed to connect on numerous waves.

“Have you ever gone through the hassle of taking a surfboard on a plane?” Mary switched topics. Matt flew a board to Costa Rica. He wrapped pipe insulation around the rails of his board for protection, stuffed it in a padded board bag and had no problems. Twice I have flown to Fiji to go to Tavarua. Fortunately I flew on surfer friendly New Zealand Airlines and had no problems.

“Wasn’t Tavarua a little hairy?” Matt exclaimed.

“Yes and no,” I explained. “It was anywhere from three feet to terrifying. But the amazing thing was how clear the water was. It was so clear that on several waves I could not see the swell, just small fish darting in and out along the coral reef. Only when the wave began to break in front of me, when the lip began to feather could I see the swell. It’s a weird sensation, cruising along not being able to see nor judge the steepness of the curl.”

“What kind of wetsuits does one wear in Southern California?” Mary switched topics again. Everyone wears a wetsuit down there regardless of the temperature. Even in Hawaii with its warm water everyone wears a wetsuit, thin ones, “3/2’s”. In the old days we only wore trunks.

“Speaking of the old days,” Mary injected, “tomorrow I’m going to the Log-Jam in Santa Cruz.” “What’s that?” We all chimed in. It’s “Retro-Surfing”, old style longboards, pre – 1965, single fin and no leashes. Mary could remember surfing in New Jersey (she grew up on the East Coast) without a leash. It forced everyone to know how to swim. Lose your board and you were facing a long swim. I recalled that a requirement of surfing was to know how to body surf. When you lost your board, you would body surf the next wave in to retrieve it. Mary mentioned the common courtesy of those days was grabbing loose boards and taking them back out to the persons who lost them. A skill I remembered was every surfer had to constantly scan the waves like radar when paddling out. You had to be on the alert for anyone who lost a board. Loose boards were dangerous objects in the water. We all condemned people who surf nowadays without a leash.

“Hank raved the other day about a place near San Onofre that has great fish tacos,” Matt stated shifting the topic to food.

“That must be in San Clemente,” I jumped in. Hank would know because his work takes him down to Orange County. He works for Ritz-Carleton, the hotel chain, which has a major hotel at Salt Creek at the south end of Laguna Beach. In the old days Salt Creek was a private beach and you had to pay $10 dollars to park there, thus I never went there as a kid. Down a winding dirt road was a steep fast breaking left point break. Now there’s a large Ritz-Carleton Hotel, a county park with a huge public parking lot and a paved road to the beach, and due to easy access, the break at Salt Creek is always crowded.

Having shifted to food, I told the group about my idea of starting a blog of Surfer Eateries, places near surf spots with good food at reasonable prices, establishments surfers go to after a good morning surf session. Hank’s fish taco place could be our first entry. Jack the Dave Sweet team member had mentioned to me that his favorite place was the Pine Cone Diner in Point Reyes Station. He always goes there after surfing at Drake’s Beach.

“David, on your safari, you must go to the greatest bakery in the world,” I stated with a big grin. “VG’s Bakery and Donuts in Cardiff By The Sea. It’s directly across from the entrance to the San Elijo State Park. Family owned and run. It’s been there since the sixties.”

I had to also mention another entry into the Surfer Eatery blog, that’s El Tarasco in Manhattan Beach. I used to live there and so did David when he was a little kid. In the early 70’s, this Mexican hole in the wall, which sits two blocks from the sand near the intersection of Rosecrans and Highland, invented the humongous burrito for $2. It took two hands to just pick one up. Crammed with rice and beans, grilled chicken and hot sauce, they quickly became the nightly dinner for every unmarried surfer in town. After forty years El Tarasco is still there, same building with just five stools and a counter, still serving the huge burritos and is still the after-session spot for the local surfers.

Matt told us about moving to California from New Jersey, where he grew up. Some forty years ago his family drove across the country with surfboards on top of the car and by random chance camped at Jalama Beach State Park. Jalama is north of Point Conception and just south of Vandenberg Air Force Base. So Matt’s first California surf session was there at Jalama, a beach well off the beaten path and one similar to Salmon Creek and Ocean Beach. He had a good session and was immediately stoked on California surfing.

“You know, surfing is really inexpensive when compared to other forms of recreation,” Matt commented. He then mentioned a doctor friend of his had just purchased a new mountain bike for $5000.

“What’s the price of ski lift tickets these days? $50?” I added agreeing with Matt. None of us knew because we don’t ski anymore. The ski resorts have priced the average family out of the sport. Even kayaks cost a fortune these days. Surfing is the cheapest form of recreation. With merely a surfboard and a wetsuit, one can have several years of fun hitting all the great public beach surf spots.

It was fun reminiscing about surfing. All four of us love the sport and love telling tales of our adventures.

April 16, 2010 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
8:50 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4'
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore wind
Bright sunny day	Fun session

Warm weather and sunshine on a Friday brought out the crowd. Ten people were out at the Patch when I arrived. From the cars, I knew that Mark the archaeologist, David who rides the Becker board, Frank the stand-up guy, Jack the Dave Sweet team member, Ray the Petaluma fireman, Robert the Larkspur carpenter and Russ were all in the water. The tide was low, all the Patch reef rocks were exposed and the pack was twenty yards beyond the outside rock.

I went up to Terrace Road to take some overview photos. The waves looked good; a three-foot south swell at 16 seconds was running. The crowd was at a consistent right peak. Ray got an incredibly long ride. He stroke into a well-formed set wave, cut right, dropped down the face, cruised under some white water, climbed back into the swell, crouched down in the middle of his board, drove through a fast section, stalled to let the wave build up against, turned right and cruised through another section. He repeated that maneuver two more times before the wave died out a few feet from shore. I saw Jack get a good left. He cut left on a four-foot peak, climbed high in the curl, stepped to the middle of the board to gain speed and shot down a steep curl heading directly at the exposed outside rock. He cut back, maneuvered around the rock and continued on for a long ways. Russ connected on a long right. He cruised down a long section, straighten out as the wave broke, and got back down on his knees to work the board for as long as he could towards shore. He stopped a few yards from the beach and came on in.

After seeing those three rides I was excited. It was a beautiful warm day, long lines of swells were coming in and I had no obligations this afternoon. I could stay out as long as I wanted. However, as I was suiting up the wind shifted onshore, the tide started filling in knocking down the waves and all my buddies came in. Again I missed the best of the waves.

I greeted Jack and Jeff the contractor as I was heading to the beach with board in hand.

“Jack I took your recommendation and had lunch at the Pine Cone Diner,” I greeted him.

“And it was good, wasn’t it?” Jack responded.

“Yes it was,” I said. “My wife and I hiked a trail out at Point Reyes and did some sight seeing at Point Reyes Station.”

Two weeks ago Jack and I had lunch at Sam’s in Tiburon. I told him about my idea of starting a blog of Surfer Eateries. Places to go after a morning surf session that are close to surf spots and have good food at reasonable prices. I mentioned a couple of places that I would nominate. Jack got excited.

“Pine Cone Diner,” he said. “You have to include the Pine Cone Diner in Point Reyes Station. I always stop there after surfing at Drake’s Beach.” Kate and I went there last Friday and Jack was right.

“Jeff, you can’t believe this place,” I mentioned to Jeff who was listening in. “It’s like going into a time-warp: a complete, old style 50’s diner with ten stools lined up in front of a Formica counter with five round glass coffee pots sitting on chrome warmers filled with fresh coffee, two Hamilton-Beach milk shake mixers behind the counter and fading cowboy art on the walls. Food is piled high on huge thick plates and the quantity is more than you can eat. The only thing modern about this place is the prices.”

“Well it is Marin, after all,” Jeff answered. We all had a good laugh and I headed for the beach.

“Mark,” I called to him as he was exiting the water. “I read they are auctioning off a water meter here in Bolinas.” Mark owns a piece of property near the beach but can’t build on it because he doesn’t have water. Bolinas has had a moratorium on new water hook-ups since 1971.

“That’s right and the opening bid is $300,000,” he replied. “Today is the final day for bids. The city gained control of a property on Wharf Road that has three water meters. They are going to keep two of them to develop a park and auction off one.”

“Are you going to bid?”

“No, I’ll pass,” he stated. Can you imagine paying $300,000 for a water meter?

Robert, David and I were out by the outside rock sharing waves. David retired a few months ago and took up surfing. He has learned quickly and now has the surf passion.

“So David, when did you come out this morning?” I asked between sets.

“Oh, about 7:30 am,” he answered.

“It’s now 10:00 am,” I said looking at my watch. “You’ve been out for two and a half hours so far.” I usually last an hour and a half to two hours before totally exhausting myself. At 10:30 am I was spent and having just caught one close to shore I called it a day. Back at the car I changed, chatted with the guys, and walked into town for a coffee. David had just walked up to his car soaking wet when I returned.

“David, you finally got out,” I said glancing at my watch. “It’s 11:30 and you have been out for four hours.”

“Yeah, and I would stay out all day if I could physically do it,” he exclaimed.

Am I not right? He has the surf passion.