January 31, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets overhead
High dropping tide	NW cross wind to no wind
Low fog to overcast - cold	Fun session

Last time I surfed was a week ago Monday, a beautiful sunny day with mellow waves. Last Wednesday the surf was small and I didn’t have much time because I had to drive the water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program to the Branson School. I grabbed a sample from the base of the Groin wall and Thursday evening Marty sent out a warning message to the Bolinas regulars that the water was contaminated. Two weeks ago (January 16) a sewage pump in downtown Bolinas failed and raw sewage spilled into the lagoon. The sewage crew immediately repaired the pumps and the surrounding pipes, and the county took down the contaminated water signs after a couple of days. But Marty’s note gave the results from the last two weeks of Surfrider’s tests – “Off the Charts!!” a thousand times over the safe limit. Thus the water in the Channel for the past two weeks was contaminated. Marty stated that he was going to skip surfing on Friday due to the water situation. I took his advice and kissed it off also.

This morning the weather had changed. For three weeks high pressure had settled in bringing in dry conditions, sunshine to the coast and tule fog to the inland areas. Saturday afternoon low pressure moved in bringing cold air and rain. We had 1.5 inches of rain Saturday and Sunday.

This morning high pressure had returned bringing with it a new swell (7 ft NW swell at 14 seconds). Marty was in the water when I arrived meaning the water quality must be ok. Mary and I checked out the surf at the Patch. Jaime, Ray the Petaluma fireman and stand-up surfers Frank and Russ were out there. We stood watching for ten minutes and no one caught a wave; the tide was too high. We moved to the overlook above the Groin. Six surfers were out there including Marty and David who rides the Becker board. The waves were infrequent, big and difficult to catch. I decided to head to the Groin and Mary opted for the Patch convinced the waves would improve as the tide dropped.

As I paddled out to the Groin, David connected on a good one. He dropped down a left wall that kept reforming and on and on he went. I watched Marty fly down an overhead wall. He cut left, dropped down the face and braced himself as the wave pounded in front of him. He continued on fighting the white water trying to push back into the swell. He eventually had to straighten out as the wall collapsed all along the impact zone close to shore. The swells were big and were pushing a lot of water in front of them. They would build and build and finally break in fast peeling lefts on the inside. Having trouble catching the waves, I kept moving in. David and Marty remained outside. Did they know something I didn’t? I paddled for several waves and didn’t catch any of them, but the others did.

After twenty minutes I finally caught one. It was a big wall that stretched across the impact zone. I thought for sure it would close out in front of me. I paddled hard, the wave picked me up, and I hung at the top and kept paddling to get into it. I jumped up, went straight pushing my weight forward, and hung at the top of a five-foot face hearing the roar of the wave breaking behind me. Finally I pushed over the edge and dropped down a steep fast head-high face. I trimmed across the middle of the swell for several yards before it broke in front of me sending me flying. All right, not a bad start to a session.

David, Marty and I had to move around due to changing conditions. The current started flowing out of the lagoon and impacted the shape of the waves. It kept moving us out to sea. I constantly checked my two navigational points: the gray-white house above the Patch and the pole on the end of the Groin wall. The speed of the current steadily increased, cold air moved in, the water got colder and ice cream headaches struck every time I ducked under a wave. After an hour my toes and fingers were turning numb.

My last wave was a good one. I had drifted way inside when a sizeable set came through. I went for one that breaking. With two strokes I was into it. I turned left, dropped down a head-high face. The wave broke over the front of my board, and I leaned into it trying to work back into the swell. I almost made it. I cruised along the bottom of the wave with the curl breaking over the nose of the board. I never got back into the swell, but I was close. I hummed along for several yards until the wave broke in front of me. I straightened out and milked the white water all the way to shore. Not a bad way to end a session.

Walking down the beach I looked back to see David on another good one. With his back to the wave he worked through a tight curl that was slapping him on his back as he hung onto the outside rail. He coasted out to a smooth shoulder and hummed cross another section for thirty yards. David was into another one of his marathon sessions. He went out at 7:30 am and got out four hours later. The cold and hunger finally brought him in.

It was just another adventurous morning in Marin.

January 25, 2011 Tuesday

Plastic Bag Ban Ordinance – Marin County Board of Supervisor’s Meeting

“The next time we discuss this topic will be downstairs in court!” spouted Stephen L. Joseph, the lawyer for Save the Plastic Bag Coalition (a front for the plastics industry), to the Marin County Board of Supervisors on the day that they voted four to zero to outlaw plastic bags at grocery store checkout counters in unincorporated areas of the county and to impose a five-cent charge on paper bags. In his gray rumpled business suit, Mr. Joseph was the only one out of twenty-four public speakers to throw water on the good-feeling party atmosphere that filled the Supervisors chamber that morning. Every seat was filled and standing bodies lined the walls that surrounded the Supervisors podium.

The Supervisors had delayed this vote for two weeks to review the 91 legal documents that Mr. Joseph and the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition had submitted. Despite the threat of being sued, Supervisors Judy Arnold, Susan Adams, Steve Kinsey and Charles McGlashan (Supervisor Hal Brown was on sick leave) without reservations gladly voted for this ordinance. Before they could vote the crowd stopped them. People wanted to speak their support and to congratulate the supervisors for their bold move. Charles McGlashan had worked on this effort for five years, and he thanked his assistant, Maureen Parton, for her hard work winning over the all the supermarkets and the department for weights and measures. Enthusiastic speakers noted that plastic bag bans in other cities have resulted in a significant drop in paper bags because shoppers switch to reusable canvas ones. Zero waste was the stated goal and this ordinance moves us along that path. Speaker after speaker volunteered for the outreach and educational efforts needed to encourage people to switch and praised the Supervisors for standing up to the plastics industry.

Surfrider Foundation Marin’s officers were present to witness this historic event (that’s us in the above photo: myself, Scott Tye chairman and David McGuire head of our Rise Above Plastic program). Dave spoke about the impact of plastic on our oceans and showed a sculpture of a turtle made from plastic waste gathered last spring at Surfrider’s beach cleanup at Stinson.

Community support for this ordinance was strong. The audience gave the Supervisors an enthusiastic standing ovation after the vote and each supervisor proudly beamed from ear to ear.

Jumping ahead, on February 24th Save the Plastic Bag Coalition officially sued Marin County to stop implementation of the ban the bag ordinance. They claimed the Supervisors did not conduct an Environment Impact Report. Get their reasoning here: the ban on plastic bags will encourage the use of paper bags and that paper bags include 3.3 times more greenhouse gas emissions, four times the consumption of water and 2.7 times more solid waste production than a plastic bag. What non-sense! On a one to one basis Mr. Joseph is correct. But our objective is to do away with paper bags and replace them reusable ones. Kate and I have been using the same canvas bags for years and by now I’m sure our bags have more than reversed the above ratios. With every trip to the supermarket we are saving greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and solid waste production needed to produce the countless plastic bags that we did not use.

Regardless what happens in the courts, the public is converting to reusable bags because it is the right thing to do.

January 24, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
8:30 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Low upcoming tide	No wind
Bright sun with high clouds	Good session

Ideal conditions reigned this morning and the elements improved as we moved through the morning. Marty and I walked down to the Groin wall to get a close look at the surf. For the first time in a week we could walk in front of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. Last week extreme high tides in the morning pushed three feet of water up against the wall preventing us to pass. The surf this morning was closing out due to the low tide. Three surfers were there; David who rides the Becker board was one of them. Remnants of last week’s big swell were still coming in (7 ft NW swell at 15 seconds). With no wind the surface was smooth and the waves were clean, but they were breaking too fast, closing out and at times sucking out onto the sand. We watched David fly down a couple of fast walls that exploded in front of him. That’s him in the above photo.

To us the Patch looked more inviting. Mary, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Kathy the biology teacher and Cathy from the Russian River area were way, way out at the Patch connecting on these long, slow rides. The no-fear-factor prevailed at the Patch, thus Marty and I decided to head out there. Paddling out I watched Kathy cruise down a long left wall. “The lefts are breaking,” I said to myself, “I’ll go for those.” On my first wave I caught the white water sliding down the face of a four-foot wall. It picked me up and I sped along aiming to climb back into the swell. The white water disappeared as the wave reformed and I was now back into the swell crouched down mid-board shooting through a four-foot section. I cut back into the breaking part of the wave, let the swell build up again, and swung left into another fast section. On and on I went until the wave died in the shallow water of the Patch reef. What a great start to my session. I now had the strategy: catch the white water sliding down a sizeable peak and maneuver it into swell of a reforming wave. I did that at least six times, all of them great rides.

I noticed that David had joined us, confirming that Marty and I had made the right decision. David prefers the faster waves of the Groin, but if it is not happening, he doesn’t hesitate to make the long paddle to the Patch to connect with better waves.

Marty caught a good one and nearly killed me. I was making the long paddle back out to the line-up, I came over the crest of a small wave and there was Marty taking off on a well-formed set wave. “Oh on, he is heading right for me,” I said to myself. Instead of confusing him by paddling one direction or another, I froze and just sat there. He kept coming and was picking up speed as the wave stood up and starting breaking. On he came and I didn’t move. Marty cut in front of me, missing me by one foot (yes he was within inches of me), spending spray onto my board and he continued on. He told me later that was his best ride of the morning. It held up, kept reforming and on and on he went. He didn’t say a word about nearly clobbering me.

Julie, the Bolinas local who works for the Public Works department of Mill Valley, paddled out to join us. She’s an excellent surfer and knows the Patch well. She caught a couple of waves with the rest of us and then headed north and further out. I joked that she was on a tsunami watch waiting for that legendary rogue wave. Well it finally came and she connected. It was a beautiful sight, she was 200 yards north and 100 yards further out than the rest of us. The set wave peaked and she stroked into it. She skillfully angled left with her back to the wave and casually cruised down a wall of water that was a foot over her head. She paddled way out there again to wait for another big one. Her wait was long but I saw her connect on two more of them this morning.

“Jeff, did you surf Dillon Beach during last week’s big swell? Dillon had to be closing out.” Jeff the Lawson’s Landing boat mechanic had joined us.

“Saturday, Dillon was twelve feet with big barrels, which I didn’t get near to, and yesterday it was ten feet and gnarly. So I came here today to get some mellow waves.”

And mellow it was. Hank paddled out on his big red ten-footer sporting a baseball cap. As the morning progressed, the sun warmed things up, the wind stopped, the surface glassed off and the waves became more consistent. All of us, Marty, David, Jeff, Hank, Julie and I connected on several good long rides. What an ideal morning: warm sunny weather, glassy conditions, mellow crowd and consistent three to five-foot waves coming through.

As Marty and I walked back to the ramp after our session we spotted Cathy on the seawall cutting down the brush with her tree-branch saw. You know the kind, a long pole with a curved saw blade on top. Cathy is a landscaper and carries her equipment in her pickup truck along with her surf gear. She was clearing the brush and tree branches away from the path on the north side of the seawall. Here the concrete top ends and we have to carefully step over the boulders that form the foundation of the wall to get to the beach. The local foliage had been encroaching out onto the path making it difficult to climb over the boulders. Cathy took matters into her own hands and chopped away one ton of shrubs to clear the path. She parked her truck at the top of the ramp, dragged all her cuttings up the ramp, loaded up the truck and drove them to the Bolinas dump, which was not far away. I’m sure the owner of the property never noticed the change, but we aging surfers appreciated Cathy’s efforts.

January 21, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:15 am to 10:45 am	4' to 5', sets overhead
Mid upcoming tide (6 ft at 11:30 am)	Slight North breeze to no wind
Sunny with high clouds	Thrilling session

Per Stormsurf, a big swell (Swell #5 – fifth big north swell of the season) was hitting Hawaii and California. The Jetstream was in a holding pattern, blowing hard from Japan to Canada causing a low pressure front to form off of Japan that blew consistently 35 to 40 knots for four days straight generating a huge swell aimed at Hawaii with remnants headed for Northern California. The holding pattern also set up high pressure over the West Coast generating fair sunny weather and light NW winds. Ideal conditions: mild sunny weather and a NW big swell. The surf forecasters on the Internet predicted that the swell would hit Northern California Friday afternoon (7 ft at 19 seconds), peak on Saturday (9 ft at 20 seconds) and hold on until Monday (7.5 ft at 15 seconds). Long intervals mean high-energy ground swells. I had to go to the beach to see what was happening.

Coming down the Panoramic Highway I could see lines of swell marching in. White water lined the Duxbury Reef and Stinson had end-to-end walls crashing on the beach. Cars were already parked beyond the tennis courts and half way to the post office on Brighton Avenue at 8:00 am. David who rides the Becker board had just checked the waves and was excited. From a distance I saw Don Holm, my Kahuna Kupuna Surf Contest buddy, suited up and bristly heading for the ramp with board in hand. Doug and Jim the jazz guitarist were changing at their cars after their session. Doug said it was great.

High tide was not for another three hour but already the water was rushing up the ramp and waves were pounding the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. I took some photos from the overlook above the Groin. Twenty surfers were packed into a single peak, and the waves were big and powerful but not clean. I didn’t see any good rides. One after another would drop down the face of an overhead wall only to plow into a ton of white water. I stood there a long time because I kept seeing lines far at sea of another big set coming in.

From Terrace Road I got some good shots of the Patch, like the one above. Ten surfers were out there including Mary, Marty, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Russ on his stand-up board. The waves were breaking way, way out there and then reforming. The crowd sat on the south edge of the impact zone to catch the rights. The take-offs were flat but the waves reformed on the inside into steep fast curls. I watched Mary catch two set waves; on both she faded left letting the waves reform and then swung right to cruise across two long walls of water. Jaime caught a good one; he worked it into an inside right peak to hum across a sizeable and fast shore break curl. Feeling my age and the lack of conditioning I opted for the No-Fear-Factor and headed for the Patch.

Walt, Matt, Robert the Terra Linda carpenter, DB the Safeway checker and Mark the archaeologist suited up at the same time and all headed to the Patch. Mark pulled out his short (6’ 6”) Hobie. He usually rides a 9’ 6” longboard.

“Mark, that’s the wrong board. Where’s you big Hobie?”

“I just got back from several days working in Bakersfield, was dying to surf and just grabbed this one.”

“The take-offs are flat, thus catch the white water and work them into a reforming wave.”

“That’s the plan.”

After our session, I saw Mark with his short board tucked under his arm.

“Mark, you must admit that you had the wrong board.”

“You’re damn right. But I did manage to catch the white water and turn them into decent rides. I did better way outside when I first went out.”

That sums up my session. I connected on some great waves when I first went out there. Then as the tide came up, the waves changed. They became bumpy, mainly due to the backwash coming off the cliff and they broke closer to shore, head high swells looming onto shore.

When I first paddled out, I watched Jaime, who was sitting way inside, come down a head-high peak, cut back into the curl, swing right again to shoot through a fast shore break wall and pull out as the wave collapsed on the sand. Wow, that looked like fun. I decided to join him and besides it was a short paddle. The crowd was way outside at the far peak.

“Jaime, is this the spot or are you working you way in?”

“Hey, I was going in. My arms are spent. But then I connected on a good right and decided to go for one more. That was several waves ago.”

In came a sizeable wall that was feathering at the top. I went for it, dropped down a head-high face, leaned right, cruised across a fast curl for twenty yards and bailed out as it crashed near shore. Great ride. Jaime and I traded several great waves over the next half-hour.

DB paddled over to join us. After a few minutes she drifted outside to wait for a set. I watched her get a good one. The wave broke ten yards outside of her, which was fifty yards from me. She stroked into the white water that was sliding down from the peak, jumped up, continued straight as the wave began to reform, and swung right into an overhead face. I got a great side view of her turning into the curl as I paddled over the wave.

Robert executed his usual tsunami strategy of sitting way, way outside waiting for the big one. I saw him at least three times catch waves a hundred yards outside of me. He would fade left, letting the swell build up, swing right, cut back, swing right again to connect with the inside curls that we were going for. Each time he rode these waves to the shore.

With the tide coming up, I kept watching the waves boom against the seawalls. Getting in was going to be an adventure. I caught a big one that put me near the rocks and near to the shore. Matt and Mark were paddling in, and I decided to follow their lead. They paddled outside of the first seawall, the one with all the graffiti painted on it. Mark had no problem timing the waves and paddling into the beach. Matt struggled. A big shore break wall clobbered him and knocked him off his board. He drove under a couple more waves before wading up to the beach. I decided to try for the patch of sand just north of the seawall and the big tree trunk sitting on the beach. You know the one, a large eucalyptus that came down during the first El Nino in 1997. I let a couple of sets go by and then sprinted for the beach. I didn’t make it. A big wave broke outside of me; I bailed and dove under it. When I surfaced I was now mid-seawall, bouncing around the incoming waves and the backwash coming off the wall. The current had carried me about thirty yards south. I jumped back on my board and dug hard to go back out and to the north to try again. The second time I made it into the beach.

Though I didn’t catch any memorable waves, it was an adventure being out there when the ocean was throwing some of its finest and strongest waves at us.

January 19, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
11:45 am to 1:15 pm	2' to 3', sets 4'
High dropping tide (6.8 ft at 10:30 am)	Stiff offshore wind to no wind
Sunny and breezy	Fun session

Scott told me this morning when I was collecting a water sample at Stinson Beach for Surfrider’s water testing program that a sewage spill had occurred two days ago on Wharf Road in Bolinas. A pump broke causing raw sewage to pour out into the lagoon. We decided that I should take a water sample at the end of Wharf Road at the mouth of the lagoon. When I went down there, crews had the road blocked-off and had posted signs dated January 16, 2011 stating the water was contaminated. The work crew was digging a huge hole in the street across from the Bolinas Museum. Later locals told me the story. The pump is located there and its function is to pump the sewage uphill a couple of miles to the sewage plant located on Mesa Road by the fire station. They had the pump and sewage pipe repaired by the next day. Of course a little contamination warning didn’t keep the surfers from entering the water.

“Loren the wind is blowing,” Kate said, as I was getting ready to head out to the beach. “I couldn’t sleep and was up at four and the wind was howling.”

At 6:30, the San Francisco buoy reported 23 MPH north wind with gusts up to 31. North winds are offshore at Bolinas. From the Panoramic Highway, I saw white caps far out to sea, except at Bolinas which sits in the wind shadow of the Bolinas Ridge. Ten surfers were out at the Channel, two on the Seadrift side and eight bunched together going for the lefts. Check out the above photo; the offshore wind sent plumes of spray off the tops of all the waves. They were big, a sizeable swell came in yesterday and was still pumping this morning: 7 ft west swell at 15 seconds. The waves looked great, glassy, plumes of spray and head-high, but no one was getting any good rides. The swells marched in and kept coming and coming and building and building, but they did not break until way on the inside. The tide was too high and the waves were difficult to catch.

The Patch didn’t look any better and the waves were half the size of those at the Channel. Six surfers were out including Marty, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Walt and Russ on standup boards. Due to the high tide, the swells were bouncing off the cliff causing large backwash ripples that impacted the waves and screwed up the rides. The waves weren’t inviting and I was considering heading home.

Jaime exited the water and reported the waves were good earlier and then faded as the tide came in.

“Loren, remember how one day you forgot your wetsuit? Well today I forgot my trunks, thus I’m al natural under my wetsuit.”

“With this cold your huevos must have sunk up to your chest.”

“Yes, I felt like a Frenchman out there,” Jaime laughed and moved on.

Walt came up the ramp and said he had a frustrating session. He had not surfed much in the last few weeks, conditioning and timing took their toll. A professional photographer, Walt, was working on a personal project about older surfers. He mentioned that he had made an appointment for an interview and photo shoot with Doug Haut, the long time surfboard manufacturer in Santa Cruz. Due to traffic Walt was late and worried that Doug wouldn’t hang around. The time was short but Walt managed to get some good shots and felt good about the session. He won’t show us his project until it meets his high standards. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

My old friend Mark drove up. At first I thought he was John my companion in the Kahuna Kapuna surf contest last August. Mark and John look similar, tall, thin though not skinny, long gray-white beard and massive tattoos on the arms.

“John,” I said, “how are you? I haven’t seen you since August.”

“Loren, I’m Mark. You don’t recognize me because I cut my hair.” He was right. I didn’t recognize him. Mark used to have shoulder length hippy style hair, dark with streaks of gray. Now his hair was short and totally gray.

“Mark, I confused you with someone else. You’re right; it’s the hair, and your car. What happened to your old red panel truck?” An old beat-up, dented, rusty relic that Mark had ever since I knew him.

“It died when I ploughed into a herd of deer outside Petaluma.”

Mark and I go way back. The first group of Bolinas regulars I connected with was Mark’s crowd. This was in 1990 when my son Kevin and I took up surfing again. Pat was the leader of the group, an excellent surfer in great shape who could stay out all day and was always in position when the sets arrived. Pat, Eddy and Mark would be out there every weekend dominating the Groin and the Channel. They would surf all morning and then head to Smiley’s to down a few. Mark was a plumber. He is now retired. Pat and Eddy worked for a stone company. They delivered and installed decorative rock. Heavy lifting led to powerful arms that really helped in the water.

“Mark, how is our old friend Pat?”

A few years ago Pat had a stroke that left him incapacitated and was in an institution recovering. Mark filled me in. Pat is home now, is still physically out of it, and can’t hear. His woman takes care of him and she won’t let any of his old friends get near him. Thus Mark had not seen him in a while. With Pat out of action the old group broke up. Eddy has moved to Oregon and Mark usually surfs at Dillon Beach these days. It was great to see Mark again. Pat is a sad story, an excellent, healthy, energetic and friendly surfer who is now a near vegetable.

I joined Mark, Mary, D.B. and Martha out at the Patch. With the tiding dropping I was hoping the conditions would improve. The waves were ok, flat, slow and hard to catch, but it felt good to be out in the water.

“D.B. was it worth it?” I asked after our session.

“Every time you get in the water, it is worth it.”

I put the same question to Mary and received the same answer. “It’s always worth it when you get out in the water.”

What more can I say?

January 7, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:15 am to 10:45 am	3' to 4', sets to 6'
Mid upcoming tide	Cold offshore wind to no wind
High fog to patchy sun	Good session

I was suited up, board in hand, running in front of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp when I heard,

“Loren! Loren!”

“Someone is calling you,” said a surfer walking in the other direction. I was heading to the Groin and the upcoming tide was beginning to shoot spray up to the windows of the house. I turned and there standing at the top of the steps of the seawall was Jack the Dave Sweet team rider with water dripping from his wetsuit. I headed back towards the ramp.

“Jack, what’s the call?”

“The Patch! There are too many short boarders at the Groin. Go to Robinson’s Reef. It’s great, that’s where I went and I got some great rides. Head to the Patch and avoid the shortboarders.”

Change of plans. I had oscillated on where to go, finally settled on going to the Groin, but if Jack said the Patch was the call then I’m going to the Patch. The surf forecast this morning was positive. The NOAA weather radio reported 8 ft west swell at 17 seconds, NNE wind, 52-degree water temperature and an upcoming tide. Claude and I had arrived at the same time. We went up to the overlook above the Groin to check conditions. I hadn’t seen Claude in weeks. Like me, he had only surfed a couple of times in the last month due to the weather and the holidays. Twenty surfers were bunched together at the Groin. The waves were big and fast, maybe a bit too fast, and glassy with offshore winds blowing spray off the tops. The above photo is some lucky soul getting barreled. Claude decided to beat the crowd by going for the rights on the Seadrift side of the Channel. He took off to suit up and I went up to Terrace Road to check out the Patch. The waves were smaller and mellow with only six surfers out. The inside rights (Robinson’s Reef) looked good.

I saw Jeff from Mill Valley connect on a fast four-foot curl at Robinson’s Reef. That looked inviting. I met Creighton toweling off as I walked back to my car. He had a great session at the Groin, lots of fast curls. I passed Doug as he poured warm water, which he had brought from home, over his head. He too reported that the Groin was great. After suiting up and walking to the beach, I met Novato Pete who had a good session at the Patch. I chatted with Russ who had a good standup board session at the Patch. Mary walked up and stated that the waves were good everywhere and that I couldn’t go wrong no matter where I went. I passed Mark the archaeologist who recommended the Groin. So I decided to head for the Groin until Jack changed my mind.

Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water was waxing up her board on the beach at the Patch. Susan was the story this morning. We entered the water together and she paddled to the furthest peak at the Patch while I stopped at the inside break. Thirty minutes later I noticed Susan paddling to the Groin. I have seen her do this before. Paddling from the Patch to the Groin is a long ways, at least one-half mile. Thirty minutes after that I saw her paddling back to the Patch.

“It’s better over here,” she said when she arrived. “It’s a long time between sets, only a few big waves came through and it’s crowded.”

Again she paddled to the furthest peak outside and north of the pack. She was still out there when I got out of the water. Susan is in great shape. To paddle over and back from the Patch to the Groin and to continue surfing for another hour is one hell of a lot of paddling. I could never do that.

At Robinson’s Reef I joined Hank, Jeff from Mill Valley, Robert the Terra Linda carpenter and one other surfer. The set waves were big and stretched across the whole impact zone. At first I thought they would close out, but I was wrong. Hank proved that. With his big paddling machine he could stroke into all of the waves. Time after time, I would paddle over a wave, turn around and from the back watch Hank scream cross a head-high wall with spray blowing off the top and his head streaking ahead of the fast breaking curl.

Only by moving over the reef into the middle of the impact zone could I catch waves. My first one was a good one. I stoked into a set wave as it was breaking. I thought for sure it would close out. I took off, dropped to the bottom of a head-high face, cut right, drove under white water sliding down from the top of the wave, briefly climbed back into the swell, the next section broke in front of me, I tried to push through the white water, but the lip collapse on my inside rail and sent me flying. Now I had the take-off point figured out and managed to connect on two long, fast right walls.

Claude paddled over from the Groin. He said his first wave was exceptional, a big right curl on the Seadrift side of the Channel, but that was it. The set waves were closing out and the crowd drove him nuts. A few minutes later I watch him streak down an overhead face, bottom turn right, climb mid-swell, set himself mid-board and cruise on and on until he pulled out in the shore break.

For an hour the four of us had the inside peak to ourselves, sharing the waves and enjoying each other’s company. What a great way to spend a beautiful Friday morning.

January 3, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Channel and Groin
9:40 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets 5' to 6'
Very high tide	Stiff offshore breeze
Sunny with high patchy clouds	Frustrating session

The tide was too damn high – 6.6 ft at 9:30 am. The buoy reading was impressive: 7 ft NW swell at 13 seconds and light NNE winds. Signs of extreme high tide greeted me as I passed Stinson Beach. Water had filled the entire east end of the lagoon wetlands right up to the edge of the Water District building and only the top the old abandoned dredge peeked above the surface; the rest was submerged. As I got out of my car at Bolinas I heard the “thud” of a large wave smashing into the seawall. Water rushed half way up the ramp and up and over the steps leading to the seawall. I took pictures of the four-foot waves crashing into the seawall sending white water high into the air. From the overlook above the Groin I watched two surfers having trouble pushing into the waves. They were big and uneven with each one breaking in a different location and a strong offshore wind sent arches spray off the tops of the peaks.

I walked up to Terrace Road to check out the Patch. Eight of the Bolinas regulars were out there: Mary, Marty, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Shu-Shu, Novato Pete, Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water and standup guys Russ and Frank. The above picture is Susan paddling through the shore break to get out to the break. I stood there and stood there with my camera in hand, no waves came through even though the swell was big. Finally a set came in and everyone paddled for the waves, but only Russ on his standup board caught one and he cruised down a sizeable peak. The waves were barely breaking and the tide would be coming up for another hour. Despite this I decided to head to the Patch. I had not surfed for three weeks due to the rains and the holidays. I was anxious to get back into the water and the small, gentle Patch waves looked appealing.

By the time I suited up my companions had exited the water. First Mary followed by Jaime, and then Frank and Russ came up the ramp carrying their standup boards. Soon Marty came up followed by Novato Pete. By my count, only Susan and Shu-Shu were still in the water. I shouted to Hans who was suiting up that I was heading to the Patch. He said he would join me.

Between waves that were pounding the seawall and pushing water up the ramp, I dashed up the stairs to the top of the seawall. With great disappointment I stared at a completely flat Patch. No one was out there. Susan and Shu-Shu had paddled to the Groin. The tide was so high the swells, even the set waves, just mushed up against the cliff. It was unrideable.

Plan B, go to the Channel, six surfers were out there now. Getting pass the shore break was a challenge. I stood in waist high water at the base of the ramp waiting for a set to pass. I saw a break and dashed out into waves. The rush of water coming back down the ramp from the previous wave carried me out. I thought I was through the shore break when a series of four waves crested further out. I scratched over the first three and ducked under the white water of the fourth one. So much for easing back into it.

Once out at the Groin my frustration started. The swells were big, thick, powerful and difficult to catch. I paddled for endless waves and missed them all. I would start down the swells but I could not push over the edge. The others were having the same problem. Shu-Shu connected on a few at the apex of the Channel peak. She would paddle like mad and pushed herself into some big walls. The standup surfers were doing well. Annette and Miko had paddled out from Seadrift. From a distance I saw Miko cruise down a head-high right on the Seadrift side of the Channel. Annette stroked into a big peak, stepped to the center of her board getting for weight forward to push over the edge and then quickly swung left to drop down a sizeable wall. Colin, who I had just met this morning, caught a good one. To catch a wave I kept moving inside, then a big set came and I was too far inside. Paddling like mad to get over a six-foot wave, I caught a glimpse of Colin dropping down the face in a tight crouch with his back to the wave and his hand firmly gripped on the outside rail. He shot down the line as I duck-dived under the white water. As I surfaced I looked back but could not see him, the wave was over his head. A few minutes later I saw Colin walking his board on the beach. He rode that wave all the way into shore, walked around the Groin wall and re-entered the water there to avoid paddling through the impact zone.

After forty-five minutes I finally caught a wave; nothing to brag about but it did have a decent left shoulder. I managed to catch a couple more by moving inside and to the middle of the Channel. By now the ebb flow was building and the cold had set in. It was time to go in, but what was the best route. The shore break was still pounding the seawall at the base of the ramp. Professor Steve, who had just come out, suggested paddling north of the seawall to the Playground, a sandy portion between the two houses that sit on the beach.

“What do you plan to do?” I asked Steve.

“Oh, I’ll go in at Wharf Road. I parked there.” He was referring to the ramp at the end of Wharf Road next to the mouth of the lagoon. Steve has been entering the water there during this stretch of high tides.

Out at the Peak I watched Shu-Shu attempt to walk her board in front of the seawall of the house on the south side of the ramp. If she can do it so can I. She waited for a set to pass, started walking as the water withdrew, about half way the next set of waves came in. She quickly turned around and retreated. Last I saw, she was paddling out to go around the seawall to chance going in between waves at the ramp. I assume she made it ok.

I was sitting inside, mid-channel when the next set came in. A big wave broke outside, I stroked into the white water; it picked me up and thrust me forward. The wave started to reform, I jumped to my knees, pushed on the nose to stay in the wave, got back down in a prone position and paddled as the board moved along to keep in the wave. I worked it all the way in and pulled out ten feet from dry sand. I ended up half way to Wharf Road; that did it. I’ll go the Wharf Road route. I made the long walk down Wharf Road through town to Brighton Ave to my car. I changed, walked back into town for a coffee and on the way back the warm sun beamed. Even though the waves were frustrating I had exercised my arms and body, had been outside in the elements and had soaked up the scenery. I now had that glow of satisfaction that surfers get after a vigorous session. It felt great to be back in the water.