March 30, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
10:15 am to 11:45 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
High dropping tide	Offshore breeze to no wind
Bright warm sunny day	Fun session

The hot weather continued, forecast for today was 70 degrees with sunny conditions. I was ready for some real beach weather and was determined to get out into the water no matter what. Russ and Cazadero Cathy had just exited the water when I arrived. Per Russ the Patch was small, maybe two feet, but the waves had force, the rides were long and he had a good session.

“The waves were waist high,” said Cathy concurring with Russ and marking the wave height with her hand. “What’s that? Three feet?” She too commented on the strength of the waves and the length of the rides.

Earlier I was at Stinson Beach collecting a water sample for Surfrider’s water testing program. Creighton came running from the parking lot heading for the restroom; he had to make a pit stop on his way to work.

“Creighton, you’re here thus Bolinas must be flat.”

“No. I surfed Bolinas. The Channel was small but clean. I got fifteen waves (he counts waves). Not spectacular but fun. Marty just entered the water when I left.” And off he went.

At Stinson, one surfer was in the water far to the south in front of the lifeguard tower. The surf was rough, choppy, blown-out, and crumbly walls that stretched the length of the beach. It looked terrible. The surfer paddled north to position on the shoulder of an approaching wave. He quickly turned around, stroked into the wave, jumped up, cut left, and slapped the nose of his board off the lip of the wave as it broke. He rode the white water as the wave reformed on the inside, turned left into the shore break curl, and again slapped the nose off the lip as the wave broke on the sand.

“That must be Nate (one of the owners of the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley),” I said to myself, goofy foot, short boarder, wild maneuvers and extreme cutbacks. The surfer exited the water and ran back to his truck. Yes, it was Nate.

“There’s a pretty good left out there.”

“No thanks. I’m heading to Bolinas to join the rest of the old longboarders.”

I paddled out at the Groin to join Marty, David who rides the Becker board and a couple of others. The waves were small and walled, but with luck we could connect on a good fast left shoulder. Under-laying ground swells stretched across the impact zone and mixed with wind swells. I quickly figured out not to waste my energy on the small waves that had no power and rapidly died. The set waves offered decent rides and as the morning progressed the waves got better. The waves peaked north of the Groin pole and peeled in a continuous direction, sometimes left, sometimes right depending on the direction of the swell. Most of the lefts closed out. But on one I connected with a fast shoulder that dropped me down several yards north of the Groin wall.

On strong high tides often a good right peak forms in front of the Groin pole. We call this peak “MALIBO” rights, because they peel right like the waves at Malibu Point. A four-foot wall approached and I could see that it had a right edge to it. I stroked into it, immediately cut right down the face as it broke in front of me. I hung on and drove under the white water back into the swell. The wave now connected with the Malibo right peak and I cruised down a fast right curl. I cut back, turned right again and cruised on until the wave collapsed in front of me. I had started fifteen yards north of the Groin pole and ended up thirty yards south of it.

From then on I went for the rights and caught several of them. I had to sit outside and wait several minutes for the next set. I’d swear the swell was getting bigger. But after one and a half hours my arms were spent. I missed several waves due to lack of arm strength, thus I knew it was time to go in. With the next wall, I went left and rode the white water to the shore. I was physically exhausted and glowed with the satisfaction of a fun session. Warm weather makes all the difference in the world.

Walking into town to purchase a coffee I ran into Pete the Bolinas local who used to work in the coffee stand. I have heard Pete practicing on his guitar several times. He is an accomplished blues and rock musician. Monday when I passed him on the street, he saw me and started playing Walk Don’t Run, the classic surf tune by the Ventures.

“Pete, I heard you playing Walk Don’t Run the other day, the old Ventures tune. Do you know who wrote it? It wasn’t the Ventures.”

“Dick Dale?”

“Nice try. No, it was Chet Adkins.”

“Chet Adkins! He could play anything. I will have to check that out.”

“This is one of the few music trivia facts that I know. My parents had a Chet Adkins LP that had Walk Don’t Run on it and that was years before the Ventures.”

Boy did I feel good, impressing someone with an obscure music fact. What a great ending to a beautiful morning: warm weather, fun waves and music trivia.

March 28, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', no sets
High dropping tide	Offshore breeze to no wind
Sunny and warm with high clouds	Fun session

The weather had changed. Today was sunny and warm, the first time in two weeks. Yesterday it rained all day, steady forty-five degree downpour. I stood at the overlook on Terrace Road enjoying the warm sun and the beautiful spray arching off the tops of the waves at the Patch due to an offshore breeze. There were no waves but that didn’t matter. The weather had changed and the Bolinas regulars were at the Patch to enjoy it. Mary, Ray the Petaluma fireman, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, David who rides the Becker board, Hans and stand-up guys Russ and Frank were going for the barely breaking two to three-foot waves. I watched with camera at the ready for ten minutes, but nobody caught a wave. Then Hans, who was sitting way inside, caught a small right wave that he worked into a good shore break curl, just like he had done two weeks ago when I last saw him here. Mary connected on a waist high left and cruised over the shallow Patch reef for fifty yards. Jaime stroked into a slow mushy right that died after twenty yards. That did it, I had to go out; it was a beautiful day, I needed the exercise and my friends were out there.

I paddled out, chatted with Hans, waved to Frank and Russ who were heading in and continued out to the next peak to join Mary and Jaime. David was further out and north waiting for the Big One. It felt good to be back in the water. The view was spectacular, the hills were green due to the recent rains, spray was coming off the waves at the Channel and a huge container ship was on the horizon. I stroked into a decent left wave and traveled a long ways before it closed out over the shallow rocks. A few minutes later I connected on a long right. The waves were gentle and forgiving. No fear factor today and nothing trilling to write about.

Last week’s storms had removed a ton of sand from the beach. The top layer of loose small grain sand was gone leaving on the surface piles of small worn pebbles. Because the sand was gone, waves were breaking straight out from the ramp and all along the north seawall for the first time in two years. After thirty minutes, Mary and Jaime began working their way in and started trying for these shore-break waves. I paddled over to join them. The waves were walled and broke fast, but due to the offshore breeze they held up for a second or two before closing out. Mary and Jaime caught several of them and went on in. David came over to join me, and a few minutes later Sam stroked out on his brand-new board. For forty-five minutes the three of us had this peak to ourselves. Nothing spectacular but these small fast curls were fun. They had that classic surf-magazine look, blue-green walls, sunlight through the curls and spray coming off the tops. We dropped down numerous three-foot faces, cut right, held on for a couple of seconds until the waves collapsed in front of us just a few feet from dry sand.

Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water came out and did her normal routine of paddling out to the furthest peak and patiently waited for the Big One. After longs waits she managed to catch a couple. Then she made the half-mile paddle to the Channel. When I got out at the Patch, she was exiting the water at the Groin. I don’t know how she did on the waves there, but she definitely got her paddling exercise in for today. David had entered the water at 7:30 am and went out at the Channel. He then moved to the Groin and then made the long paddle to the Patch. He ended his session with Sam and I at the shore-break peak at the end of the north seawall, just another four-hour session. I don’t know how he does it.

“So what is your assessment of you new board?” I asked Sam after our session. “You certainly caught plenty of waves.”

“Great, it felt great!”

Sam had made this board and this morning was his first time using it. He had finished it a couple of weeks ago but due to poor surf conditions and lousy weather he hadn’t gone out. With the break in the weather Sam was determined to try his new board. Sam is a good craftsman. The board looked beautiful: a classic ten-foot longboard with three stringers, laminated wood tail block, wide rounded nose and three inches thick, a real paddling machine. He told me that he made it from a kit. He had buckled his old board at Ocean Beach and considered having a custom board made. But custom londboards with three stringers run from $1000 to $1200. Instead he located on the Internet a fiberglass company back east that offered kits for under $400. So he bought one. His biggest hassle was the shipping it, that cost him $100. Sam had done a super job and I’m sure it will last him for a long time.

After my session, I sat on the seawall soaking up the warm sun, sipping a coffee that I had bought in town, eating an apple, feeling good about the exercise and enjoying the first sunny morning in a long time.

March 14, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 11:15 am	2' to 4', sets head high
Mid dropping tide	Slight offshore breeze to onshore breeze
High fog and misty rain	Fun session

I arose in total darkness, we had switched to daylight savings yesterday and sunrise wasn’t for another hour. I wasn’t sure if I would go surfing today. It had rained most of the day yesterday and in the middle of the night with lots of wind. The rain had stopped but raindrops filled the skylight in our bedroom. Stats on the Internet looked good: 10 ft swell at 14 seconds from 290 degrees with a NW wind at 5 knots. I hadn’t surfed in ten days and weather wise today was the best day of the week, two more fronts were coming in bringing rain and a drop in temperatures. I had to go.

At the Groin the waves looked big, powerful, thick and walled. David who rides the Becker board and three others were out there. I stood on the cliff above the Groin with camera in hand for ten minutes and watched several sets come in that went unridden. The crew scratched for them but failed to push into them. Finally David stroked into a thick overhead wall, dropped to the bottom, cut left and was promptly buried by a ton of white water. The Groin didn’t look inviting.

Six surfers were out at the Patch including Bolinas regulars Marty, Novato Pete, Hans and standup guys Frank and Russ. The Patch was smaller, mellow and low keyed. Hans sat way inside going for the close to shore rights while the rest were at the far outside peak waiting for the larger sets. Within a couple of minutes, Hans scored on two good right waves. That’s him in the above photo on a set wave that he worked into a fast right curl close to shore. I saw Marty trim down a good head-high left. That did it. I chose mellow and joined the regulars at the Patch.

Paddling out I stopped at the inside peak to say hello to Hans. On the outside Marty streaked down another head-high left wall. “That’s what I want,” I said to Hans and paddled out to join Marty and Pete. The waves weren’t that good but I did manage to connect on a couple of long lefts that had some size and speed. The surface was bumpy, a combination of small wind waves on top of larger ground swells. The best waves were when a wind wave peaked on top of ground swell. By catching the wind wave, we could push over the edge of the ground swell. Marty and I paddled for several where the wind waves mushed into nothing and quickly died. Pete moved around from peak to peak with some success but ended up with Marty and I at the outside rock. As the tide receded, the top of the outside rock slowly emerged. It was difficult to imagine that just last Friday the tsunami that originated in Japan had sucked out all the water and left this rock totally exposed. We were now back to normal, swells would peak as they approached the rock and we were next to it catching waves as they jumped up near the rock.

Pete, Marty and I had this peak to ourselves. For an hour we shared the waves and hooted each time one of us dropped down a well-formed peak. It felt great being out in the water again, connecting with a couple of waves and conversing with my friends. It was just another beautiful morning in Marin.

March 11, 2011 Friday

Tsunami

Today was a special day.

This morning the news on the radio blasted that a major earthquake hit off the NE coast of Japan, magnitude 9.0, and had set off a tsunami. The International tsunami warning system had sent alerts to all sites around the Pacific Ocean including Northern California, Oregon and Washington State.

We have had tsunami warnings before and nothing became of them. I would stick to my plan for the day and head to the beach. Coming out of the forest on the Panoramic Highway and getting my first view of the ocean, cars were parked all long the twisting road to Stinson Beach. Residents of Stinson had moved their cars up the mountain just in case the tsunami was for real. “Did they know something I didn’t?” I turned on Newstalk KGO on the car radio. They were interviewing a professor from a local university, an expert on earthquakes and tsunamis. He calmly stated that the tsunami was for real; it had set off a series of waves that were moving at a speed of 500 miles per hour and would reach California around 8:30 am at heights of two to four feet.

“Five hundred miles per hour? That’s fast,” I commented out loud. The professor calmly continued stating that the waves were traveling at about the same speed as a commercial jet. That’s right, a flight from SFO to Tokyo takes about ten hours.

At eight-thirty, Marty and I were standing on the seawall at Bolinas watching the crowd surf the Patch. Things looked normal. The tide was low and some of the rocks of the Patch reef were peeking above the water. Surf was three to four feet and six surfers were out there, including David who rides the Becker board, Mark the archaeologist and stand-up guys Frank and Russ. Marty and I decided to skip going out. A tsunami was an unknown that we didn’t need to challenge. We moved up to Terrace Road above the Patch to get a better view of the ocean.

The Big Suck

“Loren, look at the water, it’s up against the seawall. It was low tide just a few minutes ago,” Marty pointed out. Then it started, the water receded, as Frank called it later, The Big Suck began.

Our jaws dropped, we couldn’t believe it. I stood there with my camera snapping away to record this phenomenon. In a mere six minutes, the water moved out causing the lowest of low tides I have ever seen at Bolinas. All the rocks of the Patch reef were high and dry. With a normal minus tide, the top of the outside rock would peak above the surface. It now stood fully exposed. That’s it in the above photo. All the rock shelves along the cliff to the Duxbury Point were exposed, and further out rocks we have never seen before appeared. Six minutes later the water started to come back in and soon the outside rock and the rock shelves were submerged again.

The surfers at the Patch got spooked and came in. “As soon as I saw that outside rock completely exposed I headed for shore,” Frank commented.

“Did you catch the smell out there? It smelled like rotten seaweed,” David said as he walked up the beach. “I have never smelled anything like that out there before.” We figured it was permanently submerged kelp hitting the open air for the first time. It was not a pleasant smell.

“Old Fred there said that he has lived and fished in Bolinas for forty-five years and has never seen those rocks before,” exclaimed an excited young surfer who was standing on the cliff near Marty and me. I have surfed Bolinas for over twenty years and that was the first time I had seen those outer reefs. The water continued to recede and return for the next five hours, but that first one, The Big Suck, was the most extreme.

Marty and I walked to the end of Wharf Road to see what was happening at the mouth of the lagoon. A crowd was standing at the end of the road along with a television truck and crew taking videos. “Here it comes again,” someone called. The lagoon was drained and now a one-foot wave was coming through the Channel. The wave broke and peeled left along of Seadrift bank of the Channel. Unlike a normal breaker, this wave kept coming. Normal waves break, their energy quickly dissipates and the white water peters out on the shore. Not this wave, it was a surge that kept coming. Its energy and height stayed constant as it pushed its way into the middle of the lagoon. A few minutes later the water drained out of the lagoon leaving it nearly bone dry. This action continued until the late afternoon.

“What was it like out there?” I asked a shortboarder who had just exited the water. Marty and I had returned to the seawall to watch four surfers that were fighting the currents and offshore winds to scratch into some head-high peaks at the Channel.

“It was really weird. I thought I heard the cry of a thousand souls. The peaks kept moving, the depth kept shifting and the currents pushed us around. The depth would be overhead and a few moments later I would be standing in six inches of water. It was really weird.”

That afternoon, Captain Kip forwarded a series of YouTube videos of local impacts of the tsunami. From high on the ridge in Tiburon, the one showed a well-formed two-foot surge come through Richardson’s Bay to strike Belvedere, Tiburon and Sausalito. After seeing that first wave (same time as the Big Suck) Kip suited up and rode a later surge on his stand-up. He claimed it was like riding a boat wake, nothing special but at least he can boast that he rode a tsunami.

He also had forwarded two videos that showed the tsunami surge destroying boats and piers in Santa Cruz. At the time of the Big Suck, a surge poured into a narrow shallow canal of boat slips filled with boats that smashed boats into one another and into pier pilings. Within seconds, boats and debris were being pushed along at the head of the surge wave. In the second video, water moving back out to sea caused the same destruction. The surge going out was just as fast and strong as the one coming in.

Kip’s company has a fleet of pilot boats used to direct cargo ships in and out of the San Francisco Bay. In an email I asked him if their boats had suffered any damage. He responded no because their boats were tied up in deep water. The harbor in Crescent City like Santa Cruz experienced considerable damage. In 1964, a tsunami caused by the earthquake in Alaska destroyed several fishing boats in Crescent City. This time the International tsunami warning system provide a ten hour alert and over one hundred fishing boats moved out of the Crescent City harbor and anchored in deep water of the open ocean. Open ocean deep water was the best protection against the tsunami surge. Crescent City and Santa Cruz harbors have narrow openings to the sea that focused the tsunami wave like a funnel into their shallow harbors.

That evening after watching the news reports, I was awed by the “pond effect” of the Pacific Ocean. Throwing a pebble in a pond of water causes a series of ripples to travel to the entire rim of the pond. Mother nature just tossed a massive stone into the Pacific Ocean setting off series of waves that cause devastation in Japan and millions of dollars of damage thousands of miles away in California. These forces shouldn’t surprise us. The cherished south swells we enjoy travel thousands of miles from New Zealand where they begin as thirty to forty-foot swells created by raging winds off Antarctica to become neatly groomed three to four-foot waves in Northern California. From now on I will take tsunami warnings serious.

Click on the link below to view my tsunami photos of Bolinas. Also thanks to Jim the jazz guitarist, the last ten photos are of Dillon Beach during the Big Suck taken by a friend of Jim’s.

Lorenzo's Tsunami Photos

March 4, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Channel & Groin
9:15 am to 10:45 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Mid upcoming tide	No wind to slight NW breeze
Sunshine with a few high clouds	Fun session

What a difference a couple of days make. Last Wednesday Marty and I had to collect water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program and we were the only ones here. The wind was howling and the rain was blowing sideways. The storm started Tuesday afternoon and continued through Wednesday morning. The ocean was a mess with white caps and choppy seas that sent froth blowing up the ramp. This morning conditions were ideal: no wind, the seas had calmed down, the surface glassed off and consistent well-formed three to four-foot waves were coming through the Channel. Finally we had some decent weather and waves. February was one of the worst months on record for surf. Everyone was starved for some decent waves.

All the regulars were in the water when I arrived. Out at the Patch were Mary, Hans, Mark the archaeologist and Robert the Terra Linda carpenter. David who rides the Becker board, Marty, Novato Pete, Jacek the tattoo artist, Martha, Matt and stand-up surfer Russ were at the Groin. Ray the Petaluma fireman was on the Seadrift side of the Channel connecting on some decent right curls. He was the only one over there and he couldn’t understand why no one else was out there with him.

After the long wave dry spell of February, everyone complained about their arms being out of shape. Arms are the first body parts to go south due to inactivity. Ray’s arms were spent. He caught a good wave that took him all the way to shore on the Seadrift side of the Channel. He ended up in one foot of water, decided to call it a day and walked across the mouth of the lagoon instead of paddling back out to the line-up. Several times David commented that he was feeling it in his arms. But as usual he got his share of the waves. He started out on the Seadrift side, moved over to the Channel and ended up with me at the peak near the Groin wall. With my weak arms I paddled for and missed several waves. David didn’t; he caught everything he tried for and I don’t know how he does it. He complained about his arms being spent, but I didn’t see it. But he kissed it off after three hours instead of his usual four-hour session. Marty had to give it up after two hours due to exhausted arms and I was spent after one and a half hours.

I started feeling it when I first paddled out to the line-up. After a long ride all the way to inside the Groin wall, I struggled getting back out battling a continuous pounding of one wave after another. I commented to David about the effort to get back out. He too had just struggled to get back out. He reminded me that the tide had turned and we were battling the incoming flood tide as well as the short-period wind swells. I checked my navigational points on land and yes the current was strong and was pushing us south and in towards the lagoon.

The waves were good, not great, but good. But after our surf dry spell, we considered the waves great. Everyone caught several and felt good about the morning session. Jacek was out at the furthest peak at the Channel on a shortboard. I saw him catch a few. I was not paying attention but he went in and twenty minutes later came paddling back out on longboard. The man with the quiver had changed boards. I asked him about it, he quietly said he wanted to catch more waves, and catch waves he did. Three times I saw him screaming across head-high walls, crouched down mid-board, high in the curl tucked just below the lips of the waves.

On my best wave, I bellied down the face. I took off late and didn’t want to lose momentum by standing up so I remained prone. I dropped down a four-foot face, leaned my shoulder in the white water of the breaking wave, pushing left forcing myself back into the swell. I jumped up to my knees and then to my feet. While prone the view was spectacular; I watched the lip of the wave come over me. On I went all the way inside the Groin wall. What a great ride. I went up onto shore and walked around the wall to avoid paddling against the current in the impact zone.

After an hour and a half I was spent and called it a day. All of us felt good about our sessions, finally some decent weather, glassy conditions and consistent three to four-foot waves. Tomorrow another front with rain and south winds would come in and last until next Monday. The wave dry spell might just start up again.