July 13, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Mid upcoming tide	Stiff NW cross breeze
Misty drippy fog	Fun session

After yesterday’s good session and with the south swell still running I was anxious to get back to Bolinas. I got up and went to the computer to check the latest conditions and there waiting for me was an email that Mary had forwarded to me. It was from Novato Pete’s daughter Sami with the sad news that Pete had taken his own life. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say or do. One of our own, one of the tribe that we surfed with everyday had ended it all.

It seemed fitting that Bolinas was shrouded in a blanket of dripping fog when I arrived. Several of the crew were there with sad expressions and words of disbelief: Mary, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, Ray the Petaluma fireman, and standup guys Frank and Russ. I had no idea that Pete was hurting. Some of the others knew he was going through hard times. But we all agreed that when Pete was in the water he seemed happy, happy to be there, to be out in the elements and to be with us. He was a quiet guy who enjoyed the challenge of the waves and his surfing skills were improving with every session. A couple of months ago he got a new board that he loved and his abilities soared on his new stick. Sami had mentioned in her note that surfing and our friendship had sustained him.

Out in the water Matt paddled over to me, “did you hear the news?”

“Yes, Mary forwarded an email to me.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Neither can I.”

Jacek the tattoo artist stopped by when paddling back out to the lineup. “Did you hear about Pete?”

“Yes.”

“How sad. I was just getting to know him.”

The surf was good just like I had hoped, but the gloom of the fog and news of Pete put a damper on the morning. One of the positives about surfing is that for a brief hour or two it removes you from your daily cares. Being in the elements with the water and the waves, you have to concentrate on the here and now thus your pressing worries and concerns are temporarily suppressed as you live in the moment of the next wave. As I entered the water my thoughts shifted to the conditions, the peaks, and the incoming waves. The Internet surf predictions were correct: a three-foot seventeen second south swell resulting in three to four foot long line waves at the Patch. The inside rights I enjoyed yesterday were firing this morning. A young short boarder trimmed across one perfect curl after another. He would take off goofy-foot (right-foot forward) with his back to the wave, quickly switch stance to left foot forward to face the wave and walk the nose as the wave stood up, that’s him in the above photo. On my first wave I connected on a good right wave. It was slow but it went on and on until it collapsed onshore in one-foot of water. From then on I managed to stroke into several long lefts and right waves.

Like yesterday Matt had another good session. He too managed to connect on both long rights and lefts. Near the end of my session I was sitting inside when a set came through. Matt was at the peak and stroked into a four-foot wall as it was breaking. He jumped up, cut right and hummed down the face right pass me. I paddled over the wave, looked back and saw Matt crouched down streaking across one of those perfect inside curls. This was just one of several good rides he caught this morning.

Jacek also had a good session. As usual Jacek sat way outside and waited and waited for a big set. His patience paid off; he saw a set coming and positioned himself at the peak. He stroked into a five-foot wave, as did a standup surfer. Jacek was deep in the pocket and streaked along the bottom of the swell as the standup surfer hung at the top of the wave about to drop over the edge. In a flash Jacek went under the standup guy, which spooked him causing him to flop backwards off his board. Jacek calmly continue on cruising down this beautiful wall. Later after a good ride I was standing in chest-high water and watched Jacek catch the wave of the day. He was again way outside and north of the pack when a set came through. Jacek connected on a head-high wall; he smoothly dropped to mid swell, stepped to the middle of the board, stood erect and trimmed across a perfectly formed wave. He headed right for me. The wave stood up, he stepped to the nose and passed within ten feet of me. Here he was on the nose of his Patch specialty board: an eleven-foot, narrow, pintail, no rocker javelin. I continued paddling out. A couple of minutes later I looked for him. He was starting his long paddle back out to the lineup, ten feet from shore and a good two hundred yards down the coast.

After an hour and a half I was exhausted and went in. With the session over the thoughts of the day returned. The waves were fun and I had a good session, but my mind wandered back to Pete as I drove home.

“Pete looked what you missed.”