December 9, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 10:40 am	4' to 5', sets overhead
High tide (6.1 ft)	NW cross wind to no wind
Sunny and cold	Great session

"Seas seven feet at twenty-one seconds," squawked the mechanical female voice of the NOAA weather radio. I couldn't believe it. "Seven feet at twenty-one seconds," I kept repeating to myself. "Oh today is going to be a good day." A new swell came in last night. Two days ago, the waves were flat and I didn't bother going out and Monday they were a weak barely rideable two feet.

No one was out at the Channel when I first saw the waves from the seawall at the base of the ramp. Expecting big waves, at first I was disappointed and surprised that the Channel was flat. The swells would come through but they wouldn't break, the water was too deep due to six-foot high tide as shown in the above photo.

Five Bolinas regulars were at the Patch: David who rides the Becker board, Marty, DB the Safeway checker and stand-up guys Russ and Frank. They were just sitting there. After several minutes, a set of long line waves came through and David connected on a good inside right, revealing that the waves had power.

While strapping on my leash before entering the water I watched DB skillfully come down perfectly formed head high right that continuously peeled in front of her, taking her from the far outside peak to ten feet from the shore. The waves were perfect: big, steep and fast; long lines that jumped up over an outside reef, curled over at the top, landed halfway down the swell, slid the rest of the way down and would continuous break to the right all the way to the beach. With such waves, everyone connected on several good rides.

While paddling over a set wave, from the side I watched Hans drop down an overhead face. From the back I could tell the white water was in front of him. He drove under it, got back into the swell, crouched down and cruised all the way into shore. Hans' nephew Troy got the ride of his young surfing life as he dropped down a head high wave, cranked a big turn at the bottom, climbed back to mid-swell, crouched down and hummed across a beautiful wall for fifty yards. On my first wave I took off late on a five-foot wall, cut right, climbed high in the curl and screamed across a well-formed face, cut-back to the let the wave build up and cut right again to fly down another section. After catching several rights, I connected on a good left. I dropped down a steep face, lean left at the bottom, the wave began to break in front of me, I leaned on my front foot to trim the board and sped along the bottom of the wave just behind the breaking curl for several yards until the wave jumped up and collapsed in front of me. It was a great ride.

All of us were puzzled that the Patch would break with perfection while the Channel didn't break at all. Surfers know not to question such things; they just flow with the conditions that the ocean presents. It was a great morning.