March 5, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:45 am to 11:45 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
High dropping tide	Slight onshore breeze
Patchy sun with fog on the horizon	Fun session

A two-hour session, I haven't had a two-hour session in months. The elements came together making it easy to stay out there. Unlike last week, today was warm, the water was still cold (50 degrees) but the air was warm; my hands and feet never felt cold. Fun mellow waves combined with sunshine, a high tide and only four other surfers, of which three were Bolinas regulars. The early morning crowd had exited the water by the time I arrived. Stand-up guys Frank and Russ said it was fun but the waves were inconsistent. Jaime claimed they were waist high, but the tide was too high causing a backwash off the cliff. Mary stated that she had fun.

When I walked down the ramp with my camera in hand and saw my first glimpse of the Patch I knew I was going out. Five surfers including DB the Safeway checker, David who rides the Becker board, and Shu-Shu from Dogtown were bunched together at the only peak. A set of four nice long line clean waves came through. DB stroked into the first one and worked in it into a neat inside curl. That's her in the above photo. Shu-Shu then the same and so did David. The time between sets was long but the quality of the waves made the wait worthwhile.

This morning the NOAA weather radio reported a decent swell - 6 to 7 ft at 14 to 16 seconds. The report gave the stats for all of the buoys from Point Arena to south of Monterey, and all of them reported the same height and frequency; meaning this was a strong and consistent swell that was hitting the entire Northern California coast. Often the buoy stats vary, but not today.

All of the surfers dropped down the clean right waves, but I watched the lefts. No one was riding them and they looked better than the rights. I often go to the north edge of the peak and go left. The water is shallower over there thus the waves are steeper. That was my strategy this morning. Head for the north side and go for the lefts, and my strategy worked - I caught at least eight good clean left waves. On my first wave, I stroked into a three-foot swell, jumped up, turned left, stepped to the middle of the board and stood there while the my board glided on and on. I ended up north of the rocks of the Patch reef where the bottom consists of sand and grass. That was the first of several mellow, old-man waves.

After an hour Jacek came stroking out on his eleven-foot, narrow, no rocker javelin - a real paddling machine. As usual he paddled out to the furthest peak and waited. I followed him out there. A beautiful four-foot line came through. Jacek was in position, but if he didn't take it I would jump in. He hesitated and I watched him closely while slowly getting myself ready to go for it. At the last moment, Jacek turned, waited until he was at the top of the peak, dug hard three times and glided into it. He cruised a long ways down a blue-green wall. That was how to do it - get at the top of the peak, paddle really hard and coast into the waves. I applied that technique with great success. I stroked into two good lefts, both times getting into them early and able to position myself high in the curl and coast down long clean lines. I also connected on a couple of long rights executing the same technique.

At the hour and a half mark, rocks were beginning to poke above the water over the Patch reef. Going left was becoming dicey. Jacek and David had moved south of the rocks. After my last good right wave, I paddled out to join them. The waits between sets became longer. I drifted in towards the middle and caught a couple of well-formed curls, but I was very close to the rocks. I stayed inside and moved to the edge where the rocks end and the sand began. To catch a wave you had to be over the rocks. Only the bigger set waves had enough power to break over the sand. Thus the waits were getting longer. I kept drifting further in, caught one small wave and then gave up and began paddling for shore. I caught a shore break wave, rode it in lying down and called it a day. Two hours total and I was exhausted.

"David, when did you come out today? Seven thirty?" I asked during one of our long waits between sets.

"No, it was more like 8 o'clock." I looked at my watch - 11:30 am - three and a half hours. I got out fifteen minutes later and David came in at noon. Four hours, and all he ate for lunch was his usual cheese and lettuce sandwich, carrot sticks and a piece of fruit on his drive home to Berkeley. David was in great physical shape, and with all that exercise and his bird-like eating habits, there was not a once of fat on his entire body. Thus we have the David who rides the Becker board diet, guaranteed to take off pounds of ugly fat and improve your health -

Surf More and Eat Less.