April 20, 2012 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
10:00 am to 11:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 5'
High tide (4.5 ft at 11:30 am)	West onshore breeze
On-the-deck fog to bright sunshine	Fun session

Weather was the story today. It had shifted two days ago. High pressure moved in bringing warmer than normal temperatures and it was going to be with us through the weekend. It was 64 degrees in our house at 5:30 am and for the first time in months we did not turn on the heater. The weather prediction called for sunshine with 70 degrees at the coast and 80 degrees inland and tomorrow would even be warmer. I was so excited that I put on walking shorts and packed sandals in my bag. Warm sunshine, warmer water, high tide at noon and calm winds - looked like perfect beach conditions to me. I had visions of staying out for three hours. Surf predictions on the Internet were fair - 6 ft N swell at 9 seconds and no mention of an underlying south swell. So what, with good weather I'm going.

Besides I had to go. I was meeting with Scott, chairman of Surfrider Foundation Marin County, to pick up handout materials. We had purchased a table for this Saturday's Earth Day Marin Festival at the Civic Center Lagoon. I was taking the first shift and thus had to gather up Surfrider literature from Scott. This festival was a big deal - all and I mean ALL the green environmental groups in Marin were going to be there.

Coming down the Panoramic Highway, the ocean was covered by a blanket of on-the-deck fog - starting at Highway 1 in Stinson Beach and out to sea several hundred yards.

"You're not going to get any photos this morning, Loren," Russ the stand-up guy greeted me. "Too much fog."

Russ and Frank had just changed after their session. They reported it was ok and that yesterday was better. Jaime the starving artist cartoonist came up the ramp. He too said it was ok and mentioned that he had to take off because his wife was heading off on a business trip. She works for Union Bank and they had just purchased another bank and Jaime's wife was on the transition team. Union Bank is headquartered in Santa Barbara and Jaime was planning to make some surf trips there.

"I'll be surfing C Street!" He smiled - referring to C Street in Ventura, which is part of Surfers' Point.

"What about Rincon?" I responded.

"Yeah, me and two hundred other guys." Naturally, the best point break on the California Coast is always crowded.

I walked down to the Groin to take some pictures. The fog was beginning to lift. Sixteen surfers were at the main peak at the Channel, including Jacek the tattoo artist, David who rides the Becker board and Hank. DB the Safeway checker and Hans had just paddled over from the Patch. The fog had brought in a west onshore wind that put an ugly chop on the water. Wind waves had set in with peaks all over the place that flopped over with little force, but Jacek, Hank and David all connected on decent waves while I was standing there. With this good weather I had to go out.

For me the surf was ok - nothing to really write about. My first wave was my best ride. I took off on a head-high wall that was breaking as I stroked into it. I stayed high in the curl, cruised a long ways across the top of the face. I could see Jacek ten yards in front of me also locked into the same wall of water. We both straightened out when the wave finally closed out. I caught several more waves and on most of them I connected as they were breaking. I would jump to my knees for the initial drop, then lean into the white water to work back into the swell. The waves would reform on the inside; once back into the swell I would jump to my feet and maneuver through the curls near the shore. Due to the warm weather I never got cold - exhaustion was what brought me in.

"DB, how long were you in the water?" Back at cars, DB was toweling off after her session.

"What time is it?"

"A quarter to twelve."

"Four hours. I was out for four hours."

"DB, those are David like hours."

"Yeah, he told me to get out of the water, but I didn't want to come in."

Fortunately today was her day off. After changing, slowly walking into town to buy a coffee, then hanging out at the 2-Mile Surf Shop where I purchased some board shorts from Drew, I returned to the parking area and there DB was still at her car - stiff as a board. She had a kink in her neck from holding up her head for four hours.

To finish off this great morning, I stopped at the Lunch Box in Stinson Beach for soup (chicken Pozole) and a small salad. I sat at a picnic table in the park, wrote up this morning's adventure, ate my soup and salad, basked in the warm sunshine and just enjoyed this summer like day.

April 18, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
9:45 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
High tide (4.7 ft at 10:30 am)	Stiff NW cross breeze
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

In the brief forty-five minutes that I was out at the Channel, I connected on four fast, tight, clean left curls. The Internet predictions were fair for waves this morning - 6 ft N swell at 300 degrees at 13 seconds with a NW breeze at 10 knots. For a short period the wind was offshore creating clean conditions while the tide was coming up. Marty, my water testing partner, couldn't make it today so I have to drive our water samples to the Branson School in Ross and get them there by 12 noon. Thus I had time for just a brief session in the water, but it was worth it.

The dawn protrollers were already out of the water and all had smiles on their faces. Mary had a good session at the Patch as did DB the Safeway checker who quickly said hello and rushed off to her job.

"Jaime, I hate to say it, but it was listen to your show or watch the Giants play the Phillies. I chose the Giants." Jaime does the Faultline radio show, two hours of sophisticated rock, on KWMR, West Marin Radio, every Tuesday from 8:30 to 10:30 pm.

"If I wasn't doing that show I would have done the same thing."

Besides being a music aficionado, he is also a big baseball fan. Jaime too had a good session at the Patch. Jack the Dave Sweet team rider also felt good about his Patch session. He was on a roll - today was his fourth day in a row surfing. Stand-up guys Frank and Russ had fun at the Patch but cautioned that with the raising tide the waves were dying. They recommended the Channel.

"Jeff, yesterday I had a phone conversation with Brad Tucker." Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic was toweling off his beautiful hollow wood board that he made after his session at the Channel. "I called him to get his address because I wanted to send him a copy of our story." I had submitted my January 6th blog about Jeff's wood surfboard to the West Marin Citizen and they printed it last week. When I posted my blog story I had sent a link to Brad Tucker, founder of Wood Surfboard Supply in Santa Anna - Jeff used their template to build his board.

"Loren, Brad told me that he had linked the story to their newsletter and out of the blue I got a call from a guy on the East Coast who heard of me through Brad's newsletter. He needed help working with epoxy resins on a wood boat. I was blown away how the word spreads. I was able to help him over the phone."

"Jeff, that's the surf network at work."

The morning crew was gone when I paddled out to the Channel. Jacek the tattoo artist sat at the apex of the Channel peak. Don my Kahuna Kupuna surf contest partner was on the right side of the peak. I joined David who rides the Becker board on the left side.

Since I only had forty-five minutes, I was sprinting to get in as many waves as possible. I set the goal of catching one wave of every set and quickly connected on a decent left. The waves peaked, stood straight up, came over hard and then collapsed into a soft shoulder that would reform on the inside into second decent curl. After my first wave, I positioned myself further north and inside of the others to concentrate on the inside walls. This strategy worked. I was separated from the others and thus had this peak to myself. On my best wave, I paddled out to meet a set wave that was peaking further north. The wave looked like a wall but I decided to give it a try. It was cresting when I glided into it. I cut left, stayed high in the curl, the wave jumped up, I stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and hung on while a perfect circular curl formed in front of me. I shot through this section, cut back to let the wave build up, cut left again and stood there as I cruised across another perfect curl until it closed out on the inside. I ended up in waist deep water, twenty yards south and ten yard in from the Groin pole. I sprinted back out and connected on three more good ones before calling it a session.

I had that glow of satisfaction from the exercise and the joy of a fun session as I drove through the beautiful hills of Marin - through Olema, pass Samuel P. Taylor Park, Lagunitas, and over the ridge to Fairfax onto Ross. It was a good day.

April 16, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
High dropping tide (4 ft at 9 am)	Offshore breeze to stiff cold NW wind
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

Last Saturday's sailing tragedy was the topic of conversation in the water. Friday and Saturday a big swell had come in along with a high-wind front, causing rough seas. But that didn't prevent the San Francisco Yacht Club in Belvedere from running its annual Full Crew Farallones Race, a 54-mile race from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands and back. At the halfway mark, the yacht Slow Speed Chase, a 38-foot racing yacht, was swamped by two15-foot freak waves that swept five sailors of a crew of eight overboard. The remaining three attempted to turn the boat around to rescue their companions when it ran-aground on a rock near the Islands. A coast guard helicopter rescued the three crew members who remained on the boat and recovered the body of one of the crew members that were swept overboard. As of this morning the other four were not found and were presumed dead.

Update - as of Tuesday April 17, the coast guard has called off the search for the other four.

By this morning the swell had subsided. The 6 am NOAA weather radio buoy observations were 4 ft N swell at 11 seconds with an underlying 2 ft S swell at 16 seconds with a NW wind at 10 knots. Yesterday the wind blew like hell all day, and just as I suspected, small wind swell waves were hitting the beaches this morning. I had no expectations for waves but I would go to Bolinas to check and to chat with the crew.

From the Panoramic Highway, a textured surface was on the ocean that was on the edge of becoming white caps from the shore to the Farallon Islands. Stinson was barely breaking and there was no white water at the mouth of the Bolinas Lagoon. Bolinas was in the shadow of the north winds and the surface was mirror smooth - great, perfect glass and no waves.

Driving into Bolinas, I passed Hans driving out of town with two dry boards mounted on the roof of his SUV. He tooted and waved. More evidence that there weren't any waves. However, several vehicles of the regulars were parked at the tennis court with no boards to be seen. My buddies were in the water. From the overlook above the Groin I saw twelve surfers at the one and only peak going for some nice looking three to four-foot waves. No one was at the Patch. At the Channel peak were: Mary, Marty, Hank and his wife Gail, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, David who rides the Becker board, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, DB the Safeway checker, Steve the Bolinas local who is my age and grew up in Santa Monica and Frank the stand-up guy. Though the waves were infrequent, they were having fun, so I had to join them. That's Mary on a good one in the above photo.

Back at the cars, Jacek the tattoo artist and Randy had arrived and inquired about the waves. "Small but clean" was my response. Separately, both went to check out the waves, and both concluded that they would go for the Patch. Randy just prefers the Patch and Jacek thought that with the tide going out the Patch would get better.

Just my luck, while suiting up, the wind shifted from offshore to an onshore west wind - a common plague of "gentleman's hours." The beautiful glassy surface was gone when I paddled out to the line up.

Jaime took one look at me and said, "It must be lunch time!"

"No it's time for all you dawn patrollers to get the flock out of here," I responded.

The waves were mellow and we all had a good time. Because the sets were infrequent, two or three of us would be on each wave. Slowly the early ones went in and after forty-five minutes only Jacek, who had come over from the Patch, Marty, David, two others and I remained. The waves were flat on the take-off and difficult to catch. But Jacek could do it. I saw him stroke into a nice four-foot peak at the apex of the Channel peak, fad right and then swing around left and cruise down a long section, cut-back and turn right again into a good curl on the inside. I had to move inside and wait until the waves were breaking to catch them. Twice I caught the white water of breaking waves and rode them into swells on the inside.

At the hour mark, the current started pouring out of the lagoon. Before we knew it, the current had carried us outside of the impact zone and we had to paddle in some fifty yards. Meanwhile, the wind had continuously picked up speed and was now a steady, stiff and cold wind. White caps were everywhere. Cold, exhaustion, and infrequent waves, it was time to head in. I caught one more and milked it all the way in.

But as usual, it was another beautiful morning in Marin.

April 12, 2012 Thursday

How To Get Better With Age

The big news today was the article in the O The Oprah Magazine (May 2012) that featured Mary. That's a picture of it in the above photo (pg 185). The magazine was devoted to "Coming of Age" articles. Mary let us all know about its publication with a broadcast email yesterday. The magazine flew out their photographer, decked Mary out in a new wetsuit, and took over a thousand shots of her - all in the water with her Mystic 9' 6" tangerine nose board at the Patch in Bolinas. We were all impressed. John Moore, the shaper of Mary's board, responded that finally his Mystic boards received some national recognition.

Here's how the article went down -

"How to Change Your Life at Any Age - want to surf a wave, start a business, speak Chinese, fight a fire, adopt a child? Meet six women who prove you're never too young or too old."

Andrea Peterson became a firefighter at 66.

Traci Lucien became a mom at 49.

Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh started a company at 18 & 19.

Stephanie Hunt learned Mandarin at 37.

Mary Wagstaff learned to surf at 55.

All the articles were about impressive changes in life made by these courageous women. But being a surfer, I thought Mary's was the best story. After having surf in her teens in Maryland and not surfing for thirty-five years - having married, raised two children and had a successful career as an advertising art director - friends pestered her into the chilly waves of Marin. After one wave she was hooked and has been surfing three to four times a week ever since. Mary and her friends referred to themselves as OBOB - Old Broads on Boards.

Mary has also connected surfing with art. She spends hours painting images of waves and the ocean's surface onto canvass with great success. Out in the water she is not only watching for the next set of waves but she is also studying the light patterns on the ocean's surface.

"The ocean is unpredictable, so the challenge is to be as alert and aware as I can be."

April 11, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:00 am to 11:15 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide (minus 0.5 ft)	Slight onshore wind
Sunny with high fluffy clouds	Exercise session

I had no expectation of waves this morning. When I left the house I was convinced that I wouldn't go out. All day yesterday it rained and drizzled with a stiff consistent south wind. Another front was predicted to come in today bringing more rain and south winds. The Internet predictions did not look good either - 4 ft north swell at 10 seconds and a 2.5 ft south swell at 14 seconds with 5 kts SW wind and a prediction of 20 kts south winds by this afternoon. Why did I bother to drive to the beach? I had to meet with Scott the chairman of Surfrider Marin in Stinson Beach about a couple of upcoming Surfrider events.

After meeting with Scott at the Parkside Café, I checked the waves at Stinson - super low tide with end-to-end three-foot walls. The wide flat beach looked perfect for a jog. If Bolinas was flat, like I thought it would be, I would return to Stinson for a run.

Mill Valley was under a cloud cover this morning. I drove through that cloud going over the mountain and then dropped below it on the decent to Stinson. I broke out into sunshine going around the lagoon and at Bolinas it was sunny and warm with a slight west wind. The parking area was empty - another sign that there were no waves. No David who rides the Becker board, no Marty and no Russ and Frank, the standup guys who are usually here every morning. Randy, who I had not seen in months, had just finished changing after his session. He claimed that he caught some fun waves at the outside rock at the Patch.

Mary and Kathy the biology teacher were suited up and about to head out to the Patch. They had cancelled their trip to Santa Cruz due to the weather. But with the break in the storms, they were going out. I grabbed my camera and caught up with them as they were entering the water (that's them in the above photo). DB the Safeway checker was already in the water - way outside, pass the outside rock. The tide was super low, all the Patch reef rocks were exposed and the rideable waves were south of the reef a good quarter mile from shore. What the hell, I decided to go - get some small waves and some exercise while the sun was out before the arrival of this afternoon's storm.

I made the long paddle out to join Mary and Kathy. DB had exited the water as I was paddling out. The waves were flat on the take off and I had to wait until they were breaking to catch them. On a few, I caught the white water and rode along the bottom of the waves as they reformed. The waves didn't have much punched. Several times I dropped down the faces of decent size waves only to have them die once they broke. We all caught several waves and rode them a long ways. As luck would have it, we seemed to always be paddling back out when the bigger sets came through.

After forty-five minutes Kathy went in and at the hour mark Mary exited the water. Now I was way out there by myself, the wind was picking up, the tide was pushing in and the waves became even mushier - if you can believe that. I started to drift in and after a long wait I connected on a set wave that pushed me close to shore. Time to call it a day.

All in all it was a good morning - a surprising break in the weather, the sunshine, warm air, spectacular fluffy clouds covering the mountain, friends to surf with and warm water - 52 degrees which was better than the 48 degree water of last week.

April 4, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
10:00 am to 11:30 am	4' to 6', sets to 8'
High dropping tide	NW cross wind
Sunny, clear and cool	Frustrating session

H U M B L E D!! - In an hour and a half I only caught two waves. The surf was big and gnarly, huge intimidating walls of water - yet the waves had good form, big drops into nice left shoulders. The others were getting spectacular rides and I saw them all, sitting in the water. I scratched over countless waves and paddled for countless more and missed them all.

After forty-five minutes I finally caught one and like the rides of all the others, mine was a spectacular ride. I paddled hard for a set wave that was cresting. I felt the wave pick me up and thrust me forward. I was into it. I jumped up, went straight for a second pushing my weight forward. I coasted over the edge and dropped down an overhead face. With speed, I shot out in front of the breaking part of the wave, climbed high in the curl and shot through the first section. I stalled a moment letting the wave build up again, then stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and shot through the second section. The power of the wave dissipated at this point, I cut back, pushed my weight forward and dropped into the reformed inside section, I cut left again, stepped to the front of the board, cruised a long ways just standing there until I buried the nose of the board into the white water of the breaking shore break. I ended up parallel with the Groin Pole. What a great ride.

The big surf was a surprise. The San Francisco buoy reported 6-foot NW swells at 14 seconds with light NW winds and a water temperature of 51 degrees. But underneath was a 3-foot south swell at 12 seconds. South swells come right into Bolinas. I thought the swell was on the decline. Saturday a Maverick's size swell came in with a storm front. I surfed Monday and the swell had declined but was still sizeable and rough. Yesterday via email Hank said the swell had gone down but the shape had improved and that he had a great surf session. I was at Stinson Beach this morning collecting a water sample and noticed that the waves were big - eight-foot walls that stretched across the entire beach.

Six surfers were out at the Channel when I arrived including Jacek the tattoo artist, David who rides the Becker board, Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic and Marty. I noted the good shape of the waves and didn't concentrate on the size. Only when I paddled out did I realize how big it was. A big set came through and I was scratching to get over it. I watched Jacek drop down an overhead face. He was at the apex of the Channel peak; he stroked into a huge wave as it crested, coasted straight briefly and then dropped down an overhead face as I paddled over it. I looked back and there was Jacek way on the inside, he had connected with the shore break, cut right and cruised a long ways inside the Groin wall. It was his last wave - he paddled in after that one.

Jeff was out there on his beautiful work-of-art wood board - the one I would never take out in the water. I asked him about the surf at Dillon's this past weekend. Saturday he went out to the Shark Pit - a peak famous for its size. "It was incredible!" he said - which means the waves were big - 12 feet plus. He wasn't out there long and he passed on going out Sunday. He came here today for some more "mellow" waves. I drifted over to the center peak while Jeff wisely worked his way north and inside where the waves were more makeable. From a distance I saw him connect on two head-high waves that he rode to shore just north of the Groin pole.

My problem was having the "intestinal fortitude" to take off late. The only way to catch these waves was to dig hard as the white water was beginning to slide down the peak. Intellectually I knew that, but actually doing it is another issue. To throw oneself into a massive wall of water as it is breaking takes nerve. I was intimidated and kept pulling back. I finally did it and what a great ride. I didn't catch another wave until the end of my session. I was getting tired of paddling around, the wind was picking up and the current was beginning to pour out of the lagoon - putting a ripple of chop through the middle of the impact zone and causing the waves double up. I kept moving in and north to avoid the current. Way inside and north of the Groin pole, I caught a big shore break wave. I dropped down a head-high face, cut left and the wave lined up for one final crash into the shallow water. I braced myself as the wave came over as a single curtain of water. I bounced, straightened out and rode the white water towards shore until my fin hit sand.

Two waves were all that I could handle today.

April 2, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:40 am to 11:10 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
High dropping tide	Slight NW cross wind
Sunshine with high wispy cloud cover	Fun session

NOAA weather radio issued a "high surf advisory", 14 ft N swell at 14 seconds. Stormsurf's Quikcast had "fading raw west swell", 10 ft at 14 seconds. San Francisco buoy had 11.5 ft at 14 seconds with a 4 kts N wind.

Parking area on Brighton Ave was full. I had to circle the block and park behind David who rides the Becker board. Jacek was also circling the block looking for a parking place. It rained everyday last week creating terrible surf conditions. Saturday a huge Maverick's size swell came in with another weather front causing big waves and raw, rough conditions. Sunday it calmed down and rumor had it that Bolinas was protected from the wind and conditions were good. Everyone was anxious for some waves for today. Thus like always happens with big swells, surfers who normally go to Salmon Creek, Dillon's or Ocean Beach, came to Bolinas where the waves were rideable.

I met Jacek at the seawall at the base of the ramp checking out the waves. We watched sixteen surfers bunched around the north edge of a big Channel peak. Hank and his son Clint were out there. The waves were rough and bumpy and the rides were brief - big drops into flat shoulders or vertical drops into close outs.

"I'm going to wait, with the tide dropping it's going to get better," Jacek exclaimed. "Look at that left, it will really shape up in an hour. I have the time, I will hang around for awhile." He went on to rave about the huge waves he saw yesterday at Drakes Beach - big swells, strong offshore wind and incredible right barrels. But only one out of ten was makeable. Needless to say, he didn't go out, no one did; it was too big. He just enjoyed the beauty of the waves.

I walked up to the overlook above the Groin to take some pictures. Look at the above photo - luck was with me, I caught one surfer dropping down a well-formed peak. But believe me that was the only decent wave that I saw at the Channel this morning.

Twelve surfers were at the Patch. All my friends went there: Mary, Marty, DB the Safeway checker, Francine, David who rides the Becker board, Mark the archaeologist, Ray the Petaluma fireman, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, Shu-Shu from Dogtown and stand-up guys Frank, Russ and Walt. I decided to join them and the mellow waves at the Patch.

Out in the water, Mark raved about how good it was yesterday.

"Where?" I asked.

"Right here, at the Patch."

"Wasn't it crowed?" Being Sunday with a big swell.

"No, it wasn't. I couldn't believe it. There were no cars parked along Brighton. With all the warnings about big waves and high winds, people must have stayed away. It was ideal - glassy, twice as big as today, long, long rides and only four people out. We had it to ourselves for two hours."

Being retired I don't surf on weekends, but I was thinking maybe I really missed it, with Mark's tale and Jacek talking about the incredible barrels at Drakes. I asked David if he had come out over the weekend. David gave a different story. He came here yesterday and met Mark as he was coming up the ramp after his two-hour session. Per David the surf was rough, all over the place and crowded. He didn't bother going out. Now he always arrives early, thus Mark must have been in the water as the sun was coming up, when the winds were light and before the crowd had arrived.

I paddled out to the far peak at the Patch to join Mark, David and Marty. Mary, DB and Francine were north and inside going for the lefts. The peaks were all over the place, thus the twelve of us in the water were spread across a two hundred yard area - crowd was not a factor. The waves were flat, varied in size and were difficult to catch. The sets would break way outside and then reform and break again. I had success catching the white water of the first break and riding them into the second break. That often didn't work - the first break didn't always have enough force to carry me into the reforming wave. I paddled for several of them and thinking I was into the waves, I went to stand up and they would die.

After forty-five minutes, Jacek paddled out to join us. I felt vindicated; I had made the correct decision. Here was the expert, who had waited for the Channel to improve and finally realized that the best waves were at the Patch. He did his usual maneuver of waiting way outside for the sets and successfully managed to catch the biggest wave of each set and milk all the way in.

I didn't have any memorable rides, but I did have fun. I caught five decent lefts in a row that all reformed on the inside over the shallow water of the Patch reef. I had one where the wave jumped up and I dropped vertically over the edge of a three-foot curl. I free fell, the nose of the board dipped into the water and bounced back up; the wave bucked me like a bucking bronco and bounced me off, where I quickly went spread-eagle with my arms and legs out because I knew I was only in two feet of water. The tide was getting too low for any more lefts, thus I moved south of the Patch reef to join David and Jacek. I caught a couple of decent rights and worked my way in. After an hour and a half I was spent. Time to call it a day.

Walking down the beach with the tide now way out, I looked back at the Patch and saw David on another good one. What a beautiful sight - long lines of white water, a container ship on the horizon, pelicans cruising overhead with warm sunshine and a blue sky. It doesn't get much better than this.