June 27, 2012 Wednesday

Pacifica	Linda Mar
8:45 am to 10:00 am	3' to 4', sets to 6'
Mid dropping tide	Stiff west cross breeze
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

In little over an hour I caught four waves -- three mediocre ones and one that made my whole session. I was surfing with my son Kevin, a before work session for him. With the Kahuna Kupuna Surf Contest just a couple of weeks away (July 14) I wanted to get in a few sessions at Pacifica to prepare. But surf conditions weren't good. NOAA weather radio reported 6 ft NW swell at 6 seconds. The big wind swells continued. Kevin and I met at Ocean Beach across from the Beach Chalet to check the waves. They were peaky, weak, wind swells, waist to head high and only a few surfers were out there. A stiff west wind hit us as we got out of our cars resulting in blown out conditions.

Next stop -- Linda Mar. "Dad, I'm suiting up. I don't have much time."

"When do you have to be at work?"

"I want to be there at 10 am."

"Thus we have to exit the water at 9:30."

"Sooner if possible."

"A forty-five minute session then."

Surf conditions here were better due to less wind, but not by much. Kevin had a good session. I had a good side view of him dropping down an overhead peak, turning at the bottom of the wave, climbing back up to mid-swell and cruising through a long fast breaking section. Kevin was on his seven-foot Mystic board and had no problem of losing momentum at the bottom of the waves.

My third wave was my best one. I hadn't surfed here in months and the waves were different than Bolinas -- more water, steeper on the take-off and difficult to catch. I floundered around missing several waves. Finally I caught a couple, but on both I dropped to the bottom, lost all my momentum and stood there helplessly until the white water hit me and knocked me off. The key was to get into the wave early, stay at the top and angle down the face. If I reached the bottom, the ride would be over.

I finally did it. I drifted over one swell and right behind it was a five-foot peak that was cresting. I turned and paddled hard and felt the wave pick me up and thrush me forward. I jumped up, paused a second to make sure I was in the wave, kept moving straight pushing my weigh forward. "Perfect," I thought, "I'm into it and I'm in it early." I coasted over the ledge of the wave, cut left, dropped down the face maintaining my position in the middle of the swell, stepped to the middle of the board, leaned into the curl and shot through the first section. I cutback as the wave reformed near shore, and again I crouched down mid-board and sped through another steep fast curl. The wave finally mushed up against the steep sloping shore and died. What a great ride.

"Kevin, it's past 9:30."

"I know, I know, I have to go in."

But after his next wave I saw him paddling back out. He caught another one and again paddled back out for one more. Again and again he repeated catching a wave and paddling back out for another one.

"Kevin, I thought that you had to go in."

"Yeah, I said that a long time ago."

"Like a half hour ago."

I caught my last wave and stood in knee-high water watching Kevin. At 10 am he connected on his last wave -- a good, long right curl that put him within ten feet of dry sand. Even though conditions weren't good, we both were glad that we had gone out. What a good way for Kevin to start a workday.

Kevin drove off to work and I looked for a place for a bite to eat and to write in my journal. The ideal place at Linda Mar was the Taco Bell at the south end of the beach. I'm not a fan of fast food but the location of this place was perfect. It sat on the low bluff above the beach and from its deck you a have a 180-degree view of the entire beach. Coffee and a breakfast burrito on the deck sounded great. But get this -- they don't serve breakfast burritos or coffee. Was this guy nuts? Doesn't he know that hundreds of older surfers, such as myself, come here regularly? Talk about missing opportunities.

The shopping center across the street offered breakfast possibilities -- Denny's, Ken's Coffee Shop and El Gran Amigo. I chose El Gran Amigo, a small hole in the wall in the far corner of the mall. A place obviously owned and operated by Mexicans. I knew if the place was truly authentic, they would have breakfast burritos but coffee might be iffy -- Mexicans don't drink coffee. I was right, they had no coffee but they did have big breakfast burritos. I had a large burrito filled with egg, chorizo, beans, rice, salsa fresco (tomato, onions, and chilies) and a Snapple. The burrito was delicious and filling.

A great surf session with my son and a good breakfast -- it doesn't get much better than that.

June 25, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets 4'
Low tide (0.3 ft at 9:30 am)	NW cross breeze
Patchy sun, clouds on the ridge	Fun session

"You got some good rides. I saw them." As I came down the ramp with my board in hand, I met the girl in the above photo. She was at the peak north of the Groin. I watched her wait for a three-foot wall, stroke into it at the last second, jump up quickly and trim across the peak just ahead of the breaking curl. She cutback, coasted into the reforming wave and hummed across the shore break curl. That was enough to convince me to head for the Groin.

"Yes the waves were fun, but you have to wait for the sets. Be patient," she advised.

"I'm patient."

You know, she was wrong. For an hour and a half of my session, the waves were consistent; three to four-foot waves rolled in every three minutes. Catch a wave, work it all the way to the shore break, paddled back out (a long paddle), and another set would be coming in. The Internet sites reported mediocre predictions -- 4 ft combined swell at 9 seconds, low tide at 9:30 am and WNW light winds. Stormsurf.com had the swell at 2 ft NW at 9 seconds combined with a 2 ft south swell at 14 seconds.

When I arrived, the parking area was empty. Russ the stand-up guy, who exited the water while I was checking out the waves, said it was better at the Channel two hours ago. Jaime the starving artist cartoonist was in the water at 5:30 am when Russ arrived. Jaime connected on several exceptional lefts. Mary was at the Patch going for the good inside rights.

The good conditions that Jacek the tattoo artist and I hit on last Wednesday were still there, but today the waves were bigger. The current coming out of the lagoon still made a 90-degree turn at the Groin pole and had cut deep trough parallel to the shore with the waves still setting up on the other side. Long south swell lines peaked at the Groin pole and peeled north for a hundred yards ending up collapsing on the shore in front of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp.

When I paddled out, two other surfers were in the water, one fifty yards south at the Channel and the other at the peak north of the Groin. After a few minutes, they both exited the water. For an hour I had the waves to myself. What ideal conditions -- three to four-foot sets coming in every three minutes, good waves that broke rapidly and then reformed into fast shore break curls, sunshine breaking through the clouds, light winds and warm water.

After a couple of waves I got the hang of it. Being the only one out there, I had my pick of the waves of every set. I learned quickly to be patient because the biggest waves were usually the third or fourth ones in the set. I had to grit my teeth and fight temptation to let the first two waves of go by knowing that the third one would be better, and I was right. As I did last Wednesday I applied Jacek's tactic to wait for the peak to crest, paddle slowly to get the board moving and then dig hard with two to three power strokes to get into the wave early. On my best wave, I was up early, trimming across the top of the curl, stalling and then dropping over the ledge of the next section of a reforming wave. I cruised along on this one all the way to the shore when the wave finally sucked out in six inches of water.

At the hour mark, Jacek paddled out on a longboard, he waved and then stroked into a wave.

"One hundred percent A-OK," he shouted to me giving the thumbs up when he paddled back out. Jacek was in constant motion - catch a wave, ride it all the way to shore, paddle back out, turn around and do it again. I too was constantly moving, except I had to rest a couple of minutes between waves. It was a fun session.

Earlier Russ had raved about how good last Friday (June 22nd) was. On Friday, Kate and I went on an outing taking a long drive through Samuel P. Taylor Park, took in Surfrider's Photo exhibition at the Stinson Beach Library and then had lunch at the Pelican Inn in Muir Beach. The day was filled with fog, drizzle, light rain and wind. What timing, our outing was on a lousy surf day. But apparently I was wrong. Russ went on and on about how good the surf was Friday. Mary too raved about Friday. She had just returned from three weeks in Bali and was determined to surf. Thus despite the fog and rain she headed out to Bolinas and was surprised that the conditions were ideal -- the high Bolinas ridge blocked the wind resulting in a surface of glass, and new south swell had arrived producing long rides in both directions at the Patch.

June 15, 2012 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
8:30 am to 10:15 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
High tide (4 ft at 10:50 am)	Slight NW cross breeze
Sunny and warm - heat wave	Fun session

"Loren, I know how you can catch up on your blog," Jack the Dave Sweet team rider greeted me at the Seawall to check out the waves. "Just skip all those crappy days. You don't have to record all the bad days." After a two week lapse I posted April 11th yesterday and it was about a so - so day at the Patch. So now I was literally two months behind. But skip days? How can I? I'm the historian who is faithfully recording all the surf happenings on the north coast of Marin.

"You have already recorded 300 days. That's enough. From now on write up the good days only," Jack added.

"Jack, I just broke 340 postings."

"See, just write about the good days."

He has a good point, but I'm torn. My journal is a diary that I will re-read twenty years from now, thus it's important to note the boring sessions as well as the adventurous ones to capture an accurate picture of our lives in these days.

Suddenly a good four-foot wave broke un-ridden at the Groin. "Jack look at that left."

"It still needs more water. I'm going to give it another forty-five minutes, then it will get good."

Jack plans his surf sessions around the tides, and Bolinas is always best on an upcoming tide. The tidal surge adds one to two feet to the size of the waves, and this morning the tide was coming up.

"I don't want to waste the gas, thus I make sure the tide is right before I drive an hour to come here. Last week with minus low tides in the morning, I didn't bother coming out here." Jack lives up north -- an hour away.

After watching a couple more decent waves come through, Jack left to suit up and I walked to the Groin to take some pictures. The waves were the same as last Wednesday but a little bigger. Six surfers were in the water, and two of them were connecting on the fast right curls inside the Groin pole -- "Malibo" was breaking.

To our surprise Francine arrived. Two months ago she went in for major back surgery. She wore a back brace and said she had to come out to see the waves and to check-in with us. She still has another year to heal before returning to the water. She set up a beach chair on the sand, wrapped up in a blanket and soaked up the sights, sounds and smells of the beach.

DB the Safeway checker, Dexter the Bolinas local and Mark the archaeologist were in the line-up when I paddled out. Jack was further south going for the rights on the Seadrift side. Like Wednesday the waves jumped up, folded over quickly and died in the deep water in front of the Groin pole. The lagoon current had dug a deep groove that made a 90-degree turn at the end of the Groin wall. The waves came here to die. It was difficult to make the initial section, because the waves broke off too fast. They would begin to reform but once they hit the deep water they literally faded into nothing. Our best hope was the set waves that had some power to push beyond the dead zone.

Dexter connected on a good one. He sat way outside, just like Jacek the tattoo artist does. A four-foot peak jumped up in front of him. From the side I watched him stroke into the wave, jump up, crouch down, grab the outside rail, cut left and then disappear as I paddled over the wave. I could see the wake of his board continuing on just in front of the fast breaking curl. The wake nearly paralleled the face of the wave, meaning that Dexter was locked in. Then the whole wave came over at once and after a couple of seconds his board popped up - fins first and then Dexter surfaced.

Mark caught a similar wave. He paddled at an angle into a four-foot wall, jumped up, crouched down, grabbed the rail and hung on driving under the white water back into the swell. On he went at great speed until the wave hit the dead zone and melted away. The rights were working also and both Dexter and Mark caught a couple of good ones. Jack had disappeared to the south and after an hour he came paddling back.

"Jack, where were you?"

"Seadrift, all the way to the Sands. I caught one after another that went right up to the shore."

Bill from Berkeley was on his ski and had paddled from Seadrift to the Groin peak. He gave the same report. He too had connected on some long right walls.

After our session Jack commented that we hit it right -- from 8 to 10 am was when the tide was right and the waves were at their best. I had to agree with him. The waves were now smaller and mushier. As we discussed the changing conditions, the first surf camp of the summer arrived -- a caravan of two SUVs filled with kids and one pick-up truck loaded with soft-top boards. It was a good thing that we arrived early.

"Jack, are you coming out Monday?"

"Yes, but not until 10 am, that's when the tide turns." He knew the tides for all of next week and was planning his schedule accordingly. I only look at the tide log for tomorrow's tides.

June 13, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
8:15 am to 9:30 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
High tide (4 ft at 8:15)	Onshore (SW) breeze
Overcast	Cold and miserable

This morning I got out the door early. School was out for Kate and she was sleeping in. No heading into Mill Valley to Peet's for a latte and to hang out with my buddies Matt and John to chat about the Giants. Instead, I headed directly to the beach to get there early before the wind picked up. On the way over I day dreamed about small, super glass-like curls at the Groin. I was going to surprise the dawn patrol by arriving before they exited the water.

The surf predictions on the Internet were not good - 8 ft NW swell at 8 seconds combined with a 1 ft south swell at 17 seconds with 15 to 25 knot NW winds. The weather pattern had changed. Monday was a heat wave, 70 plus degrees at the beach with little wind. A low-pressure trough moved in last night bringing in cloud cover and fog for the coast. Per Stormsurf, high pressure would build in behind the low-pressure causing gale force NW winds out at sea. The big winds would have an eddy affect, meaning a big rotating swirl that could cause west or south winds along the coast. And guess what, they were correct. When I arrived Bolinas sat under a low cloud cover with a stiff south breeze ripping up the surface of the water. The breeze continued to build and turned to a stiff, cold wind within an hour.

When I charged down the ramp with my camera in hand, I saw a beautiful four-foot peak peel off in both directions at the Groin. Only three surfers were out there - Jack the Dave Sweet team rider and Jaime the starving artist cartoonist were on the Seadrift side of the Channel going for the rights and Frank the stand-up guy was out at the Groin peak. That's Jaime and Jack on a good right wave in the above picture. The wave kept forming in front of them and they went on and on until it died near shore. Seeing that and since I was here early, I had to go out.

I figured that I would join Jack and Jaime at the right peak and then work my way back to the lefts at the Groin. Good plan, but it never happened. By the time I suited up, Jack, Jaime and Frank had all exited the water and were back at their cars. Jack warned me about the cold water.

"Loren, the water is so cold that it feels the same after two hours as it did when I first touched it," Jack exclaimed with emphasis. "It's a good thing that you have those gloves, you will need them."

Cold water often burns when you first stick your hands in it, but usually after a few minutes your hands become accustom to the temperature and the sting and cold goes away. Not this morning. I froze the entire one hour and fifteen minutes that I was out there. The recent big NW winds had stirred up the water. "Upwelling" is what it is called. Cold water from the depths circulates to the surface, bringing up much needed nutrients and dropping the surface temperature by several degrees. Upwelling is what keeps the water in the Bay Area cold (50 to 55 degrees) all year round and provides the moisture for the constant cloud cover (i.e. fog) during the summer months. As I sat out there freezing, I thought to myself that this feels like August: low cloud cover, blown-out conditions, tiny wind waves and freezing water. What a contrast to this past Monday.

The waves were lousy and the cold water didn't help. I floundered around for an hour, catching a few blown-out mushy waves and trying to stay warm between sets. DB the Safeway checker was out there on her new fish (a thick seven foot board with twin points in the tail with a fin under each one). She did well considering that she was just beginning to surf on a smaller board.

Bill from Berkeley was out there strapped onto his water ski. Similar to a kayak in shape and size, a ski is a thick board that the rider sits on with feet hooked into straps and uses a paddle to propel it. Bill certainly got his exercise; he paddled from the Groin to Seadrift and back, catching occasional waves along his journey. Between sets Bill mentioned that since he lives in Berkeley all the popular surf spots are one hour from his house and he has to decide before leaving whether to head for Bolinas, Ocean Beach, or Linda Mar in Pacifica. Also the price of gas was not helping -- last month he spent over $500 on gas chasing waves.

After an hour I was freezing and had to get out.

June 6, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 10:45 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
Low upcoming tide (-1.8 ft at 7:30 am)	Stiff NW cross wind
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

"Wow, look at that fast peeling left at the Groin," I said to myself. "Maybe I should go out there." I had just taken a few photos of Hank, DB the Safeway checker and one other surfer at the Patch. The tide was super low, all of the Patch reef rocks were exposed and Hank and DB were a quarter mile offshore at a peak twenty yards beyond the outside rock. Remnants of this weekend's south swell were still present. The waves were small lines that stretched cross the outside of the Patch reef. The sets were infrequent and Hank and DB had difficulty catching them and when they did, their rides were slow. They had to go straight just to stay in the waves.

A long paddle for slow waves didn't look inviting. But I was determined to go out; it was a sunny warm day and I needed the exercise. I had decided to join them when I noticed the nice peeling lefts at the Groin -- long clean lines that continuously broke left in shallow water. With the tide coming up, the Groin waves would get better. They were breaking a bit too fast, but there was a spot where the waves eased up an instance due to a deep spot in the water, and then they would build up again into a small fast peeling shore break. Beautiful little curls, nobody out there, and shallow water where I could walk out to the break. "I'm going."

One other surfer entered the water before me and paddled out to the Channel. I stood on the beach trying to line up that edge I had seen earlier. The bottom had changed. The current coming out of the lagoon now made a near 90-degree turn at the end of the Groin wall and ran parallel to the shore. This caused the Groin peak to shift twenty yards north of the Groin pole instead of its usual 15 yards south of it. I lined up the edge with the old brown wood house that hung high on the cliff. It became my marker.

By the time I paddled out the other surfer had moved to the edge. I had seen him here before several times -- late 30s, big, stocky, butch haircut and no tattoos (unlike most kids today) and I knew he was a good surfer. We both floundered for a while trying to figure out the waves. Most waves closed out by the time I stood up. Then the other guy connected. He paddled at an angle, stroke into a three-foot wall, jumped up, positioned mid-swell, crouched down on the tail-block and held on. Grabbing the outside rail with his back to the wave he leaned into the white water that broke in front of him to quickly drive back into the swell. Now he was at the edge -- meaning the wave eased up allowing him to stand up, climb to the top of the curl and to shoot through another section for a long curl ride. He had found the take-off point and I now knew how it was done -- get onto the edge, paddle at an angle to be already moving left when catching the wave, start paddling when the swell is flat to get into the wave early, stay high in the curl and lock the rail under the lip.

Then I connected. I paddled for a wave that I was sure would close out, but it didn't. I was up early, high in the curl and sailed through the first section. I cutback, the wave built up and an inside curl took shape. I pushed into it, dropped over the edge, cut left again and shot through a second curl. What a good ride. I paddled out to the line-up and there was another one -- I went for it and scored on a second good wave. Now I was into it and managed to rapidly catch three more good ones.

After an hour, Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic came out on his beautiful hollow wood board that he had made.

"Jeff, Dillon Beach must be horrible with all this wind."

"A total mess."

"Have you been getting any waves?"

"No. This is my third surf session in three weeks -- between work, wind and lousy surf."

"So work is good? Didn't salmon season just start?" Fishing brings crowds from the Central Valley -- all towing their fishing boats to launch at Lawson's Landing at Dillon Beach.

"Yes, and everybody needs his boat fixed." Jeff was in a steep peaks and long valleys kind of business.

"Jeff, one more and I'm going in; I'm freezing," I said about ten minutes later. Then I dropped into that 'one more wave' syndrome -- nothing came, the wind kept blowing me out of the impact zone and when I did go for a wave, I missed it.

"Never, never mention 'one more wave'," Jeff said to me after floundering around for twenty minutes. "It never happens." Finally after moving north and way in, a set came through, I was in position, stroked into the first wave, climbed high in the curl and cruised through one more fun section, straightened out as the wave broke and headed for shore.

The heat of the sun thawed me out. I drove into town for a coffee and stopped at the farm stand on the edge of town to buy some fresh chard and Romaine lettuce. Driving up the Panoramic Highway I enjoyed the spectacular view of a wind-swept, white capped sea. As usual, it was just another beautiful morning in Marin.

June 1, 2012 Friday

Bolinas	Channel and Groin
9:40 am to 11:35 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
High dropping tide	Slight NW breeze
Overcast	Fun session

"Hey in an hour it will get good -- offshore, glassy with a great right peak," said John, expert surfer and owner of the Parkside Café.

"Where?"

"At the Seadrift side of the Channel. It has been there all this week and it has been fun."

With high tide at 10 am and a small west wind swell (5 ft at 8 seconds), I stopped to check out the waves at Stinson Beach before heading to Bolinas. But with John's encouraging report maybe I would just immediately paddle over to Seadrift and not waste my time at the Channel.

This morning, Julie the Bolinas local who works in the planning department of Mill Valley greeted me outside of Peet's Coffee. She raved about the good rights she got yesterday evening at the Channel. With an upcoming tide and a west swell, a peak forms in front of the Groin pole that peels right following the contour of the Channel -- known by the locals as "Malibo Rights."

Jacek the tattoo artist was coming up the ramp from checking out the waves as I was heading there with my camera in hand. I flashed him the thumbs up or thumbs down. He responded with the with the half way gesture.

"Well are you going out?"

"Yes. There's a good peak and the rights are there also. I'm going to get a longboard and sit inside for those rights." He also mentioned that last Monday evening he too connected with good Malibo rights.

Eight surfers were bunched together at the Groin including Mark the archaeologist, Hank and stand-up surfer Walt the photographer. I got a photo of each one of them on their last waves. One by one each exited the water. That's Walt on his last wave in the above photo. All three reported that the waves were not spectacular, small but fun and that it was better earlier. The crowd grew to twelve by the time I suited up.

Walking down the beach with my board in hand I looked for Jacek. I figured that our resident expert would know where to line up. He was way outside and north of the crowd. A sizeable set came through. The first wave broke twenty yards outside of the pack. Jacek turned and with one stroke caught the white water. He was up and quickly driving left through the soup to the swell. Another guy took off in front of him. Jacek moved up close to this guy and spooked him. He pulled out and Jacek sped by him and was instantly back into the swell as the wave was reforming. Jacek locked his inside rail under the lip of the curl and stood there mid-board calmly cruising along. He cutback, the wave reformed again, cut right and dropped into a perfectly formed Malibo right. On and on he went and ended up way on the inside of the lagoon channel. The wave broke and he rode the white water to the shore, got out and walked his board back to the Groin wall and re-entered the water on the north side of the Groin pole.

"That's how it is done," I said to myself -- catch the white water, work your way into a Malibo right, go as far as you can and then walk your board back to the Groin and re-enter the water there.

I executed Jacek's strategy and connected on several small fun waves. My best wave was a long right. I went for a set wave that looked like it would close out. The wave crested and broke. I stroked into the white water, jumped up and angled right. The wave reformed and I was soon standing at the top of a three-foot fast peeling curl. I stepped to the middle of the board and cruised through a fast section. I could see that the wave was building up again. I dropped into a new section and continued on. Again and again I worked that wave until I finally was in one foot of water. I stepped off and carried my board around the Groin wall to re-enter the water. What a great ride.

After two hours my arms were spent, the wind had picked up, the crowd had swelled to twenty and the current was beginning to pour out of the lagoon -- time to call it day.

With the glow of good exercise around me, I drove to Stinson Beach to see "Marinade" -- Surfrider''s photo exhibition and to purchase a soup and salad at the Lunch Box. The photo exhibition, which included one of my photos, looked great -- twenty-five excellent, professionally done photos of Marin's surf scene mounted on the far wall of the Stinson Beach Library.

I'm writing this sitting in the warm sunshine at a picnic table in the park. I chatted with Lee and Rachel of the Lunch Box, paid them for catering the opening to Surfrider's photo exhibition and pick up a bowl of split pea soup and a local greens salad for lunch that was excellent. What a great way to end another fun filled beautiful morning in Marin.