August 17, 2012 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
8:45 am to 11:00 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 4’
Mid upcoming tide	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Overcast to patchy sun	Great session

 Today was a special day. It was my last surf session for at least six weeks, because I was scheduled for prostate cancer surgery next Tuesday, with sign-in and pre-op on Monday. Thus today was it, and I was determined to go out no matter what. The cancer was detected last March, and since prostate cancer progresses slowly we scheduled the operation for August 21^st, after Kate and mine and the doctor’s vacations. So for five months I knew this day was coming. Fortunately, the surf conditions were great.

Ten surfers were bunched together at a peak straight out from the Groin pole, including regulars: Doug, Ray the Petaluma fireman, Kathy the biology teacher, David who rides the Becker board and Russ the stand-up guy. They were scrambling for the infrequent small, fast peeling, glassy curls. “Knee-high curls, my kind of waves; I’m going.”

As I entered the water, I noticed that the set waves peaked north of the pack and peeled right up to the sand. I decided to separate myself from the crowd and go for those waves. I lined up at the end of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp and waited. Within a couple of minutes, I stroked into a three-foot curl, hung high in the curl and cruised across a perfectly formed wave until it crashed on the shore. That did it; this was my spot. I quickly connected on two more good waves.

Further north and inside of me was the surfer that I had seen last Friday who skillfully caught numerous small curls. This guy knew what he was doing – smoothly and with great speed he would paddle into small flat waves, glide into waves, cleanly turn left, take one step, pause to make sure he was in the wave and then walk the nose and plant five toes on the tip of the board. He had light hair, thin, 40 years or so, with no booties or leash on a nose riding longboard. I heard him mention the other day that he had learned to surf at Malibu and to beat the crowd he moved to Point Dune, which is north of Malibu and just south of Zuma Beach. To me he was “Mr. Malibu” – reason, he had the ability to ride six-inch waves. That’s him in the above photo. All the regulars at Malibu can ride six-inch waves. They have to for two reasons: one, to beat the crowd and two, most of the time the waves are tiny. Malibu breaks on summer south swells. The rest of the year it is flat or barely breaking when the big north swells wrap around the point into the south facing beach. Today, between sets, Mr. Malibu caught one tiny wave after another. He also had the ability to see the sets coming. Whenever a set came through, he was in position to catch the first wave. He never stopped moving, catch a wave, paddle out and immediately catch another one, regardless of size.

Following his lead, I went for every wave I could catch. For nearly an hour only Mr. Malibu and I were on this peak. Later, David moved over to join us. The three of us shared this peak for another hour. Conditions improved: the sun broke through the clouds, the wind died and the water was warm. Since this was my last session for a while, I kept going until I couldn’t lift my arms anymore. 

Driving up the Panoramic Highway, above Stinson Beach, I looked back on the deep blue ocean and thought it couldn’t have been better – warm water, glassy surface, a friendly crowd and clean crisp knee-high curls. 

August 10, 2012 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
8:45 am to 10:30 am	1' to 2', sets to 3'
Mid dropping tide	Slight NW cross breeze
Fog to patchy sun	Fun session

At 8 am I saw fifteen surfers at the Groin with Mary paddling over from the Patch and Susan who always wears sunglasses entering the water. Regulars out there were: Jacek the tattoo artist, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Dexter the Bolinas local, David who rides the Becker board, Matt from Petaluma, and Bridget, another Bolinas local.

Matt pulled up as I was changing the lens on my camera. He mentioned that he had not been surfing in awhile and wondered if he could do it. "Matt, it's just like riding a bike." Bicycles were the reason Matt had not been in the water. He had recently purchased a carbon-fiber road bike and was riding that everyday. Also work had been steady - Matt does the computer design work for a large Marin landscape architecture firm. When the economy crashed in 2008 Matt was in the water a lot. Recently we hadn't seen him because he has been busy working. Out in the water, I watched Matt connect with several waves. True he wasn't at his best, but he certainly knew what he was doing.

"I'm back into it!" he said after our session.

"Just how long has it been?"

"Weekend before fathers day, I went surfing with my son. That was the last time." Another words - two months. Matt was stoked and said I would see him again next week out here.

Why were there so many surfers in the water? Answer - it was Friday and there was a heat wave. The NOAA weather radio issued a hot weather warning for the next three days. A high pressure system was blocking out the cooler moist air, resulting in triple digit temperatures -- spare the air days, possible power outages due to excessive use of air conditioners, stay in doors, don't be active and wear loose fitting clothes. But to my surprise, on-the-deck fog hung over Stinson Beach and Bolinas and a cool breeze put a texture on the surface of the water. The waves were small and flat - buoy report was 7.9 ft N swell at 9 seconds with a 1.1 south swell at 17 seconds and a W wind at 4 mph.

To beat the crowd I paddled out to the north end of the pack and sat inside. The set waves had a good left line-up along the shore ending at the house on the south side of the ramp. I managed to quickly catch two small waves that peeled to the left all the way to the sand. Later I drifted out to the middle of the pack to converse with Jaime, Jacek, and Dexter. All three of us competed for the infrequent set waves. I managed to catch a couple, but spent most of the time waiting for the next set. Jacek, as usual, glided into the set waves early, cut left, hung at the top, walked the nose, dropped down the face as the waves broke, crouched down, grabbed the outside rail and hung on to work back into the swell. He did that again and again.

I noticed that David had drifted back to the inside peak and I decided to join him. Wednesday David had mentioned that there was a surfer who sat way inside, caught all the good small waves, walked the nose and hung five on all of them. He was there again - calmly sitting ten yards over and ten yards closer to shore. Light hair, thin, 40 years or so, no booties and no leash on a nose riding longboard. He would smoothly and with great speed paddle into these flat small waves, glide into the waves, cleanly turn left, take one step, pause to insure he was in the wave and then walk up to the nose, plant five toes on the tip of the board, calmly walk back and drive the board into the white water when the wave broke on the sand. The guy knew what he was doing. I noticed that he would start paddling out and over because he saw the sets coming way before I did. Thus when the waves arrived, he was in position, stroked into the first one of every set and drove them all the way to the sand.

Out in the water, a friendly surfer started chatting about how good Bolinas was and how he loved to come here. Also, he couldn't believe the cool weather. It was 105 degrees at his place yesterday.

"Where do you live?"

"In the valley, near Vacaville, on the way to Sacramento."

"The fog must have been a pleasant sight."

"You got that right."

"Coming from Vacaville, why did you pick Bolinas and not Ocean Beach, Salmon Creek or Pacifica?"

"I like Bolinas. I knew it would be good. Besides Ocean Beach doesn't get good until the fall - September and October."

The sand was out. When I entered the water, the waves were pushing up the ramp. Even though the tide was going out, when I exited the water the waves were still pushing up the ramp. I had watched Jacek and his friend dodge the waves shooting up the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp, and thus I decided to paddle over to the ramp to avoid the waves crashing into the retaining wall. As I paddled in, I was pushed in by one breaking wave and put my feet down expecting to feel sand. To my surprise I was on rocks. All the sand in front of the ramp was gone and the underlying rocks were exposed.

As I changed, the fog lifted and the sun burst out. As always, it was another beautiful Marin morning.

August 8, 2012 Wednesday - Part 2

The Becker T-Shirts

For years I have thought that David who rides the Becker board needed a Becker T-shirt. So I bought him one and one for myself on my trip down to Southern California. Kate and I stopped at our favorite surf shop: Becker Surfboards on Pier Ave in Hermosa Beach. Within thirty minutes we quickly picked out over $150 of clothing items for our kids, friends and ourselves.

The Becker Shop and Becker Surfboards have a special significance for me. The shop opened in 1980 and at that time we lived in Manhattan Beach. It quickly gained the reputation as the best surf shop in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Due to family and career, I was not surfing at that time, but I would visit the shop to gawk at the boards and dream about taking up surfing again. We moved to Mill Valley in 1983 and would travel every summer to Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes to visit family and friends. A highlight of the summer trip was a visit to the Becker shop for t-shirts, sandals, trunks and Becker sweat shirts. Any time we are in the South Bay, we go out of our way to visit the Becker Shop on Pier Ave.

In 1988, after his third year in the Junior Life Guards program in Hermosa Beach, my twelve-year-old son Kevin announced he was going to buy a surfboard with his own money. Wow, I was all for it – lets go. I pulled out my old 10’ 6” longboard that had been in storeroom under my mother’s house since my college days (1967). That got me back into surfing. Kevin and I have been surfing together ever since. The next summer I purchased a like-new 9’ 0” Becker used board at the shop and surfed it until it fell apart five years later. In his quiver of shortboards, Kevin has one longboard, an 8’ 0’’ Becker, a Mike Gee model.

Here’s a couple of facts about Phil Becker from Matt Warshaw’s Encyclopedia of Surfing: Phil Becker learned his craft from surfboard pioneers Dale Velzy and Hap Jacobs and became the primary shaper for Rick Surfboards in Hermosa Beach from 1958 to 1979. In 1980 he started Becker Surfboards, cranking out ten boards a day and passed the 100,000-board mark in 2000, putting him 25,000 boards ahead of anyone else in the world. Becker continues to use the Rockwell planer he bought in 1965, a power tool that is no longer in production, thus he has to occasionally rebuild it himself. If you are ever in Hermosa Beach, swing by Becker Shop on Pier Ave, you won’t be disappointed.

August 8, 2012 Wednesday - Part 1

Bolinas	Groin
9:15 am to 10:45 am	Consistent 2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low tide (2.1 ft at 10:00 am)	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Sunny and warm - start of a heat wave	Good session

 Today was my first day back in the water at Bolinas after my two-week trip down south. I surfed five times - C Street in Ventura, twice at San Onofre and twice at Torrance Beach. All were good sessions, but the swells were small and I was snaked on two days due to high winds. Monday, Kate and I made the beautiful drive from Morro Bay up Highway 1 to Mill Valley, and due to strong NW winds we viewed white caps for the whole two hundred mile journey.

But this morning as soon as I saw the nice clean lines of left peeling waves at the Groin I knew I was in for a good session. Data from the Internet gave the possibility of some waves - 2.5 to 3 ft south swell at 17 seconds, NW wind at 10 knots, warm weather and water temperature at 55 degrees. Six surfers were at the Groin and I knew five of them - Jacek the tattoo artist, Marty, Hank, Professor Steve and David who rides the Becker board. The Patch looked ok and Mary and Walt on his stand-up were out there. But the fast peeling lefts were my choice. That's Hank on the inside wave and Jacek on the outside one in the above photo.

While paddling out I saw Jacek on a good one. He was riding his 9' 6" classic, glassed in single fin Murphy (a San Diego shaper) longboard. He easily stroked into a glassy four foot wall, cut left, crouched down, grabbed the outside rail and hung on through the first section. He cruised under the white water and back into the swell, climbed high in the curl, stepped to the nose and calmly stood there as he hummed down a long continuously peeling left curl. On he went until the wave finally closed out near shore. That's how it's done, I thought to myself.

The sets were infrequent and we all sat there patiently waiting for the waves. I was anxious to catch one and thus went for the first bump in the water that I saw. On my first two waves, the curls peeled a little too fast and closed out in front of me. On my third wave, I connected. A set came in and the others went for the first two, leaving me in position for the third wave. I paddled towards the peak, glided into the wave, jumped up and cut left as the curl was standing up. I stayed high in the wave, stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down and shot through the first section. The wave paused for an instant and then jumped up again. I leaned into the curl, climbed to the top of the wave, stepped closer to the nose, locked the rail under the lip and hung there on the side of the wave shooting through a paper thin curl. I could feel my skeg lifting out of the water as the curl collapsed in front of me. What a great ride.

All of us were amazed at how ideal conditions were - warm, sunny, plate glass smooth and crystal clear water. The waves were clean ground swells that would start breaking in front of the Groin pole and peel continuously down the line. We were sitting twenty yards to the north and would watch them breaking towards us before turning to paddle for them. By being to the north, we could connect with the inside shore break curls. I watched David get one long ride after another from this position.

What a beautiful morning and what a good session. It felt great to be back at my home break. 

August 4, 2012 Saturday

Torrance Beach	South end
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 3.5’
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Patchy sun	Fun session

“You know that I caught my first wave right here.”

My friend Chris was on a stand-up board at the south end of Torrance Beach and Chuck and I were sitting on our boards waiting for one of the infrequent set waves. He was right. At this exact spot was where all three of us learned to surf in the summers of 1958 and 59 – 53 years ago.

Last night Kate and I attended a high school reunion beach party for the class of ’63 (my class) held at the Portuguese Bend Club on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Chuck and I made plans to surf the next morning at Rat Beach where Torrance ends and Palos Verdes begins – also where the sand ends and the rocks begin. Chris overheard us and insisted that since there was a south swell we should meet at his house and surf at our old spot where we surfed everyday as kids. We had grown up together from first grade through high school, and coming together at the reunion was a treat. For years going to the beach was the highlight of summer for us. Through the years we had progressed from the Palos Verdes Swim Club pool, to surf mats, to body surfing, to skim boards, to as freshmen in high school surfboards. With its large parking lot, Torrance Beach was the closest sand beach and thus it became our local spot. We learned here, and Chris quickly became the expert. I was amazed at how fast he picked up surfing; he was a natural.

Both of my friends have had successful careers. Chuck spend twenty plus years as a rep for the major stereo equipment manufactures, and then reinvented himself and became an elementary school teacher, at our old school. After several years teaching, he has retired and now surfs and pursues volunteer activities. After college Chris started out as a L.A. County lifeguard and then jumped into business and real estate. Success in business has allowed him to purchase a beautiful home on the bluff above Torrance Beach, above the very spot where we learned to surf.

When I pulled up to Chris’s house this morning, Chris and Chuck were already in the water. Walking through the garage I noticed Chris’s line-up of twenty surfboards and a shelf full of trophies Chris and his son had won over the years. A concrete path led around the house and switched back and forth down the hill to a patio just above the beach complete with patio furniture and a heated shower. The gate through the fence opened onto the sand of the county beach. After a short walk across the sand, I paddled out to greet my friends.

Like the other day, the waves were not much to write about -- small, glassy peaks, with shape and some speed but were infrequent. We spent most of the morning reminiscing about the old days. Chris reminded me that ten of us use to keep our boards at our friend David’s house in the Malaga Cove area (which is just a block from the classic surf spot, Haggerty’s). I would ride my bike five miles to David’s house, David and I would carry our boards a mile to Torrance Beach, surf all morning, walk back, have a tuna sandwich for lunch, and then I would ride five miles back uphill to my house and nap the rest of the day. My mother thought I was a bum, but that was the summer that I lost all my baby fat.

Chris remembered his favorite surfboard of those days. Hobie had a sale one weekend, the first surfboard sale ever. Chris, David, and a couple others talked their parents into driving to Dana Point, the home of Hobie’s shop, to purchased brand new foam boards. They kept their new boards in David’s backyard, and guess what? Someone stole the new Hobie boards. They didn’t bother taking my piece of crap balsa board. Chris was crushed; he loved that board.

We also talked about how the water has improved from those old days. Then, the county cut the kelp every summer, the old tankers emptied their bilges offshore causing tons of tar to float onto the beach and the water was always murky. Today the kelp has returned and so have the dolphins, the water was clear and there was no tar on the beach.

We had a great morning talking about the old days, meeting several of Chris’s friends that were in the water and catching a few nice knee-high curls. The hot water shower on Chris’s patio really hit the spot. I extended the invite to them to join us in Bolinas, but I was sure that being creatures of comfort, the cold water would keep them away.