October 26, 2012 Friday

Chasing Mavericks

Kate and I ventured to the Northgate Cineplex of fifteen theaters for the opening of Chasing Mavericks, the true story of Jay Moriarity, staring Gerard Butler as Jay’s mentor Frosty, and Jonny Weston as Jay, directed and produced by Curtis Hanson.

I had not been to this theater complex in years. But think about it, fifteen theaters in a mall on a Friday night, yes it was a teenage gathering. The theater was packed with hundreds of squirming and loud youth of Marin, and in the middle of this teaming mass sat the mature surfers of Bolinas: Marty, Mary, Hank and Gail, Kathy the biology teacher and her husband Clark, Jaime the starving artist and his wife and Kate and I. The movement and the noise were getting to me. I was ready to jump up and scream for silence, but fortunately the gum chewing set settled down when the movie started.

All of us knew the story of Jay Moriarity before going into the theater. In case you don’t, here it is: Jay burst onto the surfing scene in 1993 when Surfer Magazine published a cover photo of him going tail first over the falls on a thirty-foot Mavericks wave, one of the worst wipeouts ever recorded. It was his first wave at Mavericks. However, he quickly recovered and charged back out there to connect on three great rides. Jay became one of the Mavericks regulars and was always in the line-up when the big swells came through. Unfortunately, he drowned at age 22 in a free-dive exercise in the South Pacific.

For surfers, especially Northern California surfers, Chasing Mavericks is a must see movie. This is not your phony Hollywood surf party movie where you see Frankie Avalon on a flat sea with someone spraying water on him that then cuts away to Greg Noll dropping down a thirty-foot face at Waimea. The surf scenes in this movie are spectacular – out in the water close-ups of the gigantic tunnels of the Mavericks monsters. Boats and jet skies are tossed around and the wipeouts are for real. Mavericks regulars, Peter Mel, Greg Long, Sean Taylor and Grant Washburn, provide epic rides. The force and power of these waves stuns the audience.

The Northern California scenery is also impressive -- with plenty of overhead shots of traveling down Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. I recognized several locations: Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Steamers Lane, The Hook, Ross’ Cove, Montara, Pescadero and even Linda Mar (one shot).

The surf and scenery make this movie worthwhile, but so does the story. Jay has an obsession to surf Mavericks. He hounds an older Mavericks surfer, Frosty, to teach him. After weeks of Jay’s persistence, Frosty reluctantly agrees to teach Jay how to survive, not ride the waves, but to survive. A good deal of the movie is Jay and Frosty training. Frosty pushes Jay to paddle the 35 miles from Santa Cruz to Monterey. To do it, Jay has to study the currents and the tides. Frosty insists that Jay be able to hold his breath for four minutes. Jay passes out in school attempting to hit the four-minute mark. There was also general conditioning – running, push-ups, swimming and treading water while holding up a chair. Of course all of this pays off and Jay successfully conquers the monster Maverick waves.

But the main story of this movie is Jay himself. The force of his personality impacted everyone around him. He never said anything negative against anyone and attempted to help everyone. He was so fired up on life, so positive, so optimistic that his actions caused everyone around him to improve. He straightened out his mother. Jay’s father had left them and his mother was sinking into self-pity and alcohol. Every morning Jay got up early to make her coffee, to iron her waitress uniform and to get her up and off to work. Over time she revives, takes control of her life and is promoted to supervisor. Jay’s personality rubs off on Frosty. Through Jay’s constant positive presence, Frosty starts paying attention to his daughter and his wife. He comes to realize how important these two are to him – warning, this is a tear jerking part of the movie and I will say no more. Jay’s personality impacts his girl friend, who comes to realize his positive attitude is what she wants for the rest of her life, and they do get married. His aura also impacts his life-long friend who is sinking into the drug culture.

Jay’s brief life influenced so many people. He is a legend in Santa Cruz. The movie ends with a fade away shot of graffiti scrolled across a wall near The Hook – “Live Like Jay”

**** Four stars out of five on the Lorenzo movie scale. ****

October 17, 2012 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:50 am to 11:20 am	2’, sets to 3’
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Sunny, clear and warm – heat wave	Fun session

 Monday’s session had energized me for today’s adventure. With that one successful outing I overcame several doubts, such as:

I had gained weight, thus could I still get into my wetsuit? Sunday afternoon I tried on my wetsuit on the patio at home. It was tight, but I still could get into it.

Would the muscles in my abdomen around the incision bother me? Answer – no. I felt no discomfort at all.

My arms were weak, would they hold up? Answer – yes. I could paddle out to the line-up and catch waves. True my arms were weak, but they will get stronger with each session.

Would I be able to stand the cold water? Answer – yes, no problem. By Bolinas standards the water was warm – 57 degrees according to the SF buoy – warm enough to go out without gloves.

My legs were weak, would I be able to jump up? Answer – yes. On my first wave, a four-foot peak, I jumped right up without thinking about it. I even surprised myself.

Endurance? Could I last an hour? Answer – yes. I was out for an hour and twenty minutes. True my arms were spent and I could not have lasted any longer.

So I confidently headed to the beach.

 “Jacek, you just confirmed my decision. You are headed to the Patch.”

With board in hand Jacek had just gingerly stepped down the boulders of the first seawall on his way to the Patch. I had just snapped some photos and was returning to my car to suit up. Since my arms were out of shape, I had decided to go out to the Patch again. Now our surf expert, Jacek, had passed on the bigger and steeper waves of the Channel and decided on the Patch also.

“Everybody I know is out there,” he said pointing to the Patch with his board. “And I missed being with them. Besides, I hate going left,” and off he charged down the beach.

The waves were smaller than Monday (6.8 ft NW swell at 12 seconds with a 1 ft south swell at 16 seconds), there was no fog, the sky was clear and the air was warm. Seven surfers were at the Patch and an aggressive crowd of twelve shortboarders was bunched at the main peak at the Channel. Marty, who was at the Channel, told me later that Nate the co-owner of the Proof Lab surf shop dominated the peak. Out at the Patch were Hank, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, Shu-Shu from Dogtown, Matt and Walt the photographer on his stand-up. The sets were infrequent and the waves lacked punch. The best waves were the inside curls that Hank and Jaime were going for. That’s Hank on a good one in the above photo.

It took me a while to suit up because I had to say hello to everyone and get caught up.

Frank the stand-up guy announced that he was heading to the San Diego area next week and that he would go to VG Donuts and give us all a report.

Doug told me about taking the ferry into the City to see the first Giants play-off game with the Cincinnati Reds. That was a special day for San Francisco due to the number of events going on: fleet week, the Blue Angels, America’s Cup catamaran race and the Giants play-off game.

Hans drove by, rolled down his window to tell me that it was him in the photo that I sent him Monday evening. He recognized the baldhead.

Jack showed off the photos of his recent fishing trip, 40 miles out to sea, where he caught two twenty pound plus albacore tunas, which he personally fileted and had smoked by a local butcher.

I asked Ray the Petaluma fireman if he was on alert this weekend due to the hot dry weather. He proudly announced that he had retired. I congratulated him. So from now on I will refer to him as the Retired Petaluma Fireman.

Most of the crowd at the Patch had gone in by the time I paddled out there. Shu-Shu exited the water as I entered. I chatted briefly with Hank who caught one more wave and went in. David, DB, and I spent an hour sharing waves at the south right peak. They were small, infrequent and lacked power. On Monday I caught four waves, today I connected on at least ten, more waves today but nothing really exciting. Steve the stand-up surfer with the Hawaiian style of paddling (on his knees, butt on heels, and switches his paddle from one side to the other every two strokes) was out there. I had forgotten how good he is. He caught every flat, tiny wave that he tried for, drifted into the breaking part of the wave, swung around right and walked the nose on two-foot flat Patch waves.

After an hour and with the tide rapidly coming up, the waves died; they literally disappeared. DB with in and David and I drifted around hoping to catch another wave. I told him one more wave and I would go in, and then we sat there, drifting further and further closer to shore in hopes of connecting. Finally a wave came, and we both went for it. The wave broke, and I caught the white water and bellied it in. While speeding towards the rocks on shore, I watched David skillfully work the curl on our last little wave. Meanwhile, the high tide had the waves mashing against the retaining wall of the house closest to the Patch. David wisely paddled around the wall. Since my arms were exhausted I decided to exit and attempt running front of the wall. What a mistake, a three-foot shore pounder knocked me over. So I re-entered the water and paddled around the wall also.

Again it was a beautiful morning, and I now had two post-operation sessions in the book.

October 15, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 10:40 am	3’ to 4’, sets head-high
Mid upcoming tide (6.4’ at 11:15 am)	Offshore breeze to no wind to onshore breeze
On the deck fog to patchy sun	Fun session

I’M BACK!

I was out in the water for little over an hour. I caught four waves – three were good and one was so-so. My arms were tired, but not exhausted. My legs and body felt active and strong, and my spirits had just been dramatically lifted. All my doubts were gone. I’m back!

I had considerable apprehension about going back out into the water. From August 17^th, my last day surfing before my operation for prostate cancer to today (two months – 58 days to be exact), I had not surfed nor have I exercised much. Surgery physically takes it out of you, and after two weeks of inactivity lethargy sets in. The body shifts into a different mode – muscles relax and become flabby, arms and legs become weak, and this lethargy occurs more readily in older people, like myself. During my recovery I could feel myself becoming weaker, I gained weight and simple exercise, like walking into town and back, caused my legs to tremble.

How could I jump on a board and paddle out? Over a week ago, my doctor gave me the ok to go surfing. My first tactic would be to exercise at home – long walks, sit-ups and lifting of ten-pound dumb bells – to gain some strength first. In reality I barely exercised at all. Last Wednesday I shifted course when I went out to Bolinas to collect water samples for Surfrider’s water quality program. It was a beautiful day and something snapped watching Hank, Mary and David who rides the Becker board in the water. What am I doing? I have to get out there. Surfing should be my main form of exercise for getting back into shape. It’s great exercise, the scenery is beautiful, it’s fun and it connects me with my friends. I can vary the amount of exercise – start off slow, don’t over do it, build it up over time and do the other exercise (walking, jogging and lifting weights) to supplement surfing. That way I will break out of my lethargy, strengthen my body, lose weight and feel good about myself. I set a goal for myself, next Monday I’m going out.

I woke up this morning determined to go surfing. I figured I would go for the gentle waves at the Patch. The weather was changing, a high-pressure ridge was moving in and the temperatures would rise. Coming down the Panoramic Highway I dropped into on-the-deck fog that blanketed all of Stinson and Bolinas Bay. With camera in hand, I tried to take some photos from the seawall at the base of the ramp, but couldn’t, the fog was too thick. I could barely make out two surfers at the Groin. At the Patch I saw the outlines of one stand-up surfer (I guessed that was Frank) and one surfer getting a nice ride on the inside at Robinson’s Reef. I figured this had to be David who rides the Becker board. So the crowd was at the Patch, thus I would head there.

Paddling out a set of five four-foot walls came through. David was on the first wave and cruised by me, and Hank caught the one way outside and rode it all the way in. Once out at the line-up, I saluted everyone to hoots of welcome back. It was good to see the old crowd again back in the water: David, Hank, Marty, Shu-Shu from Dogtown, Jacek the tattoo artist, DB the Safeway checker, Hans, Mark the archaeologist and Bill from Berkeley on his water ski.

The waves were bigger than they looked and had some force – 4.6 ft NW swell at 16 seconds with a 1.5 ft south swell at 17 seconds. Jacek said that yesterday was good but that today the waves were bigger. My first ride was a good one. I paddled for a couple and missed them. With my weak arms, I knew that the waves had to be breaking on me for me to catch them. I missed one and was inside with Hank and Marty. The next wave was cresting and I went for it. What a thrill to feel the wave pick me up and for me to start gliding down it. I jumped up and looked at a head-high right curl forming in front of me. Mark saw me and pulled back to let me have it. I cruised down a well-formed peak, staying just ahead of the white water. The wave had some speed, I coasted out onto the shoulder, attempted to cutback but the wave died. But what a great feeling – I was back.

All of us connected on some good waves. There was Jacek dropping down a head-high face, cutting a sharp bottom turn, climbing back up to the top of the curl and stepping to the front of the board to cruise down a long section. While paddling out I watched Marty stroke into a steep peak and nearly hit me as he cruised on by. David sat south and inside to connect with the fast inside right curls, of which he caught several.

After our session, Marty and I walked into town for coffee and walked back to the seawall to watch the bigger swells and crashing waves. By now the six foot high tide was all the way in. The swell was getting bigger and the waves pounded the retaining walls of the houses on both sides of the ramp. David was struggling to get to shore. He had to time it between waves before charging to the beach north of the first seawall. David exited the water at noon. He went in at 8 am, a four-hour session. How does he do it? I could barely last an hour. Hey give me a few more sessions and I will hit the four-hour mark. (Careful Lorenzo, this is a fantasy – I will never be able to stay out for four hours, but one can dream).

It was another beautiful morning in Marin and it sure felt good to be back.