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.