January 29, 2013 Tuesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:00 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 4’
Mid upcoming tide	Cold north offshore breeze
Partial sunshine with high thin clouds	Freezing session

Cold was the story of today’s session.

“You know that it has dropped ten degrees since yesterday,” Jacek the tattoo artist called down to me as I was starting up the ramp after checking out the waves. “The thermometer at my house was 55 yesterday at this time and this morning it was 44, a ten degree drop!”

I knew it was going to be cold and that confirmed it. White caps covered the seas when I drove over the mountain, but it was glassy at Bolinas since it sits in the lee of the ridge.

“Jeff how’s the wind at Dillon Beach?” Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic had just pulled in as I was suiting up.

“It’s blowing like hell. The wind started up Friday night and has not let up for three days.” A high-pressure front was pushing out the low pressure setting up a high wind gradient.

My hands were turning numb just zipping up my wetsuit. When I entered the water, ten points along my legs screamed cold, again reminding me that I need a new wetsuit. Fortunately Kevin gave me a new pair of booties for Christmas so my toes were warm. After an hour the cold was setting in. My fingers were numb and my body was freezing, time to go in. A lite cold breeze was moving across the water, but as I moved up the ramp, the wind picked up. At the cars, a cold wind ripped down Brighton Ave. Remembering my high school physics, moving air across a wet surface causes evaporation, and evaporation draws the heat out of the object. Thus exposing wet skin to a cold wind like todays would just suck the heat out of my body. Knowing this, I kept my gloves and wetsuit on as long as possible. Then the trick was to change into dry clothes as fast as I could. The gloves came off and my hands began to stiffen. When the hands become numb, the hands become weak and I lose strength in my fingers and my ability to grip things – like my booties to push them over my heels, same with getting the legs of my wetsuit over my feet. With a concerted effort I managed to pry myself out of my wetsuit, but it was difficult. The cold wind persisted blowing and by the time I changed into dry clothes my fingers and toes were numb.

All surfers have their routines to deal with the cold. I noticed that Jeff keeps his warm, thick jacket on as long as possible. There he was with his wetsuit over his legs and body, his booties on and his jacket still wrapped over his shoulders. Hank as soon as he pulls his wetsuit down past his arms he puts on a down snow jacket. My son Kevin keeps his socks on as long as possible – meaning he pulls his wetsuit on over his body and legs while leaving his socks on. He removes one sock and puts on one booty, and then removes the second sock and pulls on his other booty.

My surfing re-hab continued today. In one hour I caught three waves – one on my knees where I moved through a nice right curl, and two lying down. By the time the waves picked me up I had to push on the nose of the board to get into the waves, which didn’t leave me time to stand up. Again I paddled for numerous waves and missed them.

The others were cutting up the waves, especially Jacek on his round-nose eight-foot board. The waves were steep and nicely peeled in both directions. Those who could jump up quickly, like Jacek, had great sessions. Hank, David who rides the Becker board, professor Steve and Dexter the Bolinas local all connected on fast curl rides. The waves improved as the tide came in and the offshore wind increased. I exited the water after an hour and as I walked down the beach I watched Jacek skillfully stroke into a four-foot peak, cut right, run to the nose and stand there as the crisp curl folded over behind him. Good ride. Someday I will be back to that level.

To top off the morning Hank and I had breakfast at the Parkside Café in Stinson Beach. A warm restaurant, hot coffee, eggs and sausage were the perfect recipe for getting the cold out of my body.

January 25, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
10:00 am to 11:00 am	2’ to 3’, sets 4’
High dropping tide	Slight offshore cross breeze
Warm sunny day, clouds on the horizon	Fun session

Today was my second session since my return to surfing. I did better; I caught four waves in an hour and again exhausted myself. My rides were nothing to write about; I’m still back to re-learning it all over again.

On my first ride, the wave broke on my back, and I rocketed towards shore in the white water lying down. I jumped up to my knees and fell off attempting to stand-up. My legs were trembling. The same thing happened on my first wave last Monday. Then I promised myself to start doing deep knee bends, 20 of them everyday to build up leg strength. My first wave today reminded me to start doing those deep knee bends. There’s no putting it off if I want to pop up quickly like I used to.

That’s Hank taking off at the Groin in the above photo. A six-foot high tide prevented waves from breaking at the Patch and the Malibo rights were forming north of the Groin Pole. The entire Groin wall was submerged. Water was rushing up the ramp making it impossible to get to the seawall, thus I went directly to the overlook above the Groin to check out the waves. I was disappointed because I wanted to go for the gentle waves at the Patch for my “surf re-hab”. But I was determined to go out and only four surfers were at the Groin – Hank, Mary, David who rides the Becker board and Mark the archaeologist.

Mark exited the water and I connected with him at the top of the ramp. He said the waves were ok; nothing spectacular and that Mary had just left paddling to the Patch, a long paddle. Hank came back to his car as I was suiting up. He too said the waves were ok and that Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water was heading out to the Patch. That did it – back to Plan A, I headed for the Patch to join Mary and Susan. The high tide had three to four-foot walls crashing into the north seawall forcing me to enter the water from the Sandbox, the patch of sand between the two seawalls. This made for a long paddle to the line up. Susan and Mary were mere specs on the water. It took me fifteen minutes to paddle out there and already my arms were feeling it.

Mary greeted me by reminding me that she too has been out of the water for several weeks due to a bad back. She also was getting back into it, re-learning little by little as she put it. I too was re-learning everything. However, Mary seemed to be doing fine. She easily caught waves, popped up quickly and skillfully maneuvered down the faces. On the other hand, I had to wait until the waves were breaking to catch them, and remain lying down to be sure I was in them, jump up to my knees and then slowly stand up. As Mary said, we were re-learning it little by little.

After my fourth wave I headed for shore. I had been out for an hour and was exhausted, why push it? But getting in was a hassle. The tide was still high and the three to four-foot shore break was pounding the north seawall. I figured I would go directly in and go up the metal gangplank at the north end of the seawall, walk along the top and go down the ladder rungs that are bolted into the south end. Besides my arms were tired. Easier said than done. To my surprise, the gangplank would not pull down. Then my only option was to re-enter the water and paddle around the wall. With my exhausted arms I struggled to get out beyond the shore pounders, paddle the length of the wall and to head in. When I was about six feet from shore I jumped off my board to walk to in. Wrong! The water was still over my head. The currents had gouged out a deep channel along the shore. A big pounder came through, picked me up and deposited me on dry sand.

Sitting out there between sets I soaked up the scenery. The weather was perfect; much warmer than Monday, even the water was warmer -- bright sunshine, blue water, spray coming off the tops of the curls. By noon the wind had died and the surface glassed off. Now I realized just how much I had missed these perfect Marin mornings.

January 21, 2013 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
10:50 am to 11:50 am	3’ to 4’
Mid outgoing tide	Stiff offshore breeze
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

In one hour, I caught three waves: one I rode on my knees, one was a good wave and the third I rode laying down. In between I paddled for and missed numerous waves. It was my first time in the water since October 17^th – 95 days!

Reason was due to an internal infection that developed in the area vacated by my prostate that was removed last August 21^st. That operation went well and the doctor was confident that all the cancer was in my prostate and that none of it escaped into other parts of my body. Recovery went well and in two months (58 days) I went back into the water. I surfed twice that week and around November 1^st an internal infection hit me like a hammer and put me back in the hospital for four days while doctors “drained” the swelling. I watched the election returns from my hospital bed. Three weeks later my doctor claimed the drainage and antibiotics had killed all the bacteria, but to play safe he advised me to stay out of the water until mid-January. You never know what bad stuff could be floating around out there. Last week he gave me the final ok and today was my first day back.

This was my third time surfing in the last five months (153 days), and boy was I out of shape. My arms could barely push me through the water and my weak legs made popping up impossible. I have to re-learn all the surfing moves, which was why I was going for the gentle waves at the Patch. I had to let waves break on me to catch them, pop up to my knees to make sure I was in the waves and slowly rise to my feet. Humbled! But it was worth it. The scenery was beautiful, blue water, high clouds on the horizon and spray coming off the tops of the curls. And I had a great time running into the old gang. I had stopped at Stinson to check the waves and met Dexter the Bolinas local and DB the Safeway checker as they entered the Parkside for breakfast. In the Brighton Ave parking area, Russ the stand-up guy and Mark the archaeologist greeted me. Hank had just exited the water as I headed for the Patch. David who rides the Becker board and I shared the waves at the inside peak. After my session, I stopped in the 2-Mile Surf Shop to chat with Jaime the starving artist. As I was leaving, Martha from Sausalito pulled up with her classic Dewey Weber board. The good vibes were back – small no-fear waves, beautiful scenery and friendly companions.

Today was also a special day – the 49ers had defeated the Green Packers 28 to 24 yesterday and were now into the Superbowl. Peter Mel won the Mavericks Big Wave surf contest that was held yesterday in ideal weather conditions. Remnants of that swell were still hitting our coast. Today was the Martin Luther King holiday and the second inauguration of president Barack Obama. On my way to the beach I listened to his inauguration address and on the way home KPFA played Dr. King’s historic 1968 speech where he condemned the Viet Nam war. As I have often said, it was just another beautiful morning in Marin and this time I’m back.

January 8, 2013 Tuesday

Jamil Yogis – The Fear Project

Today was the release date for Jaimal Yogis’ second book The Fear Project. His first book, Saltwater Buddha, (a book I loved) had done well and is being made into a documentary. Jaimal is now a successful journalist and regularly writes for the San Francisco Magazine, Surfer and several others.

I traveled by ferry to the city to attend his talk and book signing at Book Passage in the Ferry Building. I arrived early and immediately went into the store to purchase a copy. The bookseller, a friendly gentleman about my age, told me that this was the first time an author to one of their events was going to arrive by water. Jaimal and his good friend Jamie Patrick were swimming 2.4 miles from Yerba Buena Island to the Embarcadero and would arrive at a stairwell near that silly rocket statue perched next to the water – a promotional stunt, but an affective one.

A photo opportunity I thought. So I hustled out to the rocket, saw a KUTV Channel 2 news truck parked out front and a camera crew heading out to the tourist pier there. I followed them. They set up at the end of the pier and so did I. A classic sailing yacht was slowly motoring behind two bodies swimming towards the city. They would power swim for a few minutes, pause a few moments and then start up again. I was impressed at how fast they stroked through the water. Within minutes they were at the base of the pier. Both the camera crew and I moved to get some pictures of them exiting the water. That’s them in the above photo, Jaimal is on the left and Jamie on the right. A small crowd of enthusiastic friends was on hand to greet them.

At the end of his talk, Jaimal’s mother, who was in the audience, reminded him to introduce Jamie Patrick, who is a big part of the book. Jamie is a long distance swimmer, who managed to overcome his fears to swim incredible distances, like a 100 miles.

Book Passage is a small store that is crammed with books. Since all the bookcases were on wheels, the store manager quickly pushed them around to make space for a podium and twenty-five folding chairs. By 6:30 pm seventy people (my estimate) had jammed into the store to hear Jaimal speak, most were standing, including me.

Jaimal began by relating how he got onto the topic of fear. One hang-up all his life has been fear of facing a crowd. A fear that caused more terror in him than the gnarly breaks that he has surfed. To promote his first book he had to speak in front of groups numerous times. This forced him to face his fear of public speaking and to overcome it. That started him on his study of fear, which became a multi-year pursuit. By the end of his talk, I was convinced that he had become an expert on fear, all forms of fear. He extensively read scientific studies, and interviewed professors, extreme athletes and others who had gone through fearful events. He recited the areas of the brain and how they react and influence the rest of the body in periods of fright. His theme is that we humans can and should face our fears to reduce anxiety and stress.

Positive exposure to one’s fear is one method of overcoming it. He gave three personal examples. One, his five-month old son had developed a fear of his crib and would incessantly cry while in it. Of course this was driving the parents nuts. So Jaimal spent two nights sleeping in the crib with his baby son, to the torture of his back. But it worked. His son immediately dropped his fear of the crib and now loves being in it.

Two, fear of great white sharks. Jaimal faced this one by going on a shark-cage dive off of the Farallon Islands. With wetsuit on, an air hose for oxygen, Jaimal climbed into a small cage of steel tubing and was lowered underwater near where sharks had just attacked a sea lion. After several minutes of nothing but darkness, he saw a dark shadow moving underneath him. Jaimal couldn’t believe the size of this creature, big enough for him to skateboard down its back. The shark gracefully glided back and forth by the cage and showed no interest in the human inside. Jaimal was stunned by the size, grace, speed and agility of this beast. By watching it closely, he gained such an appreciation of its beauty that he wanted to climb on its back and go with it. Since that trip, Jaimal has become a strong advocate for the preservation of sharks.

Three, fear of big waves. Jaimal worked up the courage to ride the big waves at Mavericks. During the Q&A session, I asked him what it is like to peer over the edge of a gigantic thirty-foot wave. “Terrifying!” And he got pounded, but the pounding wasn’t as bad as he had feared. He went back out and did it again. Jaimal did it enough times that the experience was beginning to be fun. He has spoken with several Mavericks surfers who had near death experiences, and all had to start from the beginning to overcome their fears again.

That reminded me of Greg Noll’s experience. In 1969 Greg paddled into the largest wave ever ridden. He dropped down the face and was buried by tons of white water; he barely survived and he left surfing for good on that day.

In his talk, Jaimal related several stories, events and facts regarding other forms of fear that kept the audience enthralled. He spoke for over an hour and very few people left. Normally after an author completes a talk and opens it up to questions, a large portion of the audience exits. But not this evening, the entire audience hung in there for another 45 minutes until the store manage forced the session to end. Jaimal was still there signing books when I had to dash out the door to make the 8:10 ferry home.

What a stimulating talk on an interesting subject. I’m looking forward to reading the book.