February 27, 2013 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:15 am to 11:20 am	2’ to 3’, frequent 4’ sets
Mid upcoming tide	Slight north cross breeze
Warm sunny day	Fun session

Yesterday Hank sent out a broadcast email stating how good the Patch was and that missing in action were Marty and Loren. What, a challenge? How dare he. Marty shot back that we would be there the next day, Wednesday, the day that Marty and I collect water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program, of course we would be there.

Hank was right; today’s conditions matched yesterday’s and the whole crew was on it, including Marty and I. Conditions were good: a new swell had arrived (8 ft at 14 seconds), again very north resulting in small lines at Bolinas that stretched across the impact zone of the Patch. The overcast disappeared around 9 o’clock, and the sun came marching out, warming up the air to 60 degrees. A good swell and warm temperatures brought the crew out.

Martha and her son Woody were there with their classic Dewey Weber longboards. Woody is a member of the Dewey Weber surf team. I hadn’t seen Woody for a couple of years and he had grown. Per Martha he is 6’ 5” – tall and lanky. After graduating from my alma mater, UCSB, Woody worked two years in Santa Barbara and had recently taken a new position with Merrill Lynch in Mill Valley. Thus we will be seeing a lot more of him at Bolinas.

Jack the Dave Sweet team rider came up the ramp. I hadn’t seen him since my operation last August. He had just returned from a trip to Florida where he did a little fishing (Jack is an avid fisherman) and a whole lot of relaxing. The weather was warm and sunny and demanded wearing of shorts and Aloha shirts. Jack had to show all of us the three-foot long crack he just put in his transparent, light green classic Dave Sweet board. He claimed he was weaving around the rocks at the Patch when he collided with a mean old nasty one. He told us not to worry because he has patched boards all of his life and would quickly fix this one.

When I went down to the seawall to take some pictures, no one was at the Channel and ten surfers were spread across several peaks at the Patch. Marty connected on a good long right wave before I could focus my camera. He rode the curl right up to the shore and exited the water. He told me he had a good session and that he scored several good lefts on the north side of the Patch. That sounded good to me.

I saw Hank catch a couple of good ones. He claimed that today was better than yesterday. Mary also stated that she had a good session way outside and to the north of the crowd. Jaime the starving artist cartoonist was just finishing his session before opening up the 2-Mile Surf Shop. Jaime said that earlier he connected on two head-high lefts. DB the Safeway checker exited the water as I was entering it. She was having a good session but had to leave to rescue Dexter’s dog, which she was baby sitting while he attended school in Santa Cruz.

“I was going in but it got better,” said Jacek the tattoo artist as I greeted him at the exposed outside rock. “The wind died and the waves cleaned up, look!” He waved his hand at an approaching four-foot wall of water, turned around and glided into a long right peeling wave.

David who rides the Becker board was with Jacek and I at the outside peak. He slowly drifted his way inside and south, a good right peak was forming there. After several good waves I began to tire and moved inside to join David.

“What happened to all those four-footers that were rolling in?” David asked after an especially long lull between sets.

“It must be the tide,” I said. Yes those good sets dropped off around 10:45, and that was when I started working my way down the beach to go in. On the inside, Rob, Mr. Malibu, paddled out and immediately started dominating the peak.

While changing after my session, Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water pulled up. She made several comments about why she was arriving at eleven o’clock. Basically she was squeezing in a brief surf session into her busy schedule. Sunday she had a good session and was hoping for the same today.

I too had a good rehab session. I caught eight waves in one hour, stood up on most of them and felt that my arms were getting stronger. “It’s going to happen,” I said to myself. “I am going to get back to my old level of surfing.”