February 6, 2013 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:50 am to 10:50 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 4’
Mid dropping tide	Slight offshore breeze
Warm sunny day with clouds on the horizon	Fun session

Last summer Jack the Dave Sweet team rider told me that I should not bother to write about all those crappy days in my Surf Journal, that way I could keep current. Well today was one of those days – the surf wasn’t very good and I didn’t catch any memorable waves, certainly nothing to write about. The story this morning was why I went out.

Today was only my fourth time in the water since my return to surfing and only my sixth session in the last six months. Just after over coming my surgery and an internal infection I came down with a nasty cold – the same bug that was affecting most people in Marin, including Kate and my daughter Allison. For all of us the cold just kept lingering. I finally went to the doctor because it was getting worst. I asked him if he was seeing a lot of colds and flus. He quickly snapped that this community had an epidemic of respiratory illness. He prescribed antibiotics that definitely helped.

On my drive to the beach I was trying to talk myself out surfing. I woke up last night at 3 am with a horrible stuffy head and had trouble falling back to sleep. This morning my body felt drained and my arms and legs ached, but I was committed to going to the beach to collect water samples for Surfrider Marin’s water testing program. But to my surprise surfing conditions at Bolinas were ideal. It was ten degrees warmer at the coast and parking area at Brighton Ave was full of surf vehicles with the boards gone. From cars Marty, Mary, Russ the stand-up guy, David who rides the Becker board and Jacek the tattoo artist were in the water.

I went up Terrace Road and stood on the cliff over looking the Patch to take some pictures. Marty, Mary, Russ, David and Bill from Berkeley were out there. That’s Mary in the above photo on a small inside wave. I had to go out; today’s conditions were perfect for my surf re-hab:

• Warm sunshine,
• No wind,
• Glassy surface,
• 2’ to 4’ waves at the Patch,
• Outgoing tide – meaning the waves would improve,
• No hassle getting out or coming in,
• One could walk in front of the north seawall, and
• My friends were out there.

By the time I entered the water everybody was gone. Russ came in while I was taking photos. Marty and Mary left while I was suiting up, Bill greeted me as I walked down the beach, and David had paddled back to the Groin. I always promise Kate that I won’t go out alone, but I had come this far and I wasn’t going to stop now.

I paddled out to the first peak south of the rocks to go for the rights. My arms felt strong and I was able to easily stroke into the waves. On my first wave, which was my best ride, I jumped up to my knees, swung right, positioned mid-swell, locked into the curl, watched the curl come over my head and then stood up for the last section. Now I was energized and no had problem paddling out or moving from peak to peak. In an hour I caught four waves, began to tire and the cold was setting in due to my paper-thin wetsuit, so I came in. The tide had dropped allowing me to walk on sand all the way to the ramp. I was tired but not exhausted and felt that my surfing had improved.

I have said to Kate for years that surfing can knock a cold out of me. Of course she never believed it. This fantasy is part of my romantic view of surfing. Whatever ails me, surfing will cure it – colds, flu, depression, or troubles at work. It’s like today’s Republicans – the resolution to all the nation’s problems is more tax cuts. Well today confirmed my belief – I felt great driving home and I swear my cold was gone. Once again reinforcing my cure to all my woes is to “Surf More.”