March 29, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:00 am to 10:00 am	No waves, sets to 1’ to 2’
Low upcoming tide	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Beautiful summer like day	Exercise session

F L A T !!

That was the story today… no waves, none, zero, zip, nada. After a long wait of ten or more minutes, a series of two to three-foot bumps would appear, and we would get excited, paddle furiously and miss them. Only Mary on her 10’ 6” Mystic board and Walt on his stand-up could catch them. Our optimism about the in-coming tide would give a push to the waves didn’t materialize -- another surf fantasy that proved untrue.

That’s Mark the archaeologist in the above photo standing on the outside rock to amuse himself and entertain the rest of us between sets. Jaime the starving artist cartoonist wearing his Mountain Dew baseball cap sits in background encouraging Mark to jump. Mary took the picture with her waterproof camera that was tethered to her wetsuit. Five of us endlessly sat out there anxiously waiting for a real wave – Mary, Jaime, Mark, Julie the Bolinas local who works in Mill Valley, Walt the photographer and myself.

“Here’s the only thing I ever bought at Walmart.” Jaime had just suited up to go out and put on his last piece of surf gear – a baseball cap (old, faded and weathered) on his bald head. The cap had a Mountain Dew logo on it. He named some unknown small town in New Mexico where the only thing in town was a Walmart, and that was where he bought it. He hasn’t been in a Walmart since.

“Mountain Dew!” I exclaimed. “Do they still make that stuff?”

“Yes they do.”

“That reminds me of a song I learned as a kid at a YMCA summer camp called Mountain Dew. That was years before the soft drink came out.” I proceeded to sing a verse –

Now they call it that good old Mountain Dew

Them that refuse it are few.

I’ll hush up my mug

If you fill up my jug

With that good old Mountain Dew.

“Wow, so when does the CD come out,” Jaime added.

Well that did it. For the rest of the morning I couldn’t get that song out of my head. As I was sitting way out at the outside rock, just bobbing up and down due to the flat conditions, my mind was constantly repeating: “that good old Mountain Dew.”

Here’s a story of the Bolinas surf community in action. After our session, Walt announced to us that he had lost his wedding band. That’s one of those few things in life you should never lose, like car keys, wallets and passports. Mark, Mary and I helped him look for it, but to no avail. Mary suggested that Walt leave a note posted on the fence, which he did. He also talked to the guys at 2-Mile and sent out a broadcast email to the Bolinas regulars. The two days later he followed up with a good news email that Douglas, having seen his note posted on the fence, had recovered his ring and gave Walt a call. Walt was so relieved he immediately drove from his house in Sausalito to Bolinas to retrieve it.