May 31, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	North of Groin
9:30 am to 10:40 am	1’ to 2’, sets to 2.5’
Mid dropping tide	No wind
Bright sunny heat wave day	Exercise session

That’s Rob, Mr. Malibu, walking the nose on a thigh high set wave in the above photo. Yes, it was flat today. Mark the archaeologist greeted me at the base of the ramp. He was checking out the waves from the seawall. He was still there ten minutes later after I took a few pictures of Rob at the small, fast peeling left peak north of the Groin. Mark decided against going out and drove off while I was suiting up. So why did I go out? It was a beautiful beach day – warm bright sun, blue sky and no wind. Jacek was already out at the Channel and Rob was entering the water when I arrived. Two of the best of the Bolinas crew were out there, so there must be some waves, plus I hadn’t surfed since last Friday. Monday was Memorial Day (being retired, I avoid holidays) and Wednesday was smaller than today, and I was anxious for some waves.

“Loren, Drew was just checking out the waves and I wonder what he is going to put in his morning surf report. It’s tiny.” Frank the stand-up guy greeted me as I got out of the car. Drew is the owner of the 2-Mile Surf Shop and he or whoever opens the shop writes up a brief description of conditions and posts them on the shop’s blog. Their report always encourages people to come out and enjoy the beach. Here’s what he did report -

Sunny skies with light valley fog on the drive out and a morning temp of 54F.  No wind and a high-pressure system is over the area through the weekend.  Inland temps expected into the 90s.  Come out to the beach to cool off and take a dip.  

Lefts working in the knee high size both at the Groin and in the Channel.  Not too much going on here but just enough to get a longboard moving.  Possibly something going on over at Seadrift where the rights may be working in the knee high range as well. 

I joined Rob and tried for the small lefts. As you can see in the above photo, Rob has the ability to hang five on small waves. For me, by the time I stood up the ride was over. I rode most of them lying down so I would not waste any previous moments by standing up. Once in the wave I would sharply turn my board with my hands, push my body forward to put some weigh on the nose and hang on until the wave collapsed over me. After a few minutes Rob decided to go for exercise and took off paddling towards the Patch. So I had the peak to myself. For an hour I bellied down numerous small ones and then called it a day.

We surfers would never admit that we wasted our time. It was of course another beautiful Marin morning.

May 24, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
9:40 am to 10:45 am	2’ to 4’, occasional head high
Mid upcoming tide	NW cross breeze
Bright sunny day	Fun session

There were no parking spaces when I pulled up at 8:30 am – a good sign that the waves were up. Frank and Creighton were toweling off after their sessions. I rolled down my window and shouted:

“Hey, it’s time for you dawn patrollers to get the flock out of here so we gentlemen can park. And how was it?”

“It was great,” Creighton said. “We were by ourselves and there was no wind.” I turned around and ended up half way to the 2-Mile Surf Shop before I found a place to park.

Jacek the tattoo artist was standing on the seawall when I came down the ramp. Fourteen people were out at the Patch and the waves looked good.

“Where are you going out?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It looks like junk!”

Soon I understood why he said that. I stood and waited and waited for someone to catch a wave. The outside crowd would get into the infrequent set waves and they would quickly die. Only Hank and David who rides the Becker board caught decent waves on the inside. Within ten minutes Hank caught three clean, fast inside curls. That’s him in the above picture.

The lefts at the Groin looked good, no one was out there and that was where I headed. After I connected on a couple of good left curls the crowd began to show up. Here’s what the 2-Mile surf report said about them -

Clean and shapely left off the Groin bar that holds up for turns and runs.  Size is around thigh to almost waist high and it is spread out on the different bars with about 10 surfers up and riding.  

Today’s lefts reminded me of the two weeks of good south swells last summer that hit the Groin sand bars forming long, fast continuous curls. I lined up north of the Groin wall, straight out from the house that is hanging on the cliff. I would connect there and hum left all the way to the end of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp – the one with all the graffiti. Professor Steve and a local friend came out to join me. For a good forty minutes we had the peak to ourselves and shared the waves.

About 10:30 fifteen teenagers with sponge top boards invaded our peak. What was this? Surf camp? So soon? Later Drew at 2-Mile told me that the eight grade marine biology class at Marin Country Day School was having its end of year party. That did it. I was getting tire; one more wave and I would be out of there. As usual, it took awhile for that one last wave to arrive. Finally a set came through and there was a perfectly formed left wall coming right at me. I turned and stroked into it. I dropped down a shoulder high face, cut left at the bottom, climbed back into the middle of the swell, crouched down mid-board and ploughed right through the middle of the marine biology class. Fortunately, my path was clear, only one girl had to dive out of my way. I screamed across that wall on the edge between control and out of control, drove my board right up to shore and dove off into the white water as the wave broke on the sand.

I was lucky I didn’t hit anyone, but it was my best ride of the morning, in a morning filled with many good rides.

May 20, 2013 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:40 am to 10:55 am	3’ to 4’, occasional 5’
High dropping tide (3.5 ft at 8:30 am)	Slight NW cross breeze to no wind
Bright sunny day – heat wave	Good session

“Jack, get back out there and I will take your picture.”

I had just walked down to the Patch carrying my camera with the 400 mm lens that I borrowed from Jacek. Jack had just completed a good inside nose ride, exited the water and had wrapped the leash around his 9’ 6’’ classic Dave Sweet longboard. I was kidding about going back out there, but Jack surprised me.

“Sure!” and he unwrapped his leash and paddled back out to the line-up. He caught a couple more waves and came in again. “My arms are exhausted after three hours.” He entered the water at 6 am and had a great session. That’s him in the above photo.

The surf was good this morning due to a 3 ft south swell at 16 seconds from New Zealand combined with a small NW wind swell. Per Stormsurf, this was swell S1 – meaning the first significant south swell of the season with three more pulses of energy arriving the next couple of days.

The hot weather and the news about the waves on the Internet brought the crowd out. Fourteen people were out at the Patch when I entered the water, 27 were out when I exited and more were arriving when I drove off. The Bolinas regulars were there early including – Mary, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, Hank, David who rides the Becker board, Marty, Jacek the tattoo artist, Bill from Berkeley on his wave ski, Rob (Mr. Malibu), Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water, Shu-Shu and stand-up guys Frank and Walt the photographer. Later on, Paul from Mill Valley, Cort (part owner of 101 Sports in San Rafael) and another friend entered the water on their stand-ups and proceeded to dominate the inside peak.

Everyone had a good time. The waves were plentiful, the water was warm and the sun felt great. In a little over an hour I caught a ton of good right peeling waves, exhausted myself and had that surfer’s glow for the rest of the day.

Click on the link below see my photos of this day.

Bolinas Patch May 20 2013 

May 10, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	1’ to 2’, sets to 3’
Mid upcoming tide	Slight offshore breeze to stiff west onshore wind
Overcast – June gloom like	Exercise session

“Drew, what are you going to say in your report this morning?” Drew the owner of the 2-Mile Surf Shop was coming up the ramp when I was heading down to take some photos. The 2-Mile shop puts out a morning surf report and posts it on their blog.

“I’m going to say it’s a very nice beach day.” That’s code for it’s flat. Here’s what he actually put –

Beautiful morning here in Bolinas.  Coastal overcast is burning off and already giving way to blue skies and sunshine.  Very smooth and very glassy ocean.  Very low, negative morning tide but already moving up! Great beach day.  Great day to rock pick or find some tidal zone treasures.  Great day to just walk on the beach and take in the beautiful surroundings.  Not such a great surf day at the moment.  Still a small south swell in the water but tide is too low to let it in.  Give it time and maybe later a few rollers will appear.

Stormsurf predicted a combination of local north wind swell and a 3 ft south at 14 seconds. We were seeing the south swell. The north portion was too north to reach into south facing Bolinas.

Mary was about to suit up and go out when I headed to the beach to take pictures. She had arrived at 6 am and waited for the fog to lift. She almost kissed it off but changed her mind when Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water pulled up. They decided to head for the Patch. Later when I walked down the ramp with my board, I saw Mary and Susan a 100 yards offshore paddling from the Patch to the Channel. The Patch was flat and they had given up on it. They continued onto Seadrift and stayed there all morning. Jacek showed up and since he had driven all the way here he decided to go out. He suited up and pulled out his 9’ 4” Fresh Pineapple longboard. Bill from Berkeley arrived, suited up and headed out on his wave ski. They joined Mary and Susan at Seadrift. All of them claimed that they caught a few decent waves there. Jacek raved about his long rides that took him right up to the sand.

I went out at the Groin, straight out from the Groin pole, to go for the fast breaking lefts. The waves weren’t memorable. I connected on a couple of good ones, dropped into several closeouts and missed a ton of waves. For me it was an exercise session – my arms got a good workout and I practiced on my timing of pushing into the waves and jumping up quickly.

Wind was an issue this morning. There was no wind and the surface was like glass when I stood at the Groin taking pictures. As I entered the water a stiff NW cross breeze had kicked up and put a texture on the surface. By the time I left the wind had shifted to the west and blew hard straight onshore and put a huge chop on the water.

Like all surfers, all of us agreed that simply being in the water made it a good session.