May 3, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
8:40 am to 10:10 am	3’ to 4’, occasional 5’
High dropping tide	No wind to NW cross breeze
Bright sunshine – heat wave	Fun session

This morning as I was walking along the beach to go out at the Patch, I saw Shu-Shu connect on a fast three-foot right curl. She quickly turned around, paddled back out to the line-up and immediately caught another good one.

“I saw you on two good ones just now,” I said to her as I was paddling out.

“Loren, it’s perfect! The weather, the water and the waves.”

Shu-Shu was right. The weather had turned hot again, heat wave conditions, with bright sunshine and no wind. The water was 54-degrees according to the San Francisco buoy and it was probably warmer at Bolinas. And the waves were firing due to a 3-foot south swells at 16 seconds. Stormsurf had predicted this swell for over a week. It arrived late Monday, peaked on Wednesday, started fading on Thursday and would disappear late Friday. The swell was definitely with us this morning.

I had arrived at 7:50 am and the Bolinas crew was surprised to see me so early. When I got out of the car, Mark the archaeologist claimed that it was flat, but he was suiting to go out. Hank pulled up. He had returned from a week long trip to London last night, thus he was a little spent but was anxious to get back in the water. Hank and I went to check out the waves – I with my camera with Jacek’s 400 mm lens attached. Hank told me about this great blues club he went to in London. Their surprise guest for the evening was Eric Burdon of the Animals, who sang their big hit, “We Have to Get Out of This Place.” Remember that one?

“What do you mean flat?” Hank and I were flooded when we saw the waves. A set of beautiful lines poured through the Patch. Jack the Dave Sweet team rider came down a four-foot wall, slid under some white water, glided back into the swell and hung five in the shore break curl. Steve the Bolinas local connected on three long right curls in the ten minutes that I was there taking pictures. That’s him in the above photo. Mary and Christian were way – way north of the pack and every time I glanced up Mary was on another long ride. Walt the photographer was having a field day catching one wave after another on his stand-up board.

“Loren, I’m taking off to suit up,” Hank said. “I’ve seen enough.” And off he headed back to the cars. I hung on to get some more photos. In fact I got several of them. Click on the link below to see my May 3^rd photos.

When I was walking down to the Patch with my board under my arm, Jack exited the water.

“Jack, you always come as the low tide turns and the incoming tide starts. So were you here at 1 am?” Jack schedules his sessions according to the tides and always arrives as the tide is coming in. This morning low tide was at 1 o’clock.

“No. I came at 6 am, stayed out two and a half hours, and it was great!” Jack exclaimed with enthusiasm. “But now it’s starting to break up.”

“You mean I’m too late?”

“No, no. There are still plenty of good waves, but you have to get out there.”

Jack was right. There were plenty of good waves. I used the same strategy that I did two days ago (Wed May 1^st). I went way outside, past the outside rock, went for the lefts and caught several of them. Today was a special surf day. Be sure to check out my photos – click on the link below.

The Patch - May 3, 2013