February 12, 2014 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:00 am to 11:15 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
High dropping tide	NW onshore breeze
Overcast to patchy sun	Fun/exercise session

Circumstances were the story of today's session:

The last time I surfed was at Kahulu'u, Kona Hawaii, on January 30th, thirteen days ago. I came down to Bolinas last Wednesday (seven days ago) but it was flat and I didn't bother going out, neither did anyone else. The weather was beautiful that day, sunny, warm and clear to the horizon with a slight offshore breeze.

However, that afternoon the weather changed and the rain began that night. The skies opened up and dumped rain on northern California for four days straight. Over twenty inches of rain hit Mt Tam. The much-needed rain finally arrived to our drought stricken area, putting eleven acre-feet of run-off into MMWD's reservoirs. The rain let up on Monday, but I had a dental appointment and couldn't head to the beach. Tuesday was my day to take care of my daughter's dog, so by today I was ready to get back into the water.

The storms had pushed around the sand and swept most of it out to sea. The concrete and rebar at the end of the boat ramp were exposed and remnants of old pilings from an ancient pier stuck up above the sand in front of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. But on the north side of the seawall, the ocean had pushed tons of small pebbles up against the boulders of the wall's foundation. What used to be a four-foot drop over the rocks to the sand was now a mere twelve inches. I easily stepped to the sand instead of carefully picking my way over the gnarly rocks.

The waves were merely ok. The set waves created a few decent rights on the inside peak of the Patch. That's Mary on one in the above photo. I managed to connect on a couple of good ones, but most of the time I paddled around trying to anticipate the next rideable wave. So I got plenty of exercise and a few long rides, thus all in all in it was a good morning.