February 19, 2014 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:50 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide	Stiff offshore breeze to no wind
Sunny, clear and warm	Fun session

"Loren the only decent waves are those inside rights," Steve the Bolinas local pointed at a nice right peeling shore break wave at the Patch.

We were standing on the sea wall checking out the waves. Nobody was at the Channel; it was small, confused and breaking at three points at once. The tide was low and the current was pouring out of the lagoon. Five surfers were at the Patch – Mary, DB the Safeway checker, Russ the stand-up guy and two guys from Concord who were here last Wednesday. Mary, DB and Russ were way outside beyond the outside rock. The other two were way inside going for the shore break rights. The swell had dropped in half since Monday. The San Francisco buoy reported 8 ft swells at 13 seconds and wind at 21 knots with gusts to 27. The wind was out at sea because here there was a stiff offshore breeze and glassy conditions.

While watching the waves Steve and I chatted about how much sand the recent storm had moved around, and we reminisced about the old days (a couple of years ago) when there were some decent peaks out in front of the ramp. Then Mary connected on a good one. She had moved in and caught a steep shore break wave. That's her in the above photo. Her ride and the warm weather convinced me to go out.

The weather was changing – a high-pressure front and a heat wave were moving in. We had drizzle and light rain last night, but that was over. Winds out at sea were moving the low pressure out and pushing the high pressure in.

I went for the inside rights and scored. When I entered the water, only one surfer was out there. After taking a few so-so waves, I got the hang of it – position not too far out, not too close to the rocks, wait until the waves are cresting, take off late, paused to make sure you are in the wave and then push it. The shape of the bottom was forcing all the waves to break to the right and the offshore breeze was holding up the curls. If an approaching wave looked walled or was peaking south of me, it would hold up. I could shoot under the lips of the curls, trim down the line and work them into the shore break. After I made the first one, I knew I could make all of them. And the waves were consistent. I never waited more than a couple of minutes before the next wave was there. In an hour I caught ten good waves (one every six minutes).

I had success riding waves on my knees. I would wait until the waves were breaking, paddle hard, jump up to my knees, duck under the curl of the first section and get to my feet on the shoulder of the wave. This way I didn't lose any time standing up, and I got the thrill of being eye level with the initial curl. On one I took off late, sprung up to my knees, literally ducked under the curl of the first section, rose to my feet, climbed high in the curl and froze while the wave continuously unfolded in front of me, all the way to the shore.

Walt the photographer paddled out on his stand-up. I hadn't seen him since last November when he had his hip replacement surgery. Walt was back and in good form. A set wave approached and I started to position myself to catch it. Walt was twenty yards further out, he turned, paddled for the same wave while it was a mere hump in the water and glided into it. I watched Walt cruise by me and followed him as he milked it all the way in. When he paddled back to the line up, Walt claimed his legs were weak, but he looked in fine shape to me.

I took my last wave on my knees. I shot under the curl, leaned forward on the nose to keep the board in the wave until it reformed, cut across the shore break and quickly lay back down as the wave collapse in one foot of water and bellied it the rest of the way to shore.

What a good ending to a good session.