March 17, 2014 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:45 am to 11:20 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Low upcoming tide	Stiff offshore wind to no wind
Clear, bright and sunny	Fun session

Email response to my long time friend Jay the architect in Manhattan Beach -

Jay -

Thanks for the long and newsy email. Sorry about not responding sooner.

Today I got my first decent waves of the season. I caught the tail end of this past weekend's big swell, one where Maverick's was breaking. Though the swell has dropped, it was still 8 ft at 14 seconds from the west. I headed to my local spot, Bolinas, and went out at the Patch (formerly called the Clam Patch, but the clams are long gone, so now it's merely The Patch). It's a rock reef spread over a wide area that can set up several peaks depending on conditions. The waves are similar to Bluff Cove; they break way out there, have flat take offs and provide long smooth rides. Today the outside peak was connecting with the inside shore break that runs along the beach.

While checking out the waves, I watched my good surf buddy David, who used to ride a Becker board, take off on the outside, cruise to the right across the first section, cut back to let the wave build up, swung left through the second section, then cut-back right to drop into a perfectly formed right curl on the inside. He must have traveled a quarter mile. That did it, I was stoked and had to go out.

As the tide came in and the wind dropped, the inside peak improved in size, speed and shape. One could connect on a wave over the rocks of the Patch reef, work it to the inside section and cut across a nice curl over the sand. I managed to catch several of them in an hour and a half, and after that the crowd grew, the wind picked up and my arms gave out. While driving home I had that "Surfer's Glow" from vigorous exercise, warm sunshine and classic waves.

You were fortunate to connect on those big west swells. I missed both of them.

On Friday January 24th, when they held the Mavericks contest, Kate and I flew to Kona on the big island of Hawaii, our first time there. The waves were huge. For four days, the authorities posted high surf warnings all along the Kona Coast (the NW side of the island). On Thursday (our fifth day there) the swell dropped to my size – 4 to 5 ft. I rented a SurfTech Soft Top, which are popular with the locals, and went out at Kahalu'u Park – a gentle Cove/San Onofre type break – that broke over a reef 500 yards from shore. I had a ball: 3' to 5' waves, long shoulders, crystal clear 80 degree water and no wetsuit, just board shorts and a rash guard.

When the next big swell (Feb 27 - Mar 3) arrived, Kate and I were on the road to San Diego to visit my mother and my brother. This was not a surf trip. My 94-year old mother is declining and I wanted to make sure that I saw her one more time before the end. But I did see plenty of good surf along the way. On the way down, Rincon was overhead and only twenty guys out. On the way back we made a pit stop at El Capitan state park. In all my years of going to UCSB and driving to and from Palos Verdes, I had never seen El Cap break. On that day, 8 to 10 foot fast peeling rights were wrapping around the point and crashing over some gnarly rocks. Twenty short boarders were on it and in the 15 minutes I was there I saw some spectacular rides. As I watched two guys literally crawl over the boulders to get to the water, I thought that maybe in my youth I could have done that, but definitely not now in my late sixties.

That night we stayed in Pismo Beach and in the morning I saw some beautiful peaks with three to four surfers on each one along the cliffs north of the pier just before 101 turns inland.

So I missed the big swells and good waves until today.

Meanwhile, everybody is doing well. In retirement Kate is busier than ever and I keep reminding myself that you and I have to connect someday at C Street in Ventura.

Cheers,

Lorenzo