April 7, 2014 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 10:35 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid dropping tide	Slight NW cross breeze to no wind
Clear, sunny and warm	Fun session

When I reached the top of the ridge at Four Corners, I knew I was going out. There was no wind, trees weren't moving, the sun was out and I could see for miles in all directions. I hadn't surfed in two weeks due to weather and extreme low tides in the mornings, and I needed some exercise, so I was going out no matter what.

The weather had changed. Last week was rain, clouds, cold temperatures and south winds. Today high pressure was moving in bringing sunshine, warm air and light winds. It looked like surfing weather to me.

"I have to hurry home," Russ shouted to me as he drove by. "Rumor has it that Lorenzo has another blog post." That was true. I had posted February 12 last Saturday, putting me merely four weeks behind. "Hey with the tide going out the waves should get better. You'll have a good time," and off he drove. He didn't mention if the waves were any good, no word on size or where he surfed. By his positive expression, I assumed that the waves were good and that he had a fun session at the Patch.

No one was out at the Channel, six surfers were at the Patch and Frank and Walt the photographer had paddled over to the Duxbury Reef on their stand-ups. Hank and the Robinsons (Martha and Jim) were at Robinson's Reef (the inside right breaking peak). Mary was way north of the Patch at Lady's Left (also known as Green-Africa). Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water and DB the Safeway checker frequently join Mary there to avoid the crowd at the Patch. I assured her that I was beyond gender hang-ups and would sometime join her. I considered it this morning, but the waves didn't look that good.

While checking out the waves from the seawall, I watched one surfer gingerly stepping over the Patch reef rocks to retrieve his board. No leash! Why would anyone surf over a rock reef without a leash? He finally reached his board, adroitly paddled back out to the line-up, turned around and stroked into a three-foot wave, quickly jumped up, cut high in the curl, walked the nose and hung five. Then I recognized him – Rob, Mr. Malibu – an excellent surfer who never wears a leash and seldom loses his board.

A decent swell was running this morning, per the buoy report: a 7 ft north swell at 17 seconds (that's pretty good) combined with a 3 ft south swell at 15 seconds. We were seeing the south at the Patch. The north swell was too north to wrap into Bolinas. But the south was setting up some nice long well formed right curls. Hank and Rob were on them. The other four surfers out there paddled around and caught nothing. Rob and Hank were up and going on every wave they tried for. Both connected on some nice long curls in the ten minutes I was there with my camera. That's Rob on the nose in the above photo. I call him Mr. Malibu because all the Pros in days past at Malibu (Dora, Fain, Doyle, etc.) had the skill to hang five on the six inch waves that dominated most of the days at Malibu.

I paddled out to join them and within a few minutes connected on a long right curl. The wave peaked south of me but I went for it anyway. To my surprise the curl held up and continuously broke to the right. I worked it all the way into the shore and pulled out as the wave collapsed on shore in six inches of water.

Water depth was a concern this morning. We were at the dangerous point where the rocks were only a couple of inches under water. The best rides began in the shallow water over the rocks and ended in the shore break over the sand. That strategy worked best on set waves that broke a little further out. I was inside and went for a small wave. I paddled hard but missed it. For a brief moment the wave was taking me, I shifted my weight forward to push over the edge. I peeked over the nose I saw an exposed rock and boiling water under me. I quickly bailed over the side and just missed landing on the rock. After that I move south to deeper water. Later on I worked another good wave into the shore and thinking that I was over the sand I gently pulled out over the top and fell backwards where the point of a rock hit me above my left hip. It hurt but I was ok. I thought that the collision might result in a bruise. One of the signs of age is that I now bruise easily. The remedy would be ice, but here I was in cold water and what could be better. Thus I stayed in the water for another half hour to nurse my wound.

As usual it was another fabulous morning in Marin.