September 2, 2014 Tuesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:00 am to 12 noon	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low dropping tide (2.8 ft at 11:20)	NW cross breeze to no wind
Air temp: 65 degrees	Water temp: 63 degrees
Overcast and drizzle	Fun session

From the NOAA weather radio Monday night at 10 pm: "For Tuesday, 3 ft south swell at 17 seconds." That was all I needed to hear to know that there would be waves at Bolinas tomorrow. The huge swells from Hurricane Marie had passed, but a small Tahitian gale had generated a new south swell that arrived on Sunday (8/31), peaked on Monday and was fading today.

No one was out at the Channel when I arrived due to the river coming out of the lagoon. But the waves at the Patch looked fun: 2 to 3-foot lines with occasional 4-footers peeling right across the impact zone, smooth surface and only seven surfers out there. I had to go out, besides in two weeks I was having my surfer's ear problem operated on and will be out of the water for at least two weeks, thus I was going out no matter what.

I walked up to Terrace Road to take photos of the crew at the Patch. The waves looked small, slow and infrequent. Hank and his wife Gail were out there as was DB the Safeway checker, Francine and Hans. The sets were definitely rideable and the rides were long. That's Hans in the photo above at the end of a long one that ended in a well-formed shore break curl.

To my surprise the waves were better than they looked. I paddled out to the furthest peak on the north side of the Patch reef hoping to connect on some lefts. A four-foot set wave came through that two others went for it and went right while I turn into a nice forming left line. I stayed high in the curl and sailed on and on until the wave closed out near shore. That was the first of several long, left and right clean small curl rides. After an hour, conditions improved: the wind stopped, the surface glassed-off, the waves increased in size and become more consisted.

The clean waves kept coming and I kept going for them – catch a wave, paddle back out, wait a couple minutes and stroke into another one. I lasted for two hours. This was the first time I was out two hours in a long, long time. I finally had to give it up and go in, but my arms felt fine. Here we were on a Tuesday after Labor Day and the crowd count was low. I looked back and only seven surfers were spread across the Patch reef, the same number that was out when I entered the water.

It was just another great day in Marin.