November 14, 2014 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 10:30 am	Consistent 3', sets to 4'
Low outgoing tide	Slight NW breeze
Air temp: 60 degrees	Water temp: 58 degrees
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

"Here Loren, take it. It's yours, try it out."

Dripping wet after having just exited the water, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider shoved his brand new board into my hands. He has been telling me for weeks about this new "perfect Patch board" he ordered from John Moore of Mystic Surfboards. John knows the Patch from living and surfing in Bolinas and has been building custom surfboards for years. He and Nick started the 2-Mile Surf Shop. Thus with Jack's specifications and John's knowledge of the Patch, they came up with the ideal board for the Patch –

9' - 6" in length,

23 inches wide,

3 and 1/4 inches thick,

19 inches across the nose,

Square tail,

Airplane wing shaped rails with little taper from the center, and

Little rocker for fast paddling.

Per Jack, side fins slow down the board and are only needed on steep waves, which is not the Patch. For attaching the leash, Jack had John build up a bump of glass and resin in the tail block with a hole drilled through it tying the leash cord to the board. This avoids putting a hole through the board to insert a plastic plug for the leash cord. Over time the plug can loosen or pull out causing leaks between the glass and the foam.

Jack promised me he would let me ride it. He was convinced that I needed a board, and he was right. My borrowed 9' 4" Becker was showing wear with numerous cracks in the glass and ten patched dings. Also, with age, we older guys require bigger and easier to paddle boards. That's Jack with his new board in the photo above.

"Here, take it. Stay out as long as you want. I have some painting to do on the house above the Patch. I can watch you from there and know when you get out."

That did it. I'm going out. I didn't even check the waves or take any photos. I went straight back to my car to suit up.

Just my luck the waves were good. The parking lot was full when I arrived, someone pulled out and I got his spot. All indicating the waves were up. The morning buoy report was encouraging, 7-foot NW swell at 14 seconds. The end of a strong swell that came in last Sunday in front of a cold front that brought rain to Marin yesterday. The inside rights at the Patch were pumping.

I easily glided out to the line-up on Jack's fast paddling Patch board, and in an hour caught six long right curls. The board handled great. I paddled into every wave that I went for, quickly swung right, climbed high in the curls and cruised across continuously right peeling curls.

Jack greeted me as I came up the ramp after my session, and I had to agree with him that he and John had created the perfect Patch board.