January 2, 2015 Friday

Stinson Beach	Life Guard Tower
12 noon to 1:00 pm	2' to 3'
Mid outgoing tide (-0.5 ft @ 4 pm)	NW cross breeze
Air temp: 55 degrees	Water temp: 57 degrees
Sunny with high wispy clouds	Fun session

The waves at Stinson this morning were flat, gentle, easy to catch and forgiving. On my first wave I connected on a good left, the take off was flat and left plenty of time to get up. I jumped up to a squat but lifting my body to stand up didn't happen. My legs were too weak. I pushed hard to get up but fell off to the side.

I hadn't surf in 48 days, from November 14 to today. Marin had four weeks of rain, starting the day after Thanksgiving that produced over 20 inches of water and filled the Mount Tamalpais reservoirs. The Christmas crunch, short days, and cold weather contributed to not surfing.

After the rains, a high-pressure ridge formed offshore of California and Oregon, setting up same drought pattern we had last year. The Jet Stream bent around the high-pressure ridge and directed the severe storms from Alaska over the middle of the country, causing one of the coldest winters in years in the Midwest. Meanwhile, dry warm weather settled over the West Coast.

No exercise plus the high caloric days of the Holidays had made me lethargic and slothful. I was determined to break out of this malaise by going surfing. The NOAA weather radio reported 3-foot NW swells at 13 seconds. Bolinas was flat with no one out at either the Channel or the Patch. With a 6-foot high tide, I figured that Stinson could be decent.

Captain Kip was just pulling out after his session when I arrived at Stinson. He stated that the "holes" were in – meaning good peaks caused by different elevations on the bottom. The storms had moved out the sand, uncovering the hard sandstone with its various under water canyons. Kip got some good waves down at the Calles. He gave me a free tide chart and I sold him one of our Surfrider 2015 surf calendars. Then off to work he went.

Kip was right, there were peaks, small well-shaped waves, nothing spectacular and nobody was out. I picked the peak straight out from the lifeguard tower. That's it in the photo above. In an hour I caught six waves, which were nothing to write about. All were lefts; the bottom was forcing all the waves to break left.

After two months without surfing, I thought my arms would be out of shape. Wrong! I had no problems catching waves, easily stroked out to the line-up and could quickly paddled from peak to peak. The weak spot was my legs. I couldn't jump up. I would jump up to my knees, ride through the first section hoping for a moment to stand up. It only happened twice. The legs just didn't have the strength. Deep knee bend exercises begin tomorrow morning.

Being Friday after a holiday and with sunny weather, Stinson beach was crowded – the beach, not the water. Nobody was in the water except one other surfer who was 200 yards to the north.

After my session, I went to the Parkside Cafe to purchase coffee and bread (the best bread in Marin County). The snack bar was jammed. I ran into John the owner of the Parkside and I thanked him for buying 20 Surfrider 2015 calendars, which he sells at the restaurant and hands out to friends.

As I knew it would happen, after vigorous exercise in cold water, I felt great, my body was alive. That's why I surf.