February 25, 2015 Wednesday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:50 am to 10:40 am	2' to 3', no sets
Low dropping tide	Onshore breeze
Air temp: 63 degrees	Water temp: 57 degrees
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

"So how was the surf?"

"Crappy!" I had just come up the ramp from my session and was greeted by a tall, thin guy on his way to check out the waves. I could tell he was an experienced surfer by his big shoulders and neck muscles. "Hey, I'm being honest."

"I appreciate that."

In forty-five minutes I caught close to ten waves, all of them small walls that just flopped over, nothing to really to boast about.

I was determined to get into the water today. I arrived at 8:30 and the regulars, Mary, DB the Safeway checker and stand-up guys Frank and Russ, were at the peak right out from the base of the ramp. The Patch was tiny and a river of current was flowing out at the Channel. Mary and DB connected on some decent rides. That's Mary on one of them in the photo above.

Only DB was at the peak when I entered the water and within a few minutes, she went in, leaving me out there by myself. The tide was low, allowing me to walk out to the waves and I had no problems catching them. My weakness was popping up and today was a good day to work on that. I managed to jump up on half the waves and took the rest on my knees. By the time my creaky bones allowed me to stand up the ride was over.

I brought Cali, my 70 pound blond lab, with me this morning. The low tide (0.6 ft at 11:00 am) provided perfect conditions for the dog. She loved it. Cali dragged me down the ramp and sprinted down the beach when I let her off the leash. DB was about to enter the water when she saw Cali and I on the beach. She asked if I would hang around while she got her dog, Creola. She charged up the ramp and returned still in her wetsuit with her dog. We were thinking the two would play with each other. Well not exactly. They noticed each other, sniffed and wagged their tails and then charged off doing their own things. I threw a tennis ball for Cali while DB flung a cloth Frisbee to Creola. My dog loves the water so much she refuses to leave. Good thing DB was in her wetsuit. I asked her to retrieve Cali as she defiantly stood in shoulder high water.

After my session I took Cali down to the beach for a second time, this time with my wetsuit on. Again she had a great time plunging into the small waves to retrieve the ball. And again she refused to leave and I had to wade into the water to get her.

As usual it was another beautiful morning in Marin. The dog was wet and exhausted and I had that surfer's calm after vigorous exercise.

February 20, 2015 Friday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp and the Groin
9:10 am to 10:20 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Air temp: 60 degrees	Water temp: 57 degrees
Low overcast to patchy sunshine	Fun session

I walked down to the beach at Bolinas and was surprised to see four surfers at a peak straight out from the ramp. This peak had reappeared after four years of being dormant. No one was out at the Groin or the Patch. I have wonderful memories surfing this peak in years past – beautiful A-Frames waves peeling in both directions. Its reappearance has to do to shifting sands. Usually after winter storms the sand pulls out to sea and today all of the big rocks in front of the seawall were fully exposed. The sand must have reformed in sand bars 50 yards offshore forming these fun waves.

I stood on the seawall with camera in hand and watched Frank the stand-up guy, Mary, Jaime the starving artist and one other surfer connect on some nice well-formed three-foot curls. That's Frank on a good one in the photo above. He stroked into the peak, cleanly turned right, let the wave build up and cruised a long ways on a continuously peeling right curl. He ended up a few yards from the base of the ramp. Mary also connected on three long right waves in the ten minutes that I stood there.

"I'm going!" I said to myself. Gentle well-formed old man peaks breaking in both directions with long periods between sets for easy paddle outs. Jaime warned me that the upcoming tide was impacting the waves and the backwash off the retaining wall was increasing. The waves were better earlier – just my luck.

When I entered the water Mary was exiting. The peak had shifted to the south and water was rushing up the ramp. No one was out there. I paddled out to the peak with high hopes. But it didn't happen. The deeper water caused the waves to break closer to shore and the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. I managed to connect on two decent rights, but it was obvious that the good waves were over.

I walked down the beach to the Groin and paddled out around to wall to the first south peak. By now one surfer was out there and two stand-up guys were in the Channel. The waves at both locations were intermittent. I waited and waited and finally caught one slow mushy wave. It wasn't happening here. Knowing that high tides sometimes form good right peeling on the inside, I looked for them and they were there – the Malibo rights had appeared. I caught four of them – fast, two-foot right peeling curls. After an hour my arms were spent and I headed in.

On my way back to the car, the peak at the base of the ramp was crashing into the retaining wall. I chanced waiting for a lull to make a run to the ramp. I didn't quite make it and had to stop and move out to confront an incoming wave. I pushed my board over a wall of white water and braced myself to fight through the two-foot backwash wave bouncing off the wall.

While out at the Groin at stand-up surfer paddled over from Seadrift. It was Captain Kip, who had time on his hands due to the port slow-down by the Longshoremen; he is a captain of a harbor pilot boat. We chatted briefly, and he headed south while I moved in for the Malibo rights.

The surf wasn't great, but as usual after a dose of cold water and vigorous exercise, I felt great – revitalized and ready for anything.

February 11, 2015 Wednesday

Jeff Clark

"Hey was that THE JEFF CLARK?" I asked an aging local surfer while standing on the bluff at Kelly Avenue.

"Yes it was!"

Jeff Clark is one of the most noteworthy and respected big wave surfers, famous for discovering Mavericks, the big wave reef break in Half Moon Bay, and surfing it alone for fifteen years from 1975 to 1990. He founded the Mavericks big wave contest and currently builds custom big wave surfboards at his Mavericks Surf Shop.

Kate and I made our first pit stop on our drive to Ventura at the Half Moon Bay State Beach at the end of Kelley Ave. We purchased an Annual Day Use Pass (something all surfers should have) from the park ranger in the entrance booth and then drove over to the main parking lot and restrooms. A few cars were lined up along the curb nearest to the bluff that over looks the beach and the waves. In the middle was a white van with "Mavericks Surf Shop" painted on the side.

"That's Jeff Clark's surf shop, I wondered if he is here?" I said to Kate, and he was. "Kate, that's Jeff Clark over there." He was zipping up his wetsuit and chatting with two other guys.

His board was lying on the grass near a picnic table. It was short, about 8 feet, thick (at least 4 inches thick) with lots of rocker and a sharply turned up nose, definitely not a big wave board. At first I thought he was into short boards, then I noticed the paddle laying along side the board. Jeff grabbed his board, saluted his friends and headed for the water. He was into stand-up surfing.

The waves had some size and the strong offshore east wind was holding up the curls and sending arches of spray back over the tops of the breaking waves. Kelley Ave breaks like Ocean Beach only closer to shore with big powerful peaks and lots of current. My son Kevin loves this place and I hate it. Six short-boarders and one other stand-up surfer were out there. I watched one of them connect on a big left peak. He screamed across the top of the wall in a tight crouch, the lip folded over him, on he went completely barreled until the wave smothered him in swirling white water.

We met John, one of the guys Jeff was chatting with. Like Jeff, he too grew up in Half Moon Bay and has known Jeff for years. He provided us with some interesting details.

"Yes that was Jeff. He's now into stand-up. With age and creaky joints, he took it up."

Per John, Jeff's father was into construction and constantly had Jeff and his two brothers moving material like rocks and lumber around, causing Jeff to grow up physically strong. The Clarks' house was close to the water, allowing Jeff to check out ocean conditions every morning. He and John took up surfing at an early age. Jeff was always going for the big ones. He was never afraid of them. John, like all us normal surfers, knew his limits. John and Jeff used to sit on the cliff above Mavericks and contemplate if those big waves were rideable.

John remembered being with Jeff out at Ross' Cove, the inlet just north of Mavericks. Jeff was always paddling further and further outside of the rest of them and was drifting towards the peak at Mavericks. I'm familiar with Ross' Cove. On a Mavericks day, you can see the Mavericks break from the cliff above Ross' Cove. My surfer buddy Randy, who I worked with at Visa, loved Ross' and told me of many encounters of double overhead waves.

One time Jeff took John and a friend on a Zodiac out to the Mavericks. Jeff jumped off the front while John and friend stayed in the boat, safely in the channel. Jeff paddled about 50 yards over to the impact zone. For Mavericks it was a small day, maybe 10 feet. They watched Jeff catch a few. This was John's first time being close to the break and to him it was huge.

He claimed that he went out to Mavericks once, got pounded on three waves and never went out there again. As he put it, "big wave surfing, either you have it or you don't. And I don't"

I'm with John – love to watch the big ones, but for me nowadays, it's old men, longboards and four to five foot waves.

John and I watched Jeff paddle out through the white water of some pretty big walls and take off on two waves – one right and one left. On the first one, Jeff cut right on a head high wave and easily cruised through the peak out to the shoulder. On his second wave, he did the same thing going left, having switched his stance (right foot forward) to face the wave the whole way.

"I read that Jeff was originally goofy-foot, but he taught himself to surf normal foot forward because most waves at Mavericks break to the right," I said to John.

"Not true! He always could switch stance, from the get-go." I thanked John for his interesting tales and wished him a long life of surfing.

Now two of my absolute heroes, Laird Hamilton and Jeff Clark, are stand-up surfers. Someday I'm going to have to give SUP a try.