February 23, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:20 am to 10:20 am	1' to 2', sets to 2.5'
Low tide (0.5 ft at 10:10 am)	Offshore breeze to stiff onshore wind
Sun with high clouds - a cold day	Exercise session

“Loren, I bet if you had been here by yourself, you would have never gone out,” Mary commented after our session this morning. Mary was right, if it had not been for my friends going out, I would never had done it. There’s a lot to be said about joining your buddies in the water. A little camaraderie and a few waves is a lot of fun. That describes this morning because the surf was terrible.

As I pulled up at 8:15 am, I saw David’s truck with his Becker board sticking out of his camper shell, not a good sign. The surf fanatic who always goes out no matter what the conditions was not in the water.

“It must be flat for all of you to be standing around,” I greeted Jacek the tattoo artist, Jeff from Mill Valley, Novato Pete and Mary.

“There’s not much there,” said Pete. “Maybe when the tide turns.” David with wetsuit on and board in hand walked by and announced he was going for it. Pete and Jacek went to check out the waves and Jeff and Mary continued practicing strumming techniques on their ukuleles.

“Well are you going to do it?” I asked Jacek and Pete when they returned. “There are a couple of waves out there. I’m going,” Pete said. Jacek decided to pass.

“That does it, I’m going too,” Mary announced. “We have to go out this morning. The weather is about to change. Rain is coming tomorrow and they are predicting snow for Friday.”

“Mary, you’re from Maryland. You must be used to snow.”

“No I hate it, that’s why I moved out here.”

I walked down to the Groin with camera in hand. David and stand-up surfers Frank and Russ were out there. The surf was almost non-existent, but every once in a while a rideable well-formed left peeling wave would come through. I haven’t been out in over a week, I needed the exercise and my friends were out there, thus I decided to do it.

The waves were tiny and with all of us bunched together at the only peak, we constituted a crowd. There was David, Jeff, Mary, Novato Pete and stand-up guys Frank and Russ.

“Jeff, I haven’t surfed in over a week and my arms are feeling it,” I commented to him when I paddled out to the line-up. “The first things to go are your arms.”

“And they are the first to return,” he responded. “After a couple of sessions you will be back to normal. The second things to go are your stomach muscles.” He was referring to the necessity of lying on your stomach. To gain paddling force and to lift one’s chest off the board when jumping up, surfers tighten their stomach muscles and when they are out of shape, the stomach muscles tire quickly.

Pete got the best ride this morning. He was at the apex of the Channel peak when a good set wave came through. He stroked into it, angled left, locked the rail under the lip of the curl, crouched down in the middle of the board and cruised a long ways before the wave finally closed out on the inside in front of the Groin wall. A few moments later while paddling out, I saw Pete do it again on his next wave. Pete was riding his brand new Johnny Rice longboard. He showed it off to us back at the cars. It was beautiful: 9’ 4” in length, three stingers, one single large fin, wide in the nose and 3 1/8 inches thick. Pete’s previous board was 8’ 6” and now on this longer paddling machine he was catching everything he tried for. Pete loves it.

David managed to connect on a couple of good rides. A set wave came through and we both went for it. I caught it as it was breaking and remained laying down. I cut left into the white water trying to work back into the swell. From there, I had a water level view of David locked into to this small curl, crouched down mid-board with spray coming off the lip over his shoulder. It only lasted a couple of seconds but for today it was a great ride.

Mary, Pete and I gave up after an hour. The wind had turned straight onshore with some force. The chop was getting worst, the waves were not improving and the cold was setting in. Only David remained in the water. We had changed and were soaking up some sun when David finally came up the ramp.

“Time check!” I yelled checking my watch. “It’s ten thirty-eight and the surf fanatic has come in. Proof that the surf is lousy.” David usually stays out for three to four hours and comes in when he is completely exhausted and hungry.

“David, what brought you in? The lousy waves or the cold?”

“Both! If there were waves I could stand the cold.”

Back to Mary’s original point: I exercised, soaked up the elements and the beauty of the morning and rode a few waves with my friends. It was a good morning.

February 11, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid dropping tide	Stiff southeast cross wind
Sunny and cold	Exercise session

It wasn’t very good this morning. What more can I say? Small weak lines came through the Patch and at the Groin the tide was too low, the waves were sucking out due to the ebb current flowing out of the lagoon and a funky cross current that rippled through the impact zone. The Internet data was so – so: 4 ft west swell at 14 seconds with a southeast 15-knot wind. But it was a beautiful morning, a low-pressure front was moving in tomorrow that would break up this sunny weather and I have not been in the water for twelve days, thus I had to go out.

Randy was suiting up when I arrived this morning. He had his new stand-up board lying next to his car. Randy is an excellent longboard surfer who recently had taken up stand-up surfing. Remember Randy was the guy a couple of years ago who snow boarded on Mount Tam at dawn and at noon surfed at Bolinas.

“Randy, the waves must be non-existent so you are taking out your stand-up just to paddle around, right?”

“No. I really enjoy this. I’m getting into it.”

Judging from the cars Mary, Novato Pete and stand-up regulars Frank and Russ must be in the water. Martha’s board was still on top of her car. I ran into her coming up the ramp from checking out the surf.

“Well?”

“There’s not much there, but I’ve got to go out to get some exercise.”

I walked down to the Patch to take some pictures. Frank, Russ and Randy were way out there on their stand-up boards. Mary and Pete were sitting inside. Rocks were beginning to peek above the water. With the tide going out, soon all the rocks would be exposed. The waves looked small and weak, but Mary caught three nice inside curls in the ten minutes that I was standing there. That’s Mary in the above photo on a small inside curl. The stand-up guys caught a couple of small waves as the cold crosswind put a fine texture on the surface.

Just my luck, while suiting up the wind picked up and all my friends came in. I passed Randy on my way to the Patch. On my way out Mary and Pete caught waves and paddled in.

“Hey Loren, watch out for the rocks. It’s getting shallow out there,” Russ yelled at me as he paddled in.

“There’s just too much wind,” Frank called to me as he was exiting the water.

Only Kirk was still out there. A few minutes later Robert the Terra Linda carpenter and his carpenter friend Hoyt came out. On my first wave I caught a decent right that I kept working as it reformed on the inside. As I traveled on, the rocks started to boil, and an exposed rock was a few yards in front of me. I turned to avoid it and my skeg hit a submerged rock and knocked me off. What am I doing? I clobbered myself a few weeks ago hitting my head on a rock here at the Patch. So here I was again at the same place, with the same low tide and shallow water doing the same stupid thing. Wake up Loren!

Kirk and I figured out the strategy. Sit near the outside rock, wait for the sets and catch the white water sliding down the waves when they first broke. The waves would reform and the lefts got fairly good in the shallow water over the reef.

Robert did his usual thing of sitting way, way outside waiting for the tsunami wave. And it again it worked. In came a four-foot ground swell and he was on it. Fading left into the breaking part of the wave, he would swing right, cruise down a smooth section, cut-back, swing right again across another good section and on and on he would go working the wave all the way to the inside shore break.

Paddling out to the rock I looked back and saw Robert connect on a nice shore break right curl. Then he did it again and I decided to join him. I managed to catch three of them. I would catch the waves over the south edge of the reef and cruise right over sand area. In all three, I barely caught the wave, remained laying down not to lose momentum by standing up, cut right, ducked under white water, climbed back into the swell, jumped to my knees, then stood up and plowed the nose of the board into the breaking wave a few feet from shore. It was a good way to end my session.

Surfers never admit they wasted their time. Neither would I. I was out in the elements, the scenery was beautiful and I had that glow of satisfaction from vigorous exercise.

January 31, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets overhead
High dropping tide	NW cross wind to no wind
Low fog to overcast - cold	Fun session

Last time I surfed was a week ago Monday, a beautiful sunny day with mellow waves. Last Wednesday the surf was small and I didn’t have much time because I had to drive the water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program to the Branson School. I grabbed a sample from the base of the Groin wall and Thursday evening Marty sent out a warning message to the Bolinas regulars that the water was contaminated. Two weeks ago (January 16) a sewage pump in downtown Bolinas failed and raw sewage spilled into the lagoon. The sewage crew immediately repaired the pumps and the surrounding pipes, and the county took down the contaminated water signs after a couple of days. But Marty’s note gave the results from the last two weeks of Surfrider’s tests – “Off the Charts!!” a thousand times over the safe limit. Thus the water in the Channel for the past two weeks was contaminated. Marty stated that he was going to skip surfing on Friday due to the water situation. I took his advice and kissed it off also.

This morning the weather had changed. For three weeks high pressure had settled in bringing in dry conditions, sunshine to the coast and tule fog to the inland areas. Saturday afternoon low pressure moved in bringing cold air and rain. We had 1.5 inches of rain Saturday and Sunday.

This morning high pressure had returned bringing with it a new swell (7 ft NW swell at 14 seconds). Marty was in the water when I arrived meaning the water quality must be ok. Mary and I checked out the surf at the Patch. Jaime, Ray the Petaluma fireman and stand-up surfers Frank and Russ were out there. We stood watching for ten minutes and no one caught a wave; the tide was too high. We moved to the overlook above the Groin. Six surfers were out there including Marty and David who rides the Becker board. The waves were infrequent, big and difficult to catch. I decided to head to the Groin and Mary opted for the Patch convinced the waves would improve as the tide dropped.

As I paddled out to the Groin, David connected on a good one. He dropped down a left wall that kept reforming and on and on he went. I watched Marty fly down an overhead wall. He cut left, dropped down the face and braced himself as the wave pounded in front of him. He continued on fighting the white water trying to push back into the swell. He eventually had to straighten out as the wall collapsed all along the impact zone close to shore. The swells were big and were pushing a lot of water in front of them. They would build and build and finally break in fast peeling lefts on the inside. Having trouble catching the waves, I kept moving in. David and Marty remained outside. Did they know something I didn’t? I paddled for several waves and didn’t catch any of them, but the others did.

After twenty minutes I finally caught one. It was a big wall that stretched across the impact zone. I thought for sure it would close out in front of me. I paddled hard, the wave picked me up, and I hung at the top and kept paddling to get into it. I jumped up, went straight pushing my weight forward, and hung at the top of a five-foot face hearing the roar of the wave breaking behind me. Finally I pushed over the edge and dropped down a steep fast head-high face. I trimmed across the middle of the swell for several yards before it broke in front of me sending me flying. All right, not a bad start to a session.

David, Marty and I had to move around due to changing conditions. The current started flowing out of the lagoon and impacted the shape of the waves. It kept moving us out to sea. I constantly checked my two navigational points: the gray-white house above the Patch and the pole on the end of the Groin wall. The speed of the current steadily increased, cold air moved in, the water got colder and ice cream headaches struck every time I ducked under a wave. After an hour my toes and fingers were turning numb.

My last wave was a good one. I had drifted way inside when a sizeable set came through. I went for one that breaking. With two strokes I was into it. I turned left, dropped down a head-high face. The wave broke over the front of my board, and I leaned into it trying to work back into the swell. I almost made it. I cruised along the bottom of the wave with the curl breaking over the nose of the board. I never got back into the swell, but I was close. I hummed along for several yards until the wave broke in front of me. I straightened out and milked the white water all the way to shore. Not a bad way to end a session.

Walking down the beach I looked back to see David on another good one. With his back to the wave he worked through a tight curl that was slapping him on his back as he hung onto the outside rail. He coasted out to a smooth shoulder and hummed cross another section for thirty yards. David was into another one of his marathon sessions. He went out at 7:30 am and got out four hours later. The cold and hunger finally brought him in.

It was just another adventurous morning in Marin.

January 25, 2011 Tuesday

Plastic Bag Ban Ordinance – Marin County Board of Supervisor’s Meeting

“The next time we discuss this topic will be downstairs in court!” spouted Stephen L. Joseph, the lawyer for Save the Plastic Bag Coalition (a front for the plastics industry), to the Marin County Board of Supervisors on the day that they voted four to zero to outlaw plastic bags at grocery store checkout counters in unincorporated areas of the county and to impose a five-cent charge on paper bags. In his gray rumpled business suit, Mr. Joseph was the only one out of twenty-four public speakers to throw water on the good-feeling party atmosphere that filled the Supervisors chamber that morning. Every seat was filled and standing bodies lined the walls that surrounded the Supervisors podium.

The Supervisors had delayed this vote for two weeks to review the 91 legal documents that Mr. Joseph and the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition had submitted. Despite the threat of being sued, Supervisors Judy Arnold, Susan Adams, Steve Kinsey and Charles McGlashan (Supervisor Hal Brown was on sick leave) without reservations gladly voted for this ordinance. Before they could vote the crowd stopped them. People wanted to speak their support and to congratulate the supervisors for their bold move. Charles McGlashan had worked on this effort for five years, and he thanked his assistant, Maureen Parton, for her hard work winning over the all the supermarkets and the department for weights and measures. Enthusiastic speakers noted that plastic bag bans in other cities have resulted in a significant drop in paper bags because shoppers switch to reusable canvas ones. Zero waste was the stated goal and this ordinance moves us along that path. Speaker after speaker volunteered for the outreach and educational efforts needed to encourage people to switch and praised the Supervisors for standing up to the plastics industry.

Surfrider Foundation Marin’s officers were present to witness this historic event (that’s us in the above photo: myself, Scott Tye chairman and David McGuire head of our Rise Above Plastic program). Dave spoke about the impact of plastic on our oceans and showed a sculpture of a turtle made from plastic waste gathered last spring at Surfrider’s beach cleanup at Stinson.

Community support for this ordinance was strong. The audience gave the Supervisors an enthusiastic standing ovation after the vote and each supervisor proudly beamed from ear to ear.

Jumping ahead, on February 24th Save the Plastic Bag Coalition officially sued Marin County to stop implementation of the ban the bag ordinance. They claimed the Supervisors did not conduct an Environment Impact Report. Get their reasoning here: the ban on plastic bags will encourage the use of paper bags and that paper bags include 3.3 times more greenhouse gas emissions, four times the consumption of water and 2.7 times more solid waste production than a plastic bag. What non-sense! On a one to one basis Mr. Joseph is correct. But our objective is to do away with paper bags and replace them reusable ones. Kate and I have been using the same canvas bags for years and by now I’m sure our bags have more than reversed the above ratios. With every trip to the supermarket we are saving greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and solid waste production needed to produce the countless plastic bags that we did not use.

Regardless what happens in the courts, the public is converting to reusable bags because it is the right thing to do.

January 24, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
8:30 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Low upcoming tide	No wind
Bright sun with high clouds	Good session

Ideal conditions reigned this morning and the elements improved as we moved through the morning. Marty and I walked down to the Groin wall to get a close look at the surf. For the first time in a week we could walk in front of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. Last week extreme high tides in the morning pushed three feet of water up against the wall preventing us to pass. The surf this morning was closing out due to the low tide. Three surfers were there; David who rides the Becker board was one of them. Remnants of last week’s big swell were still coming in (7 ft NW swell at 15 seconds). With no wind the surface was smooth and the waves were clean, but they were breaking too fast, closing out and at times sucking out onto the sand. We watched David fly down a couple of fast walls that exploded in front of him. That’s him in the above photo.

To us the Patch looked more inviting. Mary, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Kathy the biology teacher and Cathy from the Russian River area were way, way out at the Patch connecting on these long, slow rides. The no-fear-factor prevailed at the Patch, thus Marty and I decided to head out there. Paddling out I watched Kathy cruise down a long left wall. “The lefts are breaking,” I said to myself, “I’ll go for those.” On my first wave I caught the white water sliding down the face of a four-foot wall. It picked me up and I sped along aiming to climb back into the swell. The white water disappeared as the wave reformed and I was now back into the swell crouched down mid-board shooting through a four-foot section. I cut back into the breaking part of the wave, let the swell build up again, and swung left into another fast section. On and on I went until the wave died in the shallow water of the Patch reef. What a great start to my session. I now had the strategy: catch the white water sliding down a sizeable peak and maneuver it into swell of a reforming wave. I did that at least six times, all of them great rides.

I noticed that David had joined us, confirming that Marty and I had made the right decision. David prefers the faster waves of the Groin, but if it is not happening, he doesn’t hesitate to make the long paddle to the Patch to connect with better waves.

Marty caught a good one and nearly killed me. I was making the long paddle back out to the line-up, I came over the crest of a small wave and there was Marty taking off on a well-formed set wave. “Oh on, he is heading right for me,” I said to myself. Instead of confusing him by paddling one direction or another, I froze and just sat there. He kept coming and was picking up speed as the wave stood up and starting breaking. On he came and I didn’t move. Marty cut in front of me, missing me by one foot (yes he was within inches of me), spending spray onto my board and he continued on. He told me later that was his best ride of the morning. It held up, kept reforming and on and on he went. He didn’t say a word about nearly clobbering me.

Julie, the Bolinas local who works for the Public Works department of Mill Valley, paddled out to join us. She’s an excellent surfer and knows the Patch well. She caught a couple of waves with the rest of us and then headed north and further out. I joked that she was on a tsunami watch waiting for that legendary rogue wave. Well it finally came and she connected. It was a beautiful sight, she was 200 yards north and 100 yards further out than the rest of us. The set wave peaked and she stroked into it. She skillfully angled left with her back to the wave and casually cruised down a wall of water that was a foot over her head. She paddled way out there again to wait for another big one. Her wait was long but I saw her connect on two more of them this morning.

“Jeff, did you surf Dillon Beach during last week’s big swell? Dillon had to be closing out.” Jeff the Lawson’s Landing boat mechanic had joined us.

“Saturday, Dillon was twelve feet with big barrels, which I didn’t get near to, and yesterday it was ten feet and gnarly. So I came here today to get some mellow waves.”

And mellow it was. Hank paddled out on his big red ten-footer sporting a baseball cap. As the morning progressed, the sun warmed things up, the wind stopped, the surface glassed off and the waves became more consistent. All of us, Marty, David, Jeff, Hank, Julie and I connected on several good long rides. What an ideal morning: warm sunny weather, glassy conditions, mellow crowd and consistent three to five-foot waves coming through.

As Marty and I walked back to the ramp after our session we spotted Cathy on the seawall cutting down the brush with her tree-branch saw. You know the kind, a long pole with a curved saw blade on top. Cathy is a landscaper and carries her equipment in her pickup truck along with her surf gear. She was clearing the brush and tree branches away from the path on the north side of the seawall. Here the concrete top ends and we have to carefully step over the boulders that form the foundation of the wall to get to the beach. The local foliage had been encroaching out onto the path making it difficult to climb over the boulders. Cathy took matters into her own hands and chopped away one ton of shrubs to clear the path. She parked her truck at the top of the ramp, dragged all her cuttings up the ramp, loaded up the truck and drove them to the Bolinas dump, which was not far away. I’m sure the owner of the property never noticed the change, but we aging surfers appreciated Cathy’s efforts.

January 21, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:15 am to 10:45 am	4' to 5', sets overhead
Mid upcoming tide (6 ft at 11:30 am)	Slight North breeze to no wind
Sunny with high clouds	Thrilling session

Per Stormsurf, a big swell (Swell #5 – fifth big north swell of the season) was hitting Hawaii and California. The Jetstream was in a holding pattern, blowing hard from Japan to Canada causing a low pressure front to form off of Japan that blew consistently 35 to 40 knots for four days straight generating a huge swell aimed at Hawaii with remnants headed for Northern California. The holding pattern also set up high pressure over the West Coast generating fair sunny weather and light NW winds. Ideal conditions: mild sunny weather and a NW big swell. The surf forecasters on the Internet predicted that the swell would hit Northern California Friday afternoon (7 ft at 19 seconds), peak on Saturday (9 ft at 20 seconds) and hold on until Monday (7.5 ft at 15 seconds). Long intervals mean high-energy ground swells. I had to go to the beach to see what was happening.

Coming down the Panoramic Highway I could see lines of swell marching in. White water lined the Duxbury Reef and Stinson had end-to-end walls crashing on the beach. Cars were already parked beyond the tennis courts and half way to the post office on Brighton Avenue at 8:00 am. David who rides the Becker board had just checked the waves and was excited. From a distance I saw Don Holm, my Kahuna Kupuna Surf Contest buddy, suited up and bristly heading for the ramp with board in hand. Doug and Jim the jazz guitarist were changing at their cars after their session. Doug said it was great.

High tide was not for another three hour but already the water was rushing up the ramp and waves were pounding the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. I took some photos from the overlook above the Groin. Twenty surfers were packed into a single peak, and the waves were big and powerful but not clean. I didn’t see any good rides. One after another would drop down the face of an overhead wall only to plow into a ton of white water. I stood there a long time because I kept seeing lines far at sea of another big set coming in.

From Terrace Road I got some good shots of the Patch, like the one above. Ten surfers were out there including Mary, Marty, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Russ on his stand-up board. The waves were breaking way, way out there and then reforming. The crowd sat on the south edge of the impact zone to catch the rights. The take-offs were flat but the waves reformed on the inside into steep fast curls. I watched Mary catch two set waves; on both she faded left letting the waves reform and then swung right to cruise across two long walls of water. Jaime caught a good one; he worked it into an inside right peak to hum across a sizeable and fast shore break curl. Feeling my age and the lack of conditioning I opted for the No-Fear-Factor and headed for the Patch.

Walt, Matt, Robert the Terra Linda carpenter, DB the Safeway checker and Mark the archaeologist suited up at the same time and all headed to the Patch. Mark pulled out his short (6’ 6”) Hobie. He usually rides a 9’ 6” longboard.

“Mark, that’s the wrong board. Where’s you big Hobie?”

“I just got back from several days working in Bakersfield, was dying to surf and just grabbed this one.”

“The take-offs are flat, thus catch the white water and work them into a reforming wave.”

“That’s the plan.”

After our session, I saw Mark with his short board tucked under his arm.

“Mark, you must admit that you had the wrong board.”

“You’re damn right. But I did manage to catch the white water and turn them into decent rides. I did better way outside when I first went out.”

That sums up my session. I connected on some great waves when I first went out there. Then as the tide came up, the waves changed. They became bumpy, mainly due to the backwash coming off the cliff and they broke closer to shore, head high swells looming onto shore.

When I first paddled out, I watched Jaime, who was sitting way inside, come down a head-high peak, cut back into the curl, swing right again to shoot through a fast shore break wall and pull out as the wave collapsed on the sand. Wow, that looked like fun. I decided to join him and besides it was a short paddle. The crowd was way outside at the far peak.

“Jaime, is this the spot or are you working you way in?”

“Hey, I was going in. My arms are spent. But then I connected on a good right and decided to go for one more. That was several waves ago.”

In came a sizeable wall that was feathering at the top. I went for it, dropped down a head-high face, leaned right, cruised across a fast curl for twenty yards and bailed out as it crashed near shore. Great ride. Jaime and I traded several great waves over the next half-hour.

DB paddled over to join us. After a few minutes she drifted outside to wait for a set. I watched her get a good one. The wave broke ten yards outside of her, which was fifty yards from me. She stroked into the white water that was sliding down from the peak, jumped up, continued straight as the wave began to reform, and swung right into an overhead face. I got a great side view of her turning into the curl as I paddled over the wave.

Robert executed his usual tsunami strategy of sitting way, way outside waiting for the big one. I saw him at least three times catch waves a hundred yards outside of me. He would fade left, letting the swell build up, swing right, cut back, swing right again to connect with the inside curls that we were going for. Each time he rode these waves to the shore.

With the tide coming up, I kept watching the waves boom against the seawalls. Getting in was going to be an adventure. I caught a big one that put me near the rocks and near to the shore. Matt and Mark were paddling in, and I decided to follow their lead. They paddled outside of the first seawall, the one with all the graffiti painted on it. Mark had no problem timing the waves and paddling into the beach. Matt struggled. A big shore break wall clobbered him and knocked him off his board. He drove under a couple more waves before wading up to the beach. I decided to try for the patch of sand just north of the seawall and the big tree trunk sitting on the beach. You know the one, a large eucalyptus that came down during the first El Nino in 1997. I let a couple of sets go by and then sprinted for the beach. I didn’t make it. A big wave broke outside of me; I bailed and dove under it. When I surfaced I was now mid-seawall, bouncing around the incoming waves and the backwash coming off the wall. The current had carried me about thirty yards south. I jumped back on my board and dug hard to go back out and to the north to try again. The second time I made it into the beach.

Though I didn’t catch any memorable waves, it was an adventure being out there when the ocean was throwing some of its finest and strongest waves at us.

January 19, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
11:45 am to 1:15 pm	2' to 3', sets 4'
High dropping tide (6.8 ft at 10:30 am)	Stiff offshore wind to no wind
Sunny and breezy	Fun session

Scott told me this morning when I was collecting a water sample at Stinson Beach for Surfrider’s water testing program that a sewage spill had occurred two days ago on Wharf Road in Bolinas. A pump broke causing raw sewage to pour out into the lagoon. We decided that I should take a water sample at the end of Wharf Road at the mouth of the lagoon. When I went down there, crews had the road blocked-off and had posted signs dated January 16, 2011 stating the water was contaminated. The work crew was digging a huge hole in the street across from the Bolinas Museum. Later locals told me the story. The pump is located there and its function is to pump the sewage uphill a couple of miles to the sewage plant located on Mesa Road by the fire station. They had the pump and sewage pipe repaired by the next day. Of course a little contamination warning didn’t keep the surfers from entering the water.

“Loren the wind is blowing,” Kate said, as I was getting ready to head out to the beach. “I couldn’t sleep and was up at four and the wind was howling.”

At 6:30, the San Francisco buoy reported 23 MPH north wind with gusts up to 31. North winds are offshore at Bolinas. From the Panoramic Highway, I saw white caps far out to sea, except at Bolinas which sits in the wind shadow of the Bolinas Ridge. Ten surfers were out at the Channel, two on the Seadrift side and eight bunched together going for the lefts. Check out the above photo; the offshore wind sent plumes of spray off the tops of all the waves. They were big, a sizeable swell came in yesterday and was still pumping this morning: 7 ft west swell at 15 seconds. The waves looked great, glassy, plumes of spray and head-high, but no one was getting any good rides. The swells marched in and kept coming and coming and building and building, but they did not break until way on the inside. The tide was too high and the waves were difficult to catch.

The Patch didn’t look any better and the waves were half the size of those at the Channel. Six surfers were out including Marty, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Walt and Russ on standup boards. Due to the high tide, the swells were bouncing off the cliff causing large backwash ripples that impacted the waves and screwed up the rides. The waves weren’t inviting and I was considering heading home.

Jaime exited the water and reported the waves were good earlier and then faded as the tide came in.

“Loren, remember how one day you forgot your wetsuit? Well today I forgot my trunks, thus I’m al natural under my wetsuit.”

“With this cold your huevos must have sunk up to your chest.”

“Yes, I felt like a Frenchman out there,” Jaime laughed and moved on.

Walt came up the ramp and said he had a frustrating session. He had not surfed much in the last few weeks, conditioning and timing took their toll. A professional photographer, Walt, was working on a personal project about older surfers. He mentioned that he had made an appointment for an interview and photo shoot with Doug Haut, the long time surfboard manufacturer in Santa Cruz. Due to traffic Walt was late and worried that Doug wouldn’t hang around. The time was short but Walt managed to get some good shots and felt good about the session. He won’t show us his project until it meets his high standards. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

My old friend Mark drove up. At first I thought he was John my companion in the Kahuna Kapuna surf contest last August. Mark and John look similar, tall, thin though not skinny, long gray-white beard and massive tattoos on the arms.

“John,” I said, “how are you? I haven’t seen you since August.”

“Loren, I’m Mark. You don’t recognize me because I cut my hair.” He was right. I didn’t recognize him. Mark used to have shoulder length hippy style hair, dark with streaks of gray. Now his hair was short and totally gray.

“Mark, I confused you with someone else. You’re right; it’s the hair, and your car. What happened to your old red panel truck?” An old beat-up, dented, rusty relic that Mark had ever since I knew him.

“It died when I ploughed into a herd of deer outside Petaluma.”

Mark and I go way back. The first group of Bolinas regulars I connected with was Mark’s crowd. This was in 1990 when my son Kevin and I took up surfing again. Pat was the leader of the group, an excellent surfer in great shape who could stay out all day and was always in position when the sets arrived. Pat, Eddy and Mark would be out there every weekend dominating the Groin and the Channel. They would surf all morning and then head to Smiley’s to down a few. Mark was a plumber. He is now retired. Pat and Eddy worked for a stone company. They delivered and installed decorative rock. Heavy lifting led to powerful arms that really helped in the water.

“Mark, how is our old friend Pat?”

A few years ago Pat had a stroke that left him incapacitated and was in an institution recovering. Mark filled me in. Pat is home now, is still physically out of it, and can’t hear. His woman takes care of him and she won’t let any of his old friends get near him. Thus Mark had not seen him in a while. With Pat out of action the old group broke up. Eddy has moved to Oregon and Mark usually surfs at Dillon Beach these days. It was great to see Mark again. Pat is a sad story, an excellent, healthy, energetic and friendly surfer who is now a near vegetable.

I joined Mark, Mary, D.B. and Martha out at the Patch. With the tiding dropping I was hoping the conditions would improve. The waves were ok, flat, slow and hard to catch, but it felt good to be out in the water.

“D.B. was it worth it?” I asked after our session.

“Every time you get in the water, it is worth it.”

I put the same question to Mary and received the same answer. “It’s always worth it when you get out in the water.”

What more can I say?