January 30, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Seadrift side of the Channel
9:00 am to 10:30 am	3 ft with sets to 4 ft, some head high
Medium out going tide (3 ft to 1.1 ft)	Offshore breeze (north wind)
Sunny and warm (for a change)	Good fun session

“No rain this morning. Thank God,” I said to myself when the alarm went off at 5:30 am. I went downstairs and logged onto the Internet to check out the surf conditions. The latest buoy report stated 8.2 ft north swell at 11 seconds and a 1.1 south swell at 14 seconds, wind out of the north at 9 knots, water temperature 52.5 degrees with a wind chill factor of 44.1 degrees. Great, I thought cold but clear and the wind in the correct direction for Bolinas. Besides I have to gather water samples for Jamie. Let’s go check it out.

When I pulled into the parking spots on Brighton Ave in Bolinas, only Mary’s car was there with her board inside. I went down to the seawall at the bottom of the ramp and saw Mary walking up the beach from checking out the Groin. She wasn’t excited about the conditions. The Patch was barely breaking and due to the deep water and a strong out going current the Groin was flat. Mary and I greeted professor Steve as he entered the water for his morning exercise. He went straight out where there some two to three foot waves breaking. Marty showed up and joined us as we contemplated going out. Then Doug arrived with a cup of coffee in his hand. Earlier he had already checked out Bolinas, had gone to see if anything was happening at Stinson and had just returned to Bolinas.  We stood for several minutes observing the waves. I kept noticing some temping right breaking waves just on the far side of the out-flowing current. I mentioned the rights to the others. We watched a couple of sets of potentially rideable waves break further over on the Seadrift side. If we’re surfing this morning our best bet is the other side of the river flowing out of the lagoon. Paddling across the river is a hassle, but, it’s the first sunny and warm morning in weeks, thus en-masse we elected to go.

I went up the bluff to take a few pictures while the others suited up, thus I was the last one to enter the water. I was thinking I would go for the fast breaking right curls just of the far side of the current. I watched Mary walk around the bend into the mouth of the lagoon before entering the water. The current was exceptionally swift. My guess is six to seven knots, easily. She jumped in, started paddling, the current took hold and she crossed to the other side in about five seconds. I did the same. I noticed the others decided to go for the peak further down the beach instead of going for the rights on the edge of the current. I walked down the beach to the first house on the Seadrift side. The peak was straight out from this house, which became my marker to position myself in the water.

The above picture is the peak in front of the first house. Notice the smaller inside wave. This is one of the rights breaking at the edge of the current. The rights were small and in very shallow water. The other peak was just right; consistent three foot waves, sets to four feet and occasionally some head high walls. Conditions were good with warm air, an offshore breeze to hold up the curls, fairly long rides, gentle breaking waves and no fear factor. All four of us caught several waves and had a great time.

The bottom was deep along the shore and then became fairly shallow further out in the impact zone. Once the waves broke they would begin to reform as you rode closer to shore and would eventually die out before reaching the beach. I caught a few left breaking walls that broke in front of me, but due to the waves reforming, I rode under the white water out into swell into a good section, gained some speed until the wave died in the inside deeper water.

The peak broke both left and right and I caught many in both directions. After an hour the offshore wind picked up. Three times the wind blew me out of a wave. The take offs were very flat and required board speed to get into them. To compensate I moved closer to the nose of the board, the nose would submerge but as the wave became steeper and the momentum of the wave picked up the tail of the board the nose would pop out of the water and I would be into the wave. I have done this maneuver hundreds of times. Today it didn’t work. When the nose came out of the water, the momentum popped the nose up slightly, enough for the offshore wind to hold it up like an airplane wing, and suspend me and the board in the air for an instance, just enough for the wave to pass under me. I had to adjust my weight to insure that the nose did not submerge. If the nose dipped into the water, I wasn’t going to catch the wave.

After an hour and a half we all went in. The tide had dropped further and the current was even faster. I made the mistake to trying to paddle across the current instead of letting it take me. With tired arms I had a difficult time crossing the river of rapidly out-flowing water. Once on the other side I observed the correct way to cross. A Bolinas local entered the water at the end of Wharf Road, which is true mouth of the lagoon, rode the board on his knees, let the current whip him along and then with his hands he steered his board to the Seadrift side of the channel. Next time I’m going to do it that way.

All of us agreed that it was a great session with fun waves and sunny weather, just another day in paradise.

January 28, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2 ft to 3 ft with sets head high
Low 2 ft tide dropping to 1.6 ft at 10 am	Offshore wind
Sunny with showers and a cold breeze	A So–So session

“Rain again! Damn when will this rainy cold weather end?” It’s 5:30 am and a light rain is pelting the bedroom window. I went downstairs to check the latest buoy report; 8 ft swell at 12 seconds and a 3.4 south swell at 14 seconds. The south swell is due to the storms of the past couple of days, which had strong south winds. Today the wind is from northwest. The graphic on Stormsurf.com showed a south swell pattern, thus Bolinas has some possibilities: a NW wind, which is offshore at Bolinas, with a south wind swell that comes straight into the south facing Bolinas. Also it’s Monday and I have made a commitment to Jamie to get him water samples every Monday and Wednesday. Thus I decided to go to the beach to check it out and to gather the water samples, and I also decided to take my running gear in case the surf was lousy I could go for a jog on the beach at Stinson.

As Kate and I left the house a blast of cold air hit us and the light rain was still coming down. “Doesn’t look good for the beach does it Kate?” I must be nuts. As I started my drive up out of Mill Valley the rain stopped and the sun came out. At Bootjack, I entered a cloud and the light rain returned. At Pantoll the rain turned to hail. On the west side of the mountain I dropped out of the cloud and the sunshine returned. From then on it was a beautiful drive to Bolinas.

Only two cars were parked on Brighton Ave at the tennis courts. Mary’s was one of them and her board was still in her car, not a good sign. She was on the seawall at the base of the ramp checking out the surf. The Groin and the Channel weren’t happening due to the strong out-going current. Straight out from the ramp there were some small waves with shape. The Patch looked small and ill formed. It was a wind swell with small peaks breaking in several different locations. We went up to the overlook above Brighton Ave. There’s an old public stairway behind the first house at the top of the ramp. This was the first time I had gone up this path. The above photo is the view from the overlook. As you can see there is nothing impressive happening in terms of surf.

Mary stated that she is going out. It’s been two weeks since she has surfed. In fact the last time was with me on Monday, January 14^th. She was itching to get back into the water and she was afraid she was losing her arm strength from the lack of paddling. Why would I go out? The water is cold and the surf doesn’t look very good. Here’s my rationale:

1. At the moment the sun is shinning and it’s warm,


2. Yesterday I had purchased new 5 mm booties and thick new gloves,


3. I have a new warm wetsuit that I have only worn two times,


4. It’s been 12 days since I have been surfing (January 16^th was the last time),


5. Per local weather reports, conditions don’t look good for the rest of the week,


6. A good surf buddy is going out, I’ll join her, and


7. There's no fear factor, the Patch waves are small and harmless.

We paddled way, way out there past the outside rock. The top of the rock was barely exposed; white water swirled around it. The waves were difficult to catch. The swells had some size but the waves didn’t have any force. We had to catch them as they were breaking. My first wave I caught the white water and maneuvered into a left breaking swell. It was a descent ride. On another, I caught the breaking white water of a large peak. I took it left, dropped down an overhead flat face with some speed and then the wave died. In most of our waves, we were going straight, forcing our weight forward to keep our boards in the swells. Mary caught the biggest wave of the morning, which was a head high wall of water that did have some push. She managed to ride this a long, long ways.

As usual for Bolinas, it was a beautiful morning. At one moment a full, half-circle rainbow formed over the bluff above the Patch. A minute later a light rain began to fall, then the clouds blotted out the sun and a strong, cold offshore breeze began to blow. Five minutes later the rain stopped, the wind died and the sunshine returned.

The tide and current were moving us out and to the north. We had to constantly paddle in to stay in the impact zone. After an hour with the tide turning, the impact zone moved further in. It took a while to figure this out. Mary and I kept positioning ourselves closer to shore. I went through a long period of paddling for waves and not catching them. I told Mary I was going to work my way inside and get out. A big set came through. We both paddled for the first one, which was sizable, cresting with white water, and we both missed it. I was closer in than Mary. She yelled to me, “Hey!” to alert me to the next wave. I looked back and it was breaking. I turned, paddled two strokes and was into it; finally a wave with some force. A big wall of water lined up in front of me, I forced my board into the curl, turned sharply to the right and staying at the base of the wave managed to get under the white water and back into the swell. I cut back to let the next section form, went through that curl, and cut back again and again into continuously forming right sections. The last section was the shore break at the beach that finally closed out. What a great ride and now I was twenty feet from shore. That’s it. I’m not paddling all the way out there again; this session is over. Once on the sand I waved to Mary who was still way out there. It was a good ending to a So-So session.

 

 

January 23, 2008 Wednesday

Stinson	In front of restrooms
9:30 am	3’ to 4’, sets head high
High up coming tide	Strong offshore wind (17 mph)
Sunny, high clouds with rain	Cold water & cold wind, I didn’t go out

The above photo is my hard-ass friend Doug, retired economics Petaluma High teacher and part time carpenter, locked into a tight curl at Stinson Beach. He makes this section to pull out on the very inside. Doug was the only one out.

When the alarm went off this morning at 5:30 am, it was raining. “Oh no, rain! And cold, another miserable day,” I said to myself. The weather prediction is rain all week. Stormsurf was predicting northeast winds at 5 mph for this morning and then strong south winds for the rest of the week. If I was going surfing this week today is my best chance. But with rain already I hesitated. I went downstairs to view the latest buoy forecast: east winds at 17 mph, water temperature 50 degrees, air temperature 45 degrees and wind chill factor at 35 degrees. That’s cold!

Last night late I emailed my surf buddies that today is our best chance for surf. Also on Wednesdays I take water samples to Branson as part of Surfrider Foundation’s water testing program. Last Wednesday’s test showed Bolinas with an elevated e-coli count, enough to give it a yellow status. Therefore it’s important to take another test this week to see if the high count persists. After rains we expect to see the e-coli counts to go up due to the runoff from the land. Kate was almost ready to go and I don’t want to hold her up. I rationalized that I don’t have to bolt to the beach every morning at 7:15 am. I can go down later in the morning. So I rode into Mill Valley with Kate to get our morning coffee together.

Afterwards I walked home and threw my surf gear into the car. I was of the mindset that I would not go out. I would gather the water samples and take a leisurely drive to Branson. If I’m going to drive to the beach I will take my board just in case it’s good.

Over the mountain I drove through mist and light rain. Once on the coast side of Pantoll I broke into bright sunshine. The rain front was definitely on the eastside of the mountain. The ocean was covered with small white caps from the strong east winds, but the surface was smooth at Stinson and Bolinas.

At Stinson the waves were beautiful. The winds held up the curls and with the high tide the waves had shape. There was one lonely surfer out. I watched him with the camera ready. He tried for several waves and missed them. Finally he got one, which held up for a long way. The board looked familiar.  It was a gray longboard with red markings. That looks like Doug’s epoxy Hobie board. I took a closer look. I think that is Doug. To prove it, I went back to the parking lot to see if one of the two pickup trucks in the lot was Doug’s. There it was, a white full size pickup truck with a “Spring Training” license plate frame. Doug’s a big Giants fan and goes every year to spring training in Phoenix.

I watched Doug catch a great left wave and got three shots of him on this one wave. I called to him, “Aren’t you freezing?”

“No, the water is warmer than the air.”

“You’re here at Stinson, that means Bolinas was flat. Right?” I asked.

“There wasn’t a thing there, totally flat. The tide is too high. The water is pushing all the way up the ramp. Aren’t you coming out?”

“No it’s too cold.” The offshore wind was freezing.

Jim who I had not seen in months showed up to check out the waves. Jim and I surfed all those good waves at the Bolinas Groin last September. I had not seen him since. He’s my age and a very good surfer. I reintroduced myself to him. Jim grew up and still lives in Stinson beach. He’s a contractor. I would see him in the mornings paddling on his knees from Seadrift over to the Groin. He too was hesitant about the cold. “If I see another good set, I’m going.” A couple of minutes later a solid set of four five-foot waves came through. “I’m going.”

I gathered water samples from Stinson and from the ramp at Bolinas and headed for Branson. Marty, who lives near the school, told me he goes north on Highway 1 to Olema and turns onto Sir Frances Drake. I decided to give it a try. What a beautiful drive through the hills of west Marin to Olema, through the thick redwood forest of Samuel P. Taylor State Park, pass the ranches of Lagunitas, over the ridge to Fairfield into San Anselmo and finally to Branson. The drive took me 50 minutes. I usually spend an hour going from Stinson to Branson. I dropped off the samples, met Kate and had a big tuna salad for lunch.

So this morning I did a big loop, no surfing, just driving. From Mill Valley to Stinson to Bolinas to Olema to Lagunitas, Fairfield to Branson and back to Mill Valley. Let’s call this a quick tour of Paradise.

January 20, 2008 Sunday

Half Moon Bay	Dunes Beach
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm	3’ to 5’, sets to head high
High dropping tide	15 to 20 mph NW wind – lots of it
Sunny, high clouds, cold, cold wind	White caps everywhere

Today I played chauffeur to Kevin and his friend Eric.

That wasn’t the original plan. Yesterday afternoon at 2:30 pm Kevin called me to go surfing. It was sunny, warm, a slight offshore wind, a small swell and low tide; ideal conditions for Ocean Beach. “Dad, we should go South, Ocean Beach or Half Moon Bay.” When I’m in the middle of something I don’t shift gears easily. I was working on my photos of the Mavericks contest and I had promised Kate we would go to 5:30 pm church instead of on Sunday morning. “Kevin, tomorrow. Let’s go tomorrow morning. How about 9:00 am?” Done, that was our plan.

Sunday morning I was running late. I finally got it all together, surf gear and board in the car, stopped in town to go to the ATM, get coffee at Peet’s and to call Kevin about being late. As I passed Tamalpais High I noticed the water of the wetlands was right up to the street, which only happens with extreme high tides. Extreme high tide, great, Ocean Beach and the beaches of Half Moon Bay are best on low tide. As I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I could see white caps out at sea beyond Point Bonita and small white caps were just beginning to form on the Bay. The flags at the toll plaza were straight out due to a strong onshore wind. I can hear Kevin now, “Dad we should have gone yesterday.”

I pulled into the driveway of Kevin’s apartment. He was there to greet me, he threw his board and surf gear into my jeep and jumped into the back seat, “Eric is going to join us, we’ll put the boards on top of the car at his place.” 

Kevin had met Eric a few months ago on the shuttle to Sun Microsystems. Like Kevin, Eric is a young guy who recently joined Sun. He does quality assurance testing, is a recent graduate and just moved to San Francisco from a small town near St. Louis. Once on the west coast, he took up surfing. Kevin is his mentor.

We stacked three boards on top of my car and headed off. We proceeded to make the classic mistake that all surfers make; that is to search for waves up or down the coast when the surf is lousy locally. In reality, weather patterns cover a large area, thus if the surf is lousy locally then it is most likely lousy up and down the coast. The time to search for surf is when swell and weather conditions are good locally.

Here was our search:

Ocean Beach was windy, blown out, white caps, choppy, big and nobody out, only a couple of kite surfers. We moved on.

Linda Mar, Pacifica was windy, blown out, choppy and closed out. There were ten surfers out at the very south end who looked like they were having a horrible time. We didn’t even stop.

Montara was the same story: big, white caps everywhere and nobody out. We kept moving on.

The Jetty in Half Moon Bay had possibilities. It’s a south facing beach thus the sideways wind was holding up the waves. But the waves were tiny; the northwest swells were bypassing this beach. I was tempted, Kevin wasn’t, and thus we pushed on.

Dunes State Beach was like the others: choppy, blown out and big. But it had shape. We pulled into the parking lot to get a good look. We almost went out. Kevin was for it, I wasn’t and Eric was neutral, thus we decided to push on further south.

Kelly Ave State Beach was worst: more wind, chop, white caps and closed out waves. The further south we went the coast turned straight west facing, thus the wind was full force onshore.

Kevin voted for returning to Dunes Beach because it was more protected from the wind and wasn’t tiny like the Jetty. Eric was willing and I wasn’t. I volunteered to stay in the car while they surfed. I had one request, which was to let me get a coffee and buy the paper to have something to do while they were in the water. So we crossed Highway 1 and drove into downtown Half Moon Bay. I knew of a good down-home, family run, coffee place, where I got a large coffee and the Sunday paper and off we went.

Since the coast turned from south to west facing between the Jetty and Kelly Ave, Kevin suggested we take a look at the beach north of Dunes Beach. It might be more protected from the wind there. We remember seeing a “Coastal Access” sign when we passed by earlier. North we went, we found the turnoff, took a road through a residential area that ended in a cul-de-sac next to an apartment building that sat on the bluff overlooking the beach. The waves here broke close to the cliff and they looked slow and mushy. We all agreed it look better at Dunes Beach.

Back to Dunes Beach we went. The wind had increased by now. Kevin and Eric only have two chances a week to surf thus they were going out no matter what. I have the luxury of waiting for a better day. They suited up and charged down to the beach stating “just three waves.” Meanwhile I sat in the warm car drinking hot coffee and reading the business section of the paper.

After a half-hour, I got out the camera and ventured out to the bluff to get some shots of them surfing. The wind was strong, stiff and cold. My hands were getting numb just standing there. The waves were head-high, walled and came in sets of four to five. One big set came in that caught both Kevin and Eric inside. Being more experienced Kevin managed to cleanly duck dive five waves and get outside. Being less experienced, Eric got pounded. The five waves drove him way inside. I could see that at one point he hesitated about paddling out. He admitted later that he considered coming in at that point. But no he stuck it out and finally made it back outside.

The above photo is Kevin on the best wave that I observed. It was a head-high wall that reformed on the inside. I caught him as he was turning into the reformed curl. Eric had a hard time catching waves. After I had put the camera away I saw Eric catch a good one; also a head-high wall. Eric took off late, pushed into the curl, which lined up for a good inside section that he skillfully handled. For a guy who is still learning I was impressed.

Once out of the water, changed, boards back on the roof and heading north again on Highway 1, we all stated simultaneously, “let’s eat.” Where to go? Eric reminded us of the barbecue place, which I had pointed out on the way down in Pacifica. “Gorilla Barbecue, good idea.”

I have been watching the remodeling of this old boxcar restaurant for months. For years it was deserted, for another few years it was a Starbucks wannabe, then abandoned again and recently it’s come to life again as the Gorilla Barbecue. We purchased pulled pork sandwiches with cold slaw, which we stood there at the counter and ate. This is a take out place that has no inside seating. There are picnic benches outside but it was too cold and windy today to sit there. Three-fourths of this boxcar is kitchen with a high quality, first rate, stainless steel, industrial-strength smoker. This is obviously somebody’s dream to put this business together and I think we were chatting with him. After complimenting the cook on the great sandwiches I asked him what kind of wood did he use to smoke his meats. “Oak from the foothills of the Sierras. Hickory leaves too
strong of a smoke taste for people of California.” This cook must be from the south to make a statement like that. Kevin and I disagreed with him, we like a strong smoky taste. Gorilla Barbecue is a great discovery; we will be back.

Back to San Francisco we headed, listening to the New England Patriots defeat the San Diego Chargers on the radio for a trip to the Superbowl.  All in all it was a great day.

 

January 16, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:00 am to 10:00 am	6 inches to 1 ft
Low, dropping tide	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, clear and freezing cold	Waste of time

What a waste of time.  Why did we ever go out?

In the above photo, Scott, who only surfs on Wednesdays, waits for a wave. He is out to the left of the ramp at Bolinas. Note the lack of swells. Marty, Doug, Robert the Oakland fireman and I stood on the seawall at the base of the ramp and watched Scott catch a couple of small mushy waves. There’s nothing impressive here. The Channel and the Patch were flat. There were some potential right pealing waves on the Seadrift side of the Channel but one would have to paddle across the ragging river of current pouring out of the lagoon.

Robert stated he was going out. Because of his work schedule, he doesn’t have many opportunities to get out into the water. Also, it was his birthday, he just turned 45, and he was going to celebrate by surfing. Like lemmings, we all agreed to join him.

The waves were non-existent. I paddled out to where Scott was and then gradually had to paddle in and further in to catch anything. I caught a six-inch wave and managed to get a little bit of curl. Again and again I went for waves that were barely rideable. The water was cold, I had my regular 3 mm booties on and my toes were beginning to go numb. After 30 minutes, I gave it up. So did Marty and Doug. Even talk about “it’s good to get out in the water” did not justify this lousy session.

One of the phenomena of cold is evaporation. When I take off my booties and expose my feet and toes to the outside breeze, evaporation sucks out all the heat and the numbness sets in. It happened with a vengeance today. After changing the four of us walked into town to get coffee. While chatting there outside the Coast Cafe, my right foot, ankle and leg went numb. So numb that I could barely stand. I had to constantly move my foot around to get the circulation going. Fortunately the walk back to the car and placing my foot under the blast of the car’s heater revived the feeling in my foot.

I did gather water samples at Bolinas and Stinson, drove them out to Branson and checked the Surfrider post office box in Larkspur before making it home. Of course it was another beautiful day in Marin.

 

January 14, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 11:00 am	2’ to 3’
Low, up coming 2 ft tide	Slight north breeze
Sunny, clear and cold	A So-So session

When I arrived at Bolinas this morning Mary and Marty were chatting in the parking lot, not a good sign. The waves were half the size as yesterday’s powerful swell. The ones breaking straight out from the ramp were small, mushy and without any punch at all. The Patch was barely breaking. The Groin and Channel were flat again due to the deep water caused by the missing sand and there was a river of incoming current flowing into the lagoon due to the upcoming tide. On the far side of the Channel on the other side of the current I noticed a series of right pealing waves, but to get there one would have to paddle through the strong incoming current.

Mary decided to go out to the Patch. As she went to suit up, Marty and I walked down to the Groin to get a better look at the break on the far side of the Channel. Marty agreed to take the water samples to Branson this morning. He took a sample from the stream of water in the small channel at the base of the Groin wall. Marty had things to do that afternoon and decided to take off. So with the obligation of taking the water samples to Branson gone, with a good new wetsuit and having borrowed Kevin’s new 5mm booties, I decided to join Mary at the Patch.

Mary and two others were way out there beyond the outside rock. I paddled out there to join them. Mary caught a small wave, which had little force, and rode it straight just to stay in the swell. She then paddled straight south and ended up way, way inside and to the south instead of paddling out to where we were. She knows this break very well. If she positions herself way inside there must be a reason. The waves were small and mushy and the only descent ones were the inside right breaking swells that ended in the shore break on the beach. Mary called it right and I too moved inside.

The waves were small, two to three footers with little to no punch. I had brought my big wave board again hoping that yesterday’s big swell would still be pumping. However, this board is also good in small flat waves. It paddles well and with the momentum of its weight it easily coasts into waves. I managed to paddle and coast into several long, slow, right breaking waves.

It was a warm beautiful day, the new wetsuit and Kevin’s 5mm booties kept me warm, and the small waves were fun, thus it was another wonderful morning in paradise.

 

January 13, 2008 Sunday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:00 am to 10:30 am	4’ to 6’, sets were overhead
Medium, up coming tide	Slight north crosswind
Sunny and clear	Big powerful waves, a good session

Yesterday after the Mavericks Surf Contest, Kevin and I headed to Proof Lab, the surf shop in Tam Junction in Mill Valley, to purchase wetsuits. We both needed them. My wetsuit was old, had holes in it and was too big now that I have lost 30 pounds. We went to Proof Lab to support our local surf shop and more than that to support Nate and Will, the young guys who own the place. Will went to Branson and graduated with my daughter Allison. He knows her well and Allison also knows Nate. A few years ago when Allison was a part time dance instructor at Roco, a dance studio across the street from the surf shop, and at that time Nate ran the Roco’s childcare center for the mothers who took dance classes there. Per Allison, Nate was very good with those little kids. Also, I know Nate from surfing at Bolinas. Nate lives out on the Mesa in Bolinas and surfs in the mornings before opening up the shop. 

Will was there and he outfitted both of us in good wetsuits. I purchased an XCEL LS (large-short) and Kevin got an O’Neil ML (medium-long). Kevin also bought some XCEL 5mm booties. I wanted a pair but Kevin got the last size 9 pair. I will return.

After purchasing wetsuits, Kevin was anxious to go surfing to try them out. It was 4:00 pm, and there was no way we could get there before the sun goes down. As a compromise, Kevin talked me into going out to Muir Beach to check the waves. So off we went. The swell and waves were big. Two guys were out and the waves were walled and overhead. We also checked out the pub at the Pelican Inn and had an Anchor Porter each. We vowed to hit it early the next morning.

At 8:00 am we headed for Bolinas. It was sunny, warm, the Mavericks swell was still pumping, the waves were four to six feet with sets overhead and it was crowded. There were over thirty people in the water. Most of them were straight out from the ramp. The channel wasn’t happening due to the missing sand and the strong incoming current. The Patch looked ill formed and inconsistent.  Straight out from the ramp was the best break.

Knowing the Mavericks swell was still happening, I brought my Bob Miller big wave board. This is the one I purchased seven years ago from Randy, my old Visa buddy. It’s narrow, thick, 9 ft 2 inches, pintail and a lot of rocker. The board paddles fast and due to the rocker is very good in big steep waves. I had made the right choice. For Bolinas the swell was big, powerful and the waves were pushing a lot of water. The breaking wave slid at the top and then built into steep curls. One had to wait until the white water was starting to slide down the face to catch them and then let the wave build to drop into a steep section.

When I first padded out I connected with Lou, a Bolinas regular, who rides a boogie board. He lives on the Mesa and often checks out RCA and Palomarin before coming to Bolinas. Lou is a Viet Nam veteran with shrapnel still in his leg, which is why he rides a boogie board. I was asking Lou about conditions at Palomarin when he alerted me to an approaching sizable wave. “Go for it Loren, it’s yours.” I didn’t even think about it, the wave was cresting, white water was forming at the top, I turned and stroked into it. Normally with a wave this size I would hesitate, but due to my chatting with Lou and with his “go for it” encouragement, there was no fear on my part, I just went for it. I pushed into the wave, went down a big drop and faced a head-high wall of water. With considerable force and speed, I angled left down the wave as it closed out in front of me. I hung in there as the wave reformed into a fast inside section. Note that the above picture is of a good reformed inside curl.

I caught several other similar waves. One in particular was a great left where I managed to be locked in the curl for the entire wave from the outside where I caught it to the very inside through a fast small curl like the one in the above photo.

Kevin also had a great session. He would sit on the very outside and wait for the big sets. I remember one great wave that Kevin caught. He was sitting way, way out there several yards further out and to north from me when a big set approached.  As I paddled out to get over the approaching wave, I saw Kevin catch it. I had a great view from the side watching him coming down an overhead right breaking wave. Once I was over the wave I looked back to see Kevin’s head moving in front of the breaking white water. The wave started reforming, Kevin pumped his board up and down to force his way into the inside curl, once into it he cut-back to the left to lock himself into a fast left-breaking inside curl. Afterwards, Kevin admitted this was his best wave of the day.

We were out for an hour and a half and due to our new wetsuits we did not feel the cold. All the way home we were congratulating ourselves in our purchase of the suits. It was a beautiful day and a great session.

 

 

 

January 12, 2008 Saturday

AT&T Park, San Francisco	Mavericks Surf Contest
10:00 am to 2:00 pm	20’ to 30’
High tide	Slight east wind
Sunny and clear

Lee, Kevin and I went to AT&T Park this morning to watch the Mavericks Big Wave Contest on the stadium JumboTron screen in center field. We sat in the first row on the first base side of the Club Level, which is the third level of the stadium, in the shade with a cold east breeze hitting us in the face. The view was great and the picture was big and clear. I read the next day in the paper that about 1000 people paid the $25 to view the contest at the ballpark. One thousand people spread around the Club Level, which can hold several thousand fans, looks very sparse. There was certainly no cramming of people together.

The contest was exciting. There are 24 invited contestants, which are randomly put into four groups of six for four 40 minutes first round heats. The top three of each heat goes into the semi finals, which is two one-hour heats of six contestants. Top three of each semis form the one-hour final heat. The contest started at 8:00 am and ended at 2:00 pm. Greg Long (19 from So. Calif) won, Grant Twiggy Baker, who won the last Mavericks contest in 2006, was second. Grant Washburn (40, San Francisco, 6’5” 230 lbs.) was fifth and Evan Slather, former editor of Surfer Magazine was sixth. 

Highlights: the judges rated the take-off and initial drops the most points. Winner Greg Long had two incredible straight-down, free-fall drops on 30-foot waves. The replays taken from a boat gave a great view of the size of the waves and the vertical perspective of the drops. Greg’s incredible drops were straight down free-falls with just the tail block of his board in the water. The nose of his board dipped into the face for an instance and then bounced out. Had the nose gone into the water another inch, the board would have pearled and Greg would have been launched into a 30 foot swan dive. The slightest edge makes such a difference.

In the final heat, there was a set of seven 30-foot waves and each contestant caught one with Greg Long and Twiggy Baker catching the biggest ones.

The viewing experience: the ballpark is a good way to see the contest, much better than watching it on the Internet. The ballpark management could do a better job. They had the Club Level bar open and only one snack bar; the crummy one that just sells Giant dogs and stale nachos. Prices were Giant game prices: $8.25 for microbrews and $7.50 for a Bud Lite. Hot dogs were $6.50, ugh! They did have the contest on all the TV sets inside the Club Level. Several fans sat at the bar and watched the TVs instead of the big screen in center field.

Here’s a management with their heads firmly planted in their anal openings story. The incoming breeze was cold. During the break in the contest before the final heat, customers began to drift from the shady first base side to the sunny third base side. Obviously, people wanted to sit in the warmth of the sunshine. View of the screen is just as good on that side as on our side. A female security guard began yelling at them to return to the other side. They didn’t move. She called in her superior, a heavy-set African-American, who could have been a bouncer at any bar in the city. He walked over and began eye-to-eye discussions to get people to move back. A few did it and then after a few had moved the rest got up and moved back. After about ten minutes, one young man (my guess in was in his 20s) moved back to the sunny side. Everybody else cheered. The heavy-set security guard began walking over to retrieve this runaway. The young guy got up and trotted down to the next section and sat down. The crowd cheered. The security guard started to walk after him, when he got close the young man got up and trotted down to the next section, by now he was at third base. The kid trots down to the next section, security guard goes after him and the crowd cheers. This continued all the way out to left field. Finally three other security guards entered from the left field entrance to surround our runaway. They walked him out of the stadium to a chorus of boos from the crowd.

Why did they bother? There was only 45 minutes remaining to the end of the contest. Let the guy go. No, they had to insure all fans were confined to the only section allocated to this event. Here is an example of the customers telling management what they want, and that is to sit in the warm sun to enjoy the contest. Do you think management was listening? We’ll have to wait until next year to see if they got the message.

There was element of this experience that really bothered the three of us and that was the incessant babble of the contest announcers. Constant comments just to be talking and saying nothing. How many times did they thank everyone for showing up? How many times did they comment on the perfect conditions, the waves, the sun, the temperature, the wind and the beautiful crowds? One announced several times that he was at this contest instead of being with his wife who is about to give birth to their first child.

Lee, Kevin and I had a good time but we vowed that next year we are going to Mavericks to watch the contest live just to be part of the vibe. That night I watched the local newscast about the contest. Then I learned that the finalists before the start of the final heat agreed to share the prize money. This is unheard of: athletes doing it for the love of it, for the pride and glory and not for the money. Sounds like a bunch of surfers to me!

January 11, 2008 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:00 am to 10:30 am	3’ to 4’, occasionally to 5’
Medium, incoming tide	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, clear and warm	A good, fun session

Today was a much sunnier and warmer morning, also high tide wasn’t until noon, thus I was hopeful for some waves. When I pulled up to the parking spaces in Bolinas, I saw Mary, Marty and Ray’s cars there with their boards gone. Good sign. I grabbed my camera and headed down the ramp to the seawall. Andy and Claude were there checking out the waves. Andy is a civil engineer for the town of Petaluma and he owns a condo in Los Cabos. I saw him there last March at the Costa Azul Surf Shop. Claude is a big guy with a matching big board who I often see at the Groin. They were looking intently at the Groin and the Channel, which wasn’t happening. I walked to the north end of the seawall to take a couple pictures of Mary, Marty and Ray who were out at the Patch. The waves were small, mushy, slow and inconsistent. The above picture is Mary catching a one footer, which Marty misses and Ray looks on. Andy and Claude were discouraged and decided to go check out Stinson.

I’ll go for it just to say hello to my friends. While dressing at the car Robert the Oakland fireman pulled up. Since I was suiting up he didn’t even check it out, he also suited up. It was his day off, the weather was finally warm after several days of cold and rain, this was his only chance to catch some waves, thus he was going out.

Though it was medium tide and due to the sand being washed out, the water was up against the second seawall. Robert and I had to wade in water up to our waists and brace ourselves against the rush of on-coming waves to walk around the second wall.

The waves were a pleasant surprise. They were bigger and more powerful than I thought they would be. As the tide came up so did the waves. We knew the swell was building because last night as related in all the local news broadcasts Jeff Clarke had put out the “call” for the Mavericks Big Wave contest for tomorrow, Saturday. When I had watched Mary and Marty from the seawall the waves were two feet, if that. By the time I paddled out they were a consistent three feet with punch. After and hour, a few sets of four to five foot waves came through. I positioned myself a little further north of the others. There I could catch both left and right waves. The lefts are faster because they break directly over the shallow water of the reef. The rights are much longer because the swell breaks along the contour of the rocks of the reef and the adjacent sand. Thus from the same point I caught several good lefts and several long right waves. The sun was out, the air was warm, the wind died and everybody had a great time catching these consistent fun waves.

While I was out for an hour and a half, the tide came up. It was no longer possible to walk in front of the second seawall. To get back to the ramp I had to walk way in up a narrow ravine to the start of the seawall to climb up on it and walk along the top. Getting my board up there was not easy. I set the tail on some rocks, propped the nose up against the top of the wall, pulled myself up to the top of the wall and then gripped the nose of my board and arm-curled, hand over hand the board up to the top. There I was standing on a wet six-inch ledge balancing myself and a nine-foot surfboard. I was a little dicey but I made it. At the other end of the wall, I did the reverse, which including jumping about four feet to the sand and rocks below. Not a fun venture. But, all in all it was a great session and a great day.

January 9, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Ramp
8:00 am	2’ to 3’
Incoming high tide	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny with high overcast and cold	Again, tide too high, didn’t go out

It was another disappointing morning. As I pulled up on Brighton Ave in Bolinas there were only two cars and I didn’t recognize either one. The surf must be non-existent because of the lack of surf vehicles and none of my surf buddies are here. Again the tide is too high; the Patch is not even breaking, small one-foot waves are breaking on the sand in front of the Groin pole and there is a huge backwash from the waves bouncing off the seawall.

As I went to look, I met professor Steve coming up the ramp. He had just completed his early morning paddle from the ramp to the Groin wall and back. I inquired about waves. He said he saw some waves on the far side of the channel at Seadrift. But at the Groin the incoming current was strong, there were no waves, the backwash was fierce and the water is extremely cold. He mentioned that from the water he could see that there was a lot of damage to the house at the base of the ramp. The wind from last week’s storm had blown off several shingles from the front of the house (all exterior walls are covered with shingles); tarpaper and bare drywall were exposed. Also portions of the railings to the decks and the fence to the backyard had blown over.

I took this opportunity to formally introduce myself. We knew each other first names but nothing more. He is a professor of English at Mills College, lives on the Mesa in Bolinas and drives a ratty, old blue-green Volvo station wagon. In our brief conversation he mentioned that he has a daughter who is 32, college graduate and now in the middle of the artist scene in New York. Steve is about my age (early 60s), thin, wirery, blond hair and in great shape. I mentioned that yesterday’s Chronicle had an article stating that Bolinas, except the downtown area, was still without power. Steve was on his sixth day without power, no heat and no hot water. He has an electric water heater and survives due to a good wood burning stove set in his fireplace. He lamented that no heat or hot water was getting old. I wished him luck and we moved on. (Note –the power returned that afternoon).

I gathered water samples from Bolinas and Stinson, drove to Branson to drop them off and then headed home.

A week later I searched for Steve on Google, which got me to the faculty directory at Mills College. Here’s what I found:

Professor of English

BA, MA and PhD from UC Berkeley. Been at Mills since
1984.

Currently teaching: English Romantic Poetry, Modern
American Poetry and Thesis for MFA Degree.

Professional interests: Creative writing, modern
American poetry, Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, English romantic poetry,
contemporary poetry and poetics.

And he is a dedicated surfer!

 

 

January 7, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Ramp
8:30 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 4’
Incoming high tide – 6.3 ft at 9:30 am	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, clear and cold	Tide too high – didn’t go out

Today was a break in the weather. A major storm had passed through the Bay Area over the last four days. Last Thursday and Friday wind gusts up to 60 mph ripped up trees and tore down power lines. Over two million PG&E customers were without power sometime during this period. For us the power went out Friday morning at 6:00 am and stayed off until 8:00 pm that night. Then the next day, Saturday, it went out again and stayed out until Sunday noon. The prize grass-fed beefsteaks that Kate had given me for Christmas thawed. There I was in the cold and light rain Sunday grilling steaks on the barbecue. We invited Kevin over for a great steak dinner.

By Monday the storm had passed and there was hope that there would be surf. As I arrived to the parking spots on Brighton Ave in Bolinas, Mary was there to greet me. Her board was still in her car and she was bundled up in her winter clothes. Not a good sign.

She told me that Doug had gone out at the Groin, the Patch was flat due to the high tide and that she was going pass today. She had to take her daughter back to Stanford that afternoon.

She pointed out the large pool of water in the road before the start of the boat ramp. She claimed it was caused by the waves washing up the ramp and onto the street during high tide. With camera in hand, I went to check it out. Mary was right. The storm had washed out even more sand and there was nothing to impede the incoming water. One could not walk down the ramp due to the waves rushing in. The above photo shows the waves pounding the seawall. I went up the hill to look at the Groin from the cliff. I looked and looked but I didn’t see Doug. I took a couple of pictures and headed for the car.

As I approached the cars, I saw Doug was at his truck taking off his wetsuit. Obviously the surfed sucked if a hard-ass like Doug was coming in so soon. He claimed it was terrible. He caught two right waves just outside the Groin and rode them way into the mouth of the lagoon. The incoming current was so strong that he had a hell of a time paddling back out. He said he would paddle and paddle and then look to his right and see that he was still even with the sign at the end of the Groin wall. Also, the waves were pounding the seawall, sending back a huge backwash. It was unsafe to paddle back to the ramp. Doug caught a second wave, rode it as far as he could into the lagoon, got out of the water there, and walked up Wharf Road through town to Brighton Ave to get back to his car.

There’s no surf today, thus I quickly changed plans. I walked into town to get coffee and along the way took several pictures of Bolinas. These will be part of the photo journal of my favorite town. I got some good shots of the classic junk cars and the creative hand-painted signs. Only in Bolinas do you see these things.

I took water samples at Bolinas and Stinson, drove to Branson to deliver them and headed home.

January 2, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Seadrift side of the Channel
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2’ to 3’, sets were 3’
High (5 ft) fast-dropping tide	Offshore breeze
Sunny but cold – high 40’s to low 50’s	So-So session

The holidays are over, my iHome alarm didn’t go off, I awoke from a deep sleep at 5:59 am, just in time to wake up Kate to keep her on schedule. Branson resumed classes today. I got the coffee while Kate began her routine to get ready for school. We left right on schedule and I succeeded in getting Kate off to work on time. Let’s keep those paychecks coming.

At 7:50 am I arrived at Bolinas, Marty and Ray’s cars where there with boards still in the vehicles. Doug pulled in behind me. He had just returned from purchasing a coffee and a breakfast burrito from the stand next to the Coast Café. “I’ve never seen it so flat,” was Doug’s greeting.

Doug and I walked down to the seawall at the end of the boat ramp. Marty and Ray were there. All three had arrived before 7:00 am but due to the high tide and no sand, the swells pushed up against the seawall and the cliff and didn’t break. They were waiting to see if conditions changed when the tide began dropping. High tide was 5.7 ft at 6:30 am dropping to a low tide of 1.1 ft at 1:00 pm. Already a rapid outflow from the lagoon had formed with a current that arched all the way out in front of the ramp. As we chatted we witnessed a couple of descent right breaking waves on the far side of the current on Seadrift side of the channel. We watch professor Steve do his morning ritual of paddling from the ramp to the Groin and back.

David the Mill Valley piano-tuner arrived. We had not seen him in weeks. Then Roger McGehee and his teenage nephew Jason showed up. They had spent the night in a nearby motel. Roger was introducing Jason, who was very excited, to surfing. More waves came through the Seadrift side of the Channel. Firemen pay attention to weather reports, and thus Ray commented that an in-coming storm, due to hit tomorrow and last until Saturday, was bringing five inches of rain and lots of wind. That did it. Our best chance to surf was today so we decided to go after those waves on the other side of the channel outflow.

I took the above photo from the cliff above the Groin. You can see the strong river flowing out of the lagoon and a glassy offshore breeze swept small curl on the Seadrift side of the channel. That’s where we went.

To get there I walked past the Groin wall to the narrowest point in the channel. The current was swift; my guess was six to seven knots. I figured I would dash to the other side and then walk to the break. I entered the cold water and immediately felt myself being swept out the mouth of the lagoon. In a few minutes of frantic paddling I made it to the other side.

The waves were beautiful but the rides were short. The waves were small lines that stretched across the channel, perfectly smooth, offshore spray coming off the top, the sunlight pierced through the crests creating an emerald, transparent effect and continuously breaking to the right. They looked perfect. However, they were walled and impossible to make. In wave after wave, I paddled in late, got up quickly, turned right, looked down a beautiful green line with white feathering spay ten to fifteen feet in front of me. As soon as I built up some speed, the waves would break in front of me, pushing me into the white water and causing me to lose all my momentum.

In ninety minutes of catching waves, I didn’t make any of them. The swell would hold up for quite a distance but would collapse in front of me every time. I was determined to make one. I kept saying to myself to squat down and grab a rail through the white water, or climb high in the curl and walk to the nose. Easier say than done. Here’s the best I did: on a good size three foot wall that was clearly shaped to the right, I took off late, jumped up quickly, turned sharply into the wave, climbed high in the curl, stepped to the center of the board to gain speed, planted my feet parallel on the rails-mid board and stood there bull-legged. For a brief second or two I hummed down the curl. The wave then broke, forcing the outside rail to dig in and pitching me forward into the water and sending the board over my head. I was lucky it didn’t curl into my knees or back. That’s the best ride I had this day.

It was approaching 10:30 am, the tide had shifted and the waves were breaking up into a series of ripples that mushed together. David had already paddled in, Marty was paddling through the river of out flowing current at the Groin, my hands and feet were freezing, so I decided to call it quits and go on in. I took a small wave to the shore and then walked to the narrowest point in the channel. The speed of the current had increased. I jumped in and started frantically paddling. Because of the speed at which I was moving I thought I was making a lot of progress. However, I was moving out the mouth of the lagoon faster than crossing it. Finally I made it. I landed in front of the Groin wall stairs, which this day all four steps were visible. This past summer, all of the steps were buried in sand.

In my opinion, it was a So-So session; a beautiful day, picturesque waves, short wall rides and freezing water. But all of us: David, Marty, Doug and I claimed as all surfers do that it was a great session by the mere fact that we got into the water.