Monday, March 30, 2009

March 30, 2009 Monday



Torrance Beach

Base of the north ramp

9:00 am to 10:30 am

3' to 4', sets head high

Low tide - at the turning point

Offshore breeze

High cloud cover, patchy sun

Frustrating session



Walls, closeouts and crunchers were today’s theme.

Gray overcast skies, slight offshore breeze, perfectly smooth surface with three to four-foot walls stretching from one end of the beach to the other and only one person out. Where were the Riviera Waveriders? Did they know about the low tide and the end-to-end walls? For exercise, to kill time and since the waves were beautiful I decided to go out.

While suiting up I said hello to Alex, one of the Waveriders, who was heading out to the break. He was about my age, a longboarder and good shape. Rocky, another Riviera Waverider, was stretching on the sand as I came by.

“Where’s the spot?” I asked him.

“Right here,” he said pointing to the entire length of the break. Rocky was 55 years old, in great shape and an excellent surfer. “The trick is to find a shoulder,” he added.

Alex, Rocky and I tried to locate an edge to the walls without success. The swells would build and build and then would come over in a curtain of white water. My first wave was my best ride. In came a cresting swell with a definite left shoulder, I paddled hard, pushed over the edge, dropped to the bottom, lost some momentum, turned into the swell and managed to shoot through a good section before the curtain collapsed on me. I had difficulty paddling back out. The water was deep even though the waves acted like they were breaking in shallow water. A set came through and I was ducking under one wave after another. Finally the set let up and I scratched outside.

The waves were also difficult to catch. I had to wait until they were feathering at the top before I could get into them. My strategy was to catch the waves early to get an extra instance to position myself in the wave before dropping down the face. I only managed to do this on a couple of waves, which turned out to be good rides. Most of the time I paddled hard only to miss them.

Slowly other Riviera Waveriders arrived. Mike calmly paddled out on his knees, Karen 7.0 showed up wearing her orange baseball cap, and five others soon joined us. Mike dropped into some head-high walls. He always managed to get into them early, would swing right, scream down the faces and bailout by diving into the waves. Karen amazed me. I thought she was a novice but she took care of herself in the water. She paddled for everything, including waves that to me were obvious closeouts. She would skillfully drop down the faces, straighten out at the bottom, ride the soup all the way to the shore and would turn around, fight her way through the white water and do it all again.

For an hour we paddled around connecting on these walls. Frustrated that I didn’t make more of them, I kept things in perspective: the blue-gray walls were beautiful, the crowd was friendly and mellow, I was in the water and the exercise felt good. What more could a retiree ask for.

Check out all my photos of my two weeks in Southern California -

http://gallery.me.com/lorenlmoore1#100050

Friday, March 27, 2009

March 27, 2009 Friday



Torrance Beach

Base of the north ramp

9:00 am to 10:30 am

3' to 4', sets 5' to 6'

High upcoming tide

Offshore breeze

Sunny with high haze (typical Los Angeles)

Good session



http://www.rivierawaveriders.org

Today the Riviera Waveriders adopted me. Above is the link to their website, be sure to check it out.

I was in the parking lot at Torrance Beach suiting up when Mike and his wife walked by. He called out my name, which he had remembered.

“Loren give me a piece of paper and I’ll write down our website,” he said. “We post photos of all of us out in the water.”

“I have a surf blog too,” I said. I had just locked the car thus paper was not available. Mike said he would leave me a note at the lifeguard tower and he was planning to go out after his morning walk with his wife.

Thirty minutes later, I was enjoying some good waves; Mike paddled out and told me he had left a note for me under the north corner of the lifeguard tower. He asked for the name of my blog and took a couple of pictures of me with a small Olympus waterproof digital camera he tucks under the neck of his wetsuit. He then remembered his camera takes videos and records sound. So I yelled “Lorenzo’s Surf Journal” into his camera.

Mike introduced me to all his companions, longboarders, older types but not all. Each one paddled over to me, said hello and shook my hand. What a great crew. I felt right at home. We all shared the waves and hooted the glory of every great ride, which today were several.

The weather reports all week had predicted warmer days and Santana winds starting Thursday night and lasting through Saturday. Today was warm and clear with an offshore breeze. The kelp soup of the other day had disappeared. Like all week, the swells were clean and had some size, but because tide was lower the waves were more walled but still makeable. With the encouragement of the Waveriders I went for at least one of every set with great success. I remember one good right, I dropped into a head high swell, swung right, climbed to mid curl, gain some speed, shot down the line, watched the wave feather and break in front me, I ploughed through the white water, climbed back into the swell and cruised through the shore break. I turned around in time to watch Matt, whom I had just met, come down a right breaking wall, skillfully driving his board under the white water to climb back into the swell and end high in the curl of the collapsing shore break.

“Matt, what a good ride,” I said to him as we paddled back out. “I like how you drove under the white water back into the swell.”

“You got the big one of the set,” he responded. “I just followed your lead.”

And so it went all morning: warm sunshine, beautiful waves and a great crowd. What a good session.

Many thanks to Kahuna Mike and the Rivera Waveriders for taking me in and sharing their waves. Waveriders, the invite is extended. We have a similar crew of surfers at Bolinas who would love for you to join us to enjoy our unique break.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

March 26, 2009 Thursday



Manhattan Beach

El Porto - 42nd Street

9:00 am to 10:00 am

4' to 5', sets to 8'

High tide

Offshore breeze

Sunny with high clouds

Thrilling session



“Look at those waves,” I shouted to myself as I drove down the steep hill to the parking lot at El Porto, which is the north end of Manhattan Beach. The town sits on a sand dune, and houses and apartments are stacked up the hill to Highland Ave, which is the main street that parallels the beach. The buildings block the view of the surf from the road. As I turned left onto the last street at the north end of town and dropped down the hill I got my first clear view of the waves. Beautiful well formed “A” frames broke with spray arching off the tops, head high curls with surfers streaking down the faces in both directions. I knew it was going to be good after seeing glassy blue peaks all along my drive from Palos Verdes to Manhattan Beach. Torrance Beach looked good but smaller than yesterday. Hermosa Beach had good waves but I didn’t see anyone in the water. Both sides of the Manhattan Beach pier were crowded with surfers going down some beautiful peaks.

El Porto has a huge public parking lot that holds two hundred cars and at 8:30 am on a Thursday morning all spaces were taken. By luck, some guy pulled out allowing me to grab his spot. Parking is Manhattan Beach is absurd. The meters only take quarters or a special key that locals can purchase at city hall. A quarter only buys ten minutes, but I came prepared with four dollars of quarters in my pocket. I jumped out of the car and asked two guys who were suiting up,

“What time do the meters start?”

“9:00 am,” they said.

Great I have thirty minutes to take some pictures, suit up and get into the water at 9:00. I was offended that the parking regulations were dictating my surf session: get dress, wax up and the last thing before locking the car, drop nine quarters into the meter for a 90 minute session.

As I was suiting up, a guy walked up to the car next to me, wet and board in hand.

“I see the thing to do here is to end your session at 9:00 am,” I said to him.

“That’s right. There’s quite a crew of us here every morning at 6:15,” he said.

“Dawn patrol. You beat the crowd and park for free,” I responded. Next time that’s what I’m going to do. But this time of year it was still dark at 6:00 am, sunrise wasn’t until 7:00.

Fortunately clean peaks formed along the length of the beach, the surf was consistent with short lulls between sets, producing plenty of waves for everyone. I entered the water in front of the lifeguard tower at 42nd Street where a left peak was breaking and only a few guys out. The shape was perfect; well-formed peaks that slid from the apex and peeled in both directions. The waves gradually became steeper as they moved towards shore ending in collapsing curls in the sand. On my first wave, I turned into a head high swell that gently cruised along and then became steeper and faster as I moved closer to shore and I pulled out just before it broke on shore. I caught wave after wave, both lefts and rights. The crowd did cause me to be selective, but half the fun of this morning was watching the others coming down beautiful overhead blue-green walls. A few big sets came through which I judged to be eight-foot faces. I let the locals have those.

Here I was on a bright sunny clear day, slight offshore breeze blowing, watching the panoramic view from the mountains over Malibu, to the tankers moored off El Segundo to the Palos Verdes hills to the south. The water was warm and the waves were ideal. After an hour I called it quits. I wanted to make sure I still had time on the damn meter.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

March 25, 2009 Wednesday



Torrance Beach

Base of the north ramp

9:00 am to 10:30 am

3' to 4' sets head high

High tide

Slight offshore breeze to no wind

Bright and sunny

Good session



I was at the same place as yesterday, same waves only a little smaller and the same surfers, an older friendly crowd.

The tide was high, the waves were steep and broke close to shore: long waits between sets, and the smaller waves were unrideable because they broke so close to the steep beach. I entered the water further south than yesterday to separate myself from the crowd. I was hoping to get a few waves to myself. The others were bunched to the north because this is where the waves broke far enough from shore to get a decent ride. I soon drifted over to join the others. The crowd was mellow and shared the waves.

Mike, who I remembered from yesterday, introduced himself. A longboarder, Mike sat way outside, went for all the set waves, paddled hard and surprisingly got into a lot more waves than I did. He had the place wired and was very comfortable coasting down head-high walls and skillfully straightening out at the last moment. I asked him if he had been surfing here a long time. All his life he told me. He grew up in the South Bay, was retired and now had the quest to surf everyday. Boy I could identify with that. I mentioned that I too learned to surf at Torrance Beach forty years ago. I commented that the water was much cleaner today than when we were kids. Mike remembered tar that used to float on the surface and covered the beach. They claimed it was natural oil seepage but funny how it disappeared once they stopped the oil tankers that docked at the oil refinery in El Segundo from empting their ballast tanks in the bay. Mike said the kelp was back and reminded me that in the old days there were “kelp cutters” that mowed the kelp forest off Palos Verdes like grass. He told me that as a kid he used to work on the sport fishing boats out of King Harbor.

“We threw everything overboard,” he said. “They wouldn’t dare do that today.”

Mike’s female companion, who was also here yesterday, was very good. She would sit inside of Mike and go for the smaller waves. She too managed to stoke into waves that I could never catch.

Karen was sitting way outside. Remembering yesterday that she didn’t make it out I assumed she was a novice who would get killed in the bigger, hard breaking set waves. Boy, was I wrong. I watched her glide skillfully down a head high emerald green wall with a lot of confidence. All morning she caught several waves, rode them all to the shore, paddled back out and did it again. As she paddled by said hello and she had remembered my name.

When showering off after my session I chatted with two older local boogie boarders. They commented on the cold water. I had to tell them how this was bath water for me. One asked what thickness of wetsuit I had. “3 – 4,” I said. They claimed that Karen, who was my age and who had only been surfing for three years, had a custom-made 7.0 cm wetsuit. Boy, that is thick. The locals refer to her as Karen 7.0 (seven dot oh).

The kelp was in today and I found out the hard way. Like yesterday the waves were hard to catch. The wind swells would build and build until they slammed close to shore and ran up the steep beach. I had to move inside and wait until they were critical, paddle hard and push myself into the wave. I would go straight for a second or two then drop over the edge of a steep face that broke continuously in one direction until reaching the shore. On one, I dropped into a good left face that cleanly lined up for me. I climbed high in the wave, stepped to the middle of the board, shot through a steep section, stalled an instance and leaned into the curl of the shore break. Suddenly the board stopped, the air brake had been applied and I flew off the front of the board into the foam of the shore break. I had hit the kelp and the board stopped. Last weekend’s high winds had ripped up the tons kelp that was now floating free. The high tide, strong wind waves and the steep beach had pushed loose kelp up against the shore to form a dense kelp soup. I couldn’t believe how thick it was and had trouble moving through it. I jumped on my board, started paddling and went nowhere. The several strands had wound around my leash. Twice I had to roll off my board, remove the kelp and attempt paddling again. I finally made it out again and avoided riding into the shore break the rest of the morning.

After an hour and a half I was spent. I showered off, warmed up in sun, chatted with the other guys, thought about my good session and drove away with that glow Professor Steve talks about.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

March 24, 2009 Tuesday



Torrance Beach

Base of the north ramp

9:15 am to 10:30 am

4' to 6' sets overhead

High tide

Offshore wind

Sunny and cool

Big rideable wind swells



I was standing in the parking lot on top of the bluff at Torrance Beach looking at these big beautiful wind swells coming in when I spotted four large dolphins riding a swell towards the shore. The dolphins were back and in big numbers. These were the big ones, not the little ones, but the 10’ to 12’ ones. They were all around us in the water. The dolphins are so common here in the South Bay of Los Angeles that the local surfers pay no attention to them. I watched in stunned amazement as shoals of these amazing creatures cruised bay. Two of them surfaced five feet from me, stared right at me, dove to the bottom, the water was clear, swam directly under me and re-surfaced ten feet on the other side of me. I felt that they had given me their permission to share their space.

I drove from Mill Valley to Palos Verdes yesterday. I’m here for two weeks to help with the care of my mother who had a fall and broke her hip. She was recovering at Torrance Memorial hospital. My schedule was to surf in the morning and then visit her in the afternoons. Thinking I would head for Manhattan Beach I stopped at the Lunada Bay Market to change bills for quarters for the Manhattan Beach parking meters. Driving down Palos Verdes Drive, looking across the bay I saw big waves breaking at Torrance Beach and thought that Haggerty’s might be breaking. At Haggerty’s, which is a classic left point break, three short boarders were out. Due to the high tide, the waves were breaking against the rocks and cliff and these guys could barely catch the set waves. Off I went to check out the beach breaks.

Luck was with me; I located a parking place on the street at Torrance Beach thus avoiding the paid parking lot. Over the weekend the wind had howled in the South Bay, blowing dunes of sand on the bike paths and ramps and bringing in a five-foot wind swell. The strong winds were over, replaced by offshore winds, a Santana heat wave was settling in and the ocean had calmed down. Glassy head-high, rideable peaks were marching in. I’ll surf here; the waves looked good and I had free parking.

The high tide pushed the waves up the steep beach and caused them to break close to shore, four to five foot waves with sets overhead crashing fifty feet from shore. The paddle out was going to be a challenge. Near the water’s edge stood a woman longboarder, about my age, wetsuit, booties, gloves, wearing a bright orange baseball cap, board under her arm looking apprehensive about launching herself into the water.

“Let’s wait for a lull,” I said to her. “Then follow me.”

“OK,” she said. A break in the waves came and I ran into the turbulence, jumped on my board and with head down paddled hard for the outside. I had to go under two waves but made it out. I looked back but I didn’t see her and I did see her during my session. Afterwards I saw her on the beach and asked how her session was. She told me she didn’t make it out and gave up. Tomorrow would be better she reassured me and introduced herself; Karen was her name and she was a Torrance Beach regular.

I drifted over to a group of locals, older longboarders who had the break wired. I figured the locals knew the best point in the break. Following their lead I managed to connect with several good waves: lefts, rights and big close outs. The big peaks broke close to shore and were difficult to catch. I moved inside, waited until the waves were cresting, paddled hard, jumped up, went straight pushing my weight forward to drop over the edges down steep, hard breaking faces. The crowd was mellow and gladly shared the waves with me. I heard a few of them complaining about the cold water. The weekend’s big winds had stirred up the bottom.

“It must be 58 degrees,” one moaned.

I had to join this conversation. “I’m from San Francisco,” I proudly announced. “The water up there is 50 degrees. This feels like bath water to me.” They didn’t care to hear my comments.

Out paddled another longboarder who looked very familiar to me. He was in excellent shape and paddled back and forth across all the peaks. As he stroked by me I told him he looked familiar and introduced myself. It was Veet, the owner of the Lunada Bay Market near my mother’s house. Veet and I went to high school together, I’m a couple years older than he is. At first he didn’t recognize me. The market had delivered groceries to my mother for months. I thanked him for it. Then he knew who I was.

“Oh, you’re Fay’s son,” he said. “How is she? Marion (his sister) mentioned that Fay not call last week, so we were wondering.” I filled him in about her condition. Veet is an avid surfer. I could tell by his back muscles and the power of his stroke that he could paddle for miles. Next week he was leaving for a surf vacation to some obscure point break in Costa Rica for seven days. I was glad to connect with him. He, Marion and the whole crew have been a great help to my mother. Their family has been in the grocery business in Palos Verdes since the twenties. Veet took over from his father and hopes to pass the business onto his son, who also surfs. I ask how they were weathering the recession.

“Up and down,” he said. “January was up over last year but February was down slightly.” Translation: they’re hanging in there. Side note: Marion is a volunteer at the hospital and twice stopped in to visit my mother.

Yesterday I received an email from Professor Steve talking about his surf session Sunday at Bolinas. The surf was mediocre but it was a beautiful day and he had the glow the rest of the day. Glow, what a perfect term. I knew exactly what he was talking about. The satisfaction of a good surf session and the healthy exercise stays with you for hours. I was nervous about my mother’s condition and visiting her in the hospital. After my session the warm sun felt good and I had burned off all my nervous energy. As I drove away I had that glow and I was ready to face anything.

Friday, March 20, 2009

March 20, 2009 Friday



Bolinas

Straight out from the ramp

9:00 am to 10:30 am

1' to 2', sets to 2.5'

Mid outgoing tide (0.6 ft)

Offshore breeze

Sunny, clear and cool

Fun session



“Knee high curls, my kind of waves. Let’s go,” I said to myself when I saw Mary, Marty and Hank having a ball in these crisp, clean curls straight out from the ramp at Bolinas. Hank was in his element. That’s him in the above photo. The peak was holding up due to the offshore breeze and peeling right. Hank caught one after another and milked all of them to the shore.

Marty and Mary mentioned to me that they almost didn’t go out because the waves were so small. But the shape, the offshore breeze, the bright sunshine and the classic curls moved them to go for it. Good thing they did, because without watching them have fun I wouldn’t have gone out. Afterwards we congratulated ourselves for having made the decision to go. All of us caught several good waves.

“Marty, these are classic old man waves,” I said to him after we both had connected on a small well-formed one. “We can walk out to the waves. We don’t have to burn any energy to get to the line up. We can keep this up for hours.” I would grab my board by the nose and wade to the take off point, stand there until a set came in, turn around, jump on my board and with two strokes coast into another classic small wave. I did this for an hour and a half until the wind shifted and the tide dropped changing the beauty of the waves.

Bright sun, clear skies, beautiful classic waves, isn’t retirement great.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

March 18, 2009 Wednesday



Bolinas

Groin

8:30 am to 10:45 am

2' to 3', sets to 4'

Low outgoing tide (0.6 ft)

Slight onshore breeze

Low cloud cover

So - so session



Scott, who only surfs on Wednesdays, reappeared at Bolinas after months of absence. Scott is a child psychiatrist who arranges his appointments to leave Wednesday mornings available for surfing.

“Scott, rumor has it that you downsized to a smaller board and have been going to Cronkhite,” I greeted him.

“Not quite,” he said. “I did downsize and have been going out at Ocean Beach and getting pounded. Today I decided to go for fun in the mellow waves of Bolinas on my longboard.”

I could have told him that. Scott ripped them up at the Groin, that’s him in the above photo on a small good one.

The theme for today was contact with my surf companions. Lou the Viet Nam veteran was having a great time on his boogie board challenging the clean fast breaking, suck-outs waves that broke in shallow water. If you made one it was a great ride and Lou made several of them. I made one long, fast left at the Groin that was a clean, crisp curl. Walt the photographer was out there and as he put it, “Getting wet and good exercise.” Professor Steve was there for his morning outing before heading over the hill to class. Jim, the jazz guitarist, caught his share of good ones. Carl from Petaluma had a good session. Carl, who is my age, was born and raised in Honolulu, learned to surf on Oahu and went to elementary school with Gerry Lopez. He had just returned from a week of visiting relatives and surfing the east side of the island.

While taking pictures before going out I met Pamela, Jim’s friend. She introduced herself mentioning that Jim told her to look for me. I would be the one taking photos of the surf. She too had a small digital camera taking shots of the waves and the gray overcast beach scene.

Before going to Bolinas, I stopped at Stinson to check out conditions. I chatted with Clint the sports photographer who was taking pictures of one of the local surfers in four-foot walls. I said hello to Mike, head of maintenance of the Stinson Park, and asked him if he had seen any federal stimulus money I keep reading about. Not yet was his response. The stimulus money will be for the big projects, not the day-to-day small ones that he is in charge of. Back at the car I ran into Jimmy, the Stinson carpenter and avid surfer. I gave him some photos I had taken of him during the super high tide last December. I noted that he had his old board in the back of his truck, not his new one. Jim is a craftsman who makes most of his boards. After a long search on the Internet, he selected a Gordon and Smith longboard because of the rocker and rail dimensions. But today he told me he was disappointed in his new board, had switched back to his old one, which he had built, and was going to make a new one. The only way to get the rocker and rails right was to build your own board. He had just ordered a foam blank through Nate at Proof Lab. No question about it, Jim is a perfectionist, which is an ideal trait for an artisan.

The waves were mediocre, but the connecting with friends made it a great morning.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

March 17, 2009 Tuesday



Bolinas

Patch

9:00 am to 11:00 am

3' to 4', sets head high

Low outgoing tide (0.5 ft)

Stiff onshore breeze

Overcast

Good session



So what are you going to be doing on your 70th birthday?

Above is Marty on his 70th coasting down a three-foot wall at the Patch on an overcast wind chopped day. Will you be able to say the same? That’s right; Marty was born on St Patrick’s Day. I’m 63 and I hope to be doing the same seven years from now.

Due to a super low tide the waves were breaking a half-mile out at the Patch. The take off point was a 150 yards beyond the outside rock, our normal take off point. Marty, Mary, Ray and Hans were out there. A high cloud cover blotted out the sun and a cold onshore breeze added to the chop of the already bumpy ocean conditions. I had to connect with Marty because I had a birthday card and surf photos to give to him. We had offered to take him to breakfast but his busy schedule wouldn’t allow it. I paddled for ten minutes and still wasn’t at the break. When I reached the outside rock I saw Marty off in the distance on wave at north edge of the peak. I paddled another five minutes before reaching the line up.

“Did you say hello to Marty?” Mary greeted me.

“No.”

“He went in,” she said. “He has things to do this morning.”

“No, that can’t be. I have a card and photos for him.”

I looked towards shore and saw Marty carrying his board towards the ramp. I had to catch up with him before he leaves. I turned and caught the first wave I could, which happened to be a decent left, rode it in as far as I could and began the long paddle in. Carrying my board I made the long walk back to the car. Marty was there toweling off. I got the card and photos out of my car, wished Marty a happy birthday, gathered up my board, made the long walk back to the Patch, paddled another half mile back out to the break. I sat there exhausted thinking in one hour’s time I have paddled over a mile, I’m tired and I had only caught one wave.

Fortunately conditions improved, the wind dropped and the sun broke through the clouds. Ray and I connected on wave after wave; Ray took the rights and I the lefts. My marker was the outside rock. I turned into one well-shaped left that went on and on and finally closed out in waist deep water. I looked for the outside rock to get my bearings. It was 50 yards south and parallel to me. I had to paddle to a point a 100 yards straight out from the rock to reach the apex of the peak. After repeating this for another hour I was spent. I slowly worked my in, paddling south, catching a wave, going straight as far I could and then paddling some more. By the time I reached the shore I was exhausted. As I drove off that morning, I thought what a good session and like Marty I hope to be here and in good health when I turn 70.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

March 11, 2009 Monday



Stinson Beach and Bolinas

All over

8:30 am to 11:00 am

2' to 4',

High incoming tide

Stiff onshore breeze

Sunny and cold

Frustrating session



Today we couldn’t make up our minds on where to surf.

At 7:45 am, I pulled into the parking lot at Stinson Beach to gather a water sample for Surfrider Foundation’s water testing program. To my surprise, Doug, Marty and Jim were there suiting up to go out.

“The surf must be flat at Bolinas for you guys to be here,” I greeted them. Bolinas is always our first choice.

“There are waves but they’re not very good, so we decided to come here,” Doug responded.

“Well get out there and I will take some photos of you.”

I stood on the beach, camera at the ready, and waited for one of them to catch a wave. And I waited, and waited and waited. “Boy, the surf is lousy,” I said to myself. Three-foot swells would double up forming unrideable walls. Peaks that looked promising would keep coming until they joined with wind chop to crumble in a heap near shore. Doug finally dropped into a head high set wave, went straight off and rode the soup into shore (pictured above). I made up my mind that I wasn’t going out into that slop. I waved to Marty to come in. Doug got out.

“Man, the surf is terrible, I’m going back to Bolinas,” Doug said to Marty and me. That became the plan: stay suited up and drive back to Bolinas. Marty has a new Primus and didn’t want to mess it up with his dripping wetsuit. Thus he left his car there, threw his board in the back of Doug’s pickup truck and jumped into my car for the ride back to Bolinas.

At Bolinas, Doug, Marty and Jim headed for the Groin. As I was suiting up, Ray the Petaluma fireman pulled up. Nothing looked good, so Ray and I decided to try our luck straight out from the ramp. Remembering the great rides I got there last week I was hoping for the best. The peak at the ramp was like Stinson only smaller. Ray and I fumbled around in the two-foot walls for half an hour and then decided to move. Ray headed for the Patch and I went to the Groin to join the others.

The waves at the Groin were worst: small, no power and infrequent. We spent an hour “getting good exercise,” which is surfer speak for “the waves sucked.” We would take off on promising peaks only to have the waves die after the initial break. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and cold, and we were optimistic that with the incoming tide the waves would get better. They never did, thus after burning up considerable energy paddling around we headed in. At the cars, Ray greeted us and confessed that the Patch wasn’t any good either. I changed and strapped Marty’s board to the top of my car and gave him a ride in his dripping wetsuit back to Stinson to pick up his car.

This morning we surfed Stinson, the base of the ramp, the Groin and the Patch and they all were disappointing. Forecast of a new swell gave promise of improved conditions in a couple of days. Until then we agreed to return and try again.

Monday, March 9, 2009

March 9, 2009 Monday



Bolinas

Straight out from the ramp

8:30 am to 9:45 am

2' to 3', sets head high

High incoming tide

Stiff offshore wind

Sunny and cold

Good session



“Loren, it’s windy,” said Kate at 5:45 am. It was still dark outside; sunrise wasn’t until 7:30 am, as I stood in my bedroom listening to the rustle of the trees. I had high hopes on connecting with some waves this morning. I quickly jumped onto the Internet to look at the latest buoy readings, 30 knots north wind. That’s a lot, but north is offshore at Bolinas.

I was right, a stiff wind was blowing straight offshore at the base of the ramp. A perfect peak had waves peeling in both directions; the wind was holding up the two to three foot curls. I watched Professor Steve (pictured above) dropping into some nice long rides. I had to go.

“Wow, the wind is cold,” I said to myself as I was suiting up. Let me repeat, it was cold. While slipping into my wetsuit and booties, my fingers went numb. I lost feeling in my fingertips of both hands. When the feeling leaves so does dexterity. I couldn’t zip up my wetsuit. The zipper is in the front of the suit across the chest. I couldn’t thread the end of the zipper. I slipped the pieces together and pulled, it wouldn’t budge. I retried ten times without success. My fingers were getting worst. I got back into in the front seat of my car, held my hands under my armpits to warm them up and finally succeeded in zipping up my suit.

The sun was out and the water was not that cold, the dread of freezing water and the numbness in my hands left me once I started paddling out. The waves were perfect and I had them all to myself, one peak straight out from the ramp that peeled in both directions. I started with the lefts and connected with several small fast rides that ended near the rocks on the north side of the seawall. I noticed that the rights looked good and that I should give them a try. Actually, the rights were better, longer and faster than the lefts and I connected with several of them. A good set approached and I was in position. I stroked into a sizeable wave, swung right, locked the board mid swell, shifted my weight to the middle of the board, gained speed and for a brief instance I fixed on the image of the perfect wave, a picture that was burned into my memory: a perfect blue-green curve of swell lining up in front of me, with bright sunlight glowing through the curl, specks of white light reflecting across the top, spray arching back as I felt the lip of the wave over my right shoulder. I shot down this section a long ways until it collapsed into a wall of water a few feet from shore. That ride was special. After an hour the cold began to set in and I had exhausted myself, time to call it quits.

The bluff had protected the waves from the wind. When I reached the top of the ramp the cold wind hit my board and spun me around. It had picked up and it was cold. What am I going to do? There was nothing I could do but to change as fast I could. As soon as I took my booties off, the wind blew across my wet toes, evaporating the water and turned them numb. I changed, put on my thick sweatshirt and jumped into the car to avoid the wind. A few minutes later I walked into town for a coffee. I figured movement and circulation would be good for my frozen feet. By the time I got back, my toes were still stiff.

As I drove off with the heater on full blast, I thought, “What’s a little cold and discomfort when compared to some perfect waves?”

Friday, March 6, 2009

March 6, 2009 Friday



Bolinas

Groin and Channel

9:00 am to 10:00 am

1' to 2', sets to 3'

High outgoing tide

Stiff onshore wind

Sunny, high clouds and a cold wind

Frustrating session



Strong outgoing current, stiff cold onshore breeze and no waves was the theme today.

When I arrived at Bolinas my friends Marty, Doug, Mary and Jim were out at the Groin. The Patch was flat and the outgoing ebb tide had just begun to knock down the waves at the Channel. I stood on the Groin wall to get some shots of them riding some knee curls. The waves looked like fun. The above photo is Marty in a small curl. There was no wind and the surface was smooth. Knee-high curls, my kind of waves.

By the time I put the camera away and dressed, the wind had changed. A stiff cold onshore breeze greeted me when I entered the water. The nice little waves that I had just photographed had disappeared. I paddled out to the peak just south of the Groin, caught one small well-formed wave, coasted to the bottom and the wave died. That was the story of all of them, no push, no power. Doug and I moved around looking for the right spot and never connected. The out-flowing current knocked down everything inside the Groin wall to the Channel. We drifted north and found nothing. We paddled further north and again nothing. By now the onshore wind had really kicked up, white caps formed on the outside, the peaks disappeared and my hands were getting numb. Time to give it up.

Everyone in the parking lot concurred that I had missed it by one hour. Maybe next time.