May 6, 2009 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 10:45 am	3' to 4', sets head high
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Overcast with drizzle	Fun session

I hadn’t surfed in nine days and was hungry for some waves thus my expectations were high even though the predictions on the Internet were fair at best: 8 foot NW swell at 14 seconds, 8 knot wind out of the west and water temperature at 53 degrees. At least the water temp had come back up. My last session on Monday April 27th in small waves at Seadrift was cold and windy, water temp at 46 degrees and a howling NW wind. Marty and I froze. Since then another storm front has come through Marin bringing two inches of rain and south winds. The weather was breaking today and we’re coming into a period of warm weather. I had started reading a new book on surfing, The Big Drop, edited by John Long, a collection of 32 true stories about big wave surfing. After reading tales about Greg Noll, Jose Angel, Buzzy Trent and Jeff Hakman, fearless adventurers who were willing to launch themselves into scary mountains of water at Waimea, Pipeline and Makaha, I was psyched up for anything that Bolinas could throw at me.

The sun was shining as I left Mill Valley, the cloud cover appeared at Mountain Home and the drizzle started at Pan Toll. “I’ll drop below the clouds on the other side”, I said to myself. Not so. The drizzle became more pronounced as I approached Bolinas. I saw white water all along the Duxbury reef, far out from the point at Bolinas, a good sign that a swell was running. Several cars were parked at Brighton Ave including Mary’s, Marty’s, Doug’s and Russ’s and their boards were gone, another good sign.

The drizzle was now a light rain, nothing was dry and water was running down the street. I kept my camera in my backpack to keep it dry as long as possible, walked down to the seawall, saw Doug and Jim going for walls straight out from the Ramp and noted that Mary, Marty and a couple others were out at the Patch catching some decent rights. There were two out at the Channel but it didn’t look good. I’ll head for the Patch.

Russ came in as I was suiting up and reported that it was much better earlier and now the high tide was causing the waves to go flat. Just my luck. Doug and Jim who had ended their session stated that it wasn’t any good; the waves were small, shapeless walls. Another guy had just come in. I asked him how it was. Good an hour ago, now the flood tide was killing the waves. Again, just my luck.

“I heard I’m an hour late,” I said to Mary when I paddled out to the line up at the Patch.

“No, you’re not,” she said. “There are still some good waves coming through.”

She was right. There was a decent yet bumpy swell running with a sizeable peak that would rebuild into a long, fast, right wave. I watched Mary do it a few times. Within a few minutes a good set came through. I was caught inside, paddled out and a saw a four foot wall cresting in front of me. I turned as white water began to slide down from the top and stroked into it as it broke on me. I belly-boarded it down the face and when it flatted out, I jumped up, turned into a feathering section, hung at the top of the curl until it broke in a solid wall of water that send me flying. What a good ride, now I’m into it.

For the next hour and an half, I traded waves with Marty and another woman who was connecting on the long rights. It felt good to be back in the water, at 53 degrees the water was warm and the waves had some force. My strategy was to wait for the true ground swells; those that stretched across the impact zone (about fifty yards). The reef caused them to break near the outside rock, which was submerged, and the length of the swell formed a continuous breaking wave. I connected with several long rights and lefts. I knew I was near the outside rock when I leaned back on my board and my skeg bonked on the rock. With nine days rest, my arms felt strong and I managed to catch one wave after another. After a small fast right curl I was next to the inside rock, close to shore. That was it, time to call it quits.

Back at the car Lou the boogie boarder praised his good session in the steep curls at the Channel. Yoshi had surfed the ramp with Doug and Jim and said it was “so – so.” Claude pulled up as Marty and I were walking into town for coffee. We stated all the positives when he asked us how it was. I was about to tell him he was an hour late but changed my mind. He too was hungry for waves and our account of conditions got him excited. So goes the life of optimistic surfers.