August 26, 2009 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
8:40 am to 11:00 am	3', sets head high
Low tide - 2.7 ft	No wind - glassy
Overcast - high fog	Fun session

“Ken, what gives you the opportunity to surf on a Wednesday morning?” I asked during a lull between sets way outside at the Patch. Ken was a tall well-built surfer in his late thirties or early forties.

“I’m a personal trainer,” he said.

“So you have control of your time and schedule in surf times.”

“Yes,” he said. “I’m also responsible for all of the health equipment at the JCC facility in San Francisco. It’s the largest gym on the west coast.”

“So you’re into physical fitness,” I continued. “You look like you have some form of physical exercise everyday.”

“Yes,” he replied. “Either surfing or working out.”

I explained my retirement story to him: surfing three to four times a week, cleaning up my eating, working out, losing twenty-five pounds, improving my overall health and eliminating stress.

“Stress! If I’m not doing this, surfing,” he exclaimed pointing to his board. “I’m not myself.” I knew what he meant. Surfing is the best stress reliever I know of.

We all relieved a lot of stress this morning. The buoy report looked good: four-foot swell at 14 seconds and 1.5-knot northeast wind. The swell was a combination of five-foot north at 12 seconds and a 2.4 south swell at 17 seconds. Strong south swell and no wind, I’m going.

At 8:15 am from the seawall at the base on the ramp in Bolinas, the Patch was the call. Two surfers were way out there at the Channel, but the ebb flow from the lagoon was knocking down the waves and produced a small chop on the surface, also the tide would continue going out for another two hours. The Patch was clean and glassy. Six surfers were out there: Mary, Martha, Ray, Hans and two others. From Terrace Road I took a few pictures. Mary was catching all the waves. She would get one long ride, paddle out on her knees, the next set would approach and she would turn around and connect on another long ride. As I entered the water, Hans was paddling in. He caught a three-foot inside wall, rode it on his belly and trimmed through a glassy curl. While paddling out, I watched Martha complete a good ride on the inside peak. I headed out to join Mary and Ray, but to my luck a sizeable wall approached, I turned, stroked into it and cruised down a smooth four-foot left wave. “Wow, what a good start,” I said to myself.

Outside I chatted with Ray, the Petaluma fireman. I asked him about his schedule. The schedule determines when Ray can surf. With the coming of fire season, for fire fighters vacations are over and everyone is on alert.

“I’m not back on until Friday,” he said. “But they say it’s going to heat up the next couple of days. In fact they’re predicting northeast winds this weekend, everybody’s favorite.”

Northeast winds are the hot, dry Santana winds that suck all the moisture out of the plants and trees and fan the flames in the dry hills. But for a surfer, northeast winds create ideal surf conditions: warm weather and an offshore breeze to hold up the waves. And this weekend, Stormsurf predicted the arrival of the season’s first north swell.

Only Ray and Mary were sitting at the outside peak when I arrived. After a few minutes Ray had to head in. Ken joined Mary and I. For a half an hour we had the break to ourselves. The waves had size but were gentle and long. They would break, roll for a few yards and then reform and break again. The initial take off was fast and smooth, but one had to cutback into the breaking white water to stay in the wave while it reformed. I would wait for the set waves, drop left down the initial peak, turn back into the breaking white water, turn left again, pause while the inside section formed and then cruise across the grass that grew on the rocks of the reef. These were long rides that ended in shallow water, and I would turn around and make the long paddle back out to the far peak.

After a half hour Mary paddled in after completing another long ride. Now Ken and I had the break to ourselves. A big set approached and I connected with my best wave of the day. A five-foot wall crested outside, I paddled out to meet it, white water began to slide down from the top of the peak, I turned and caught the white water, jumped up, turned left, rode under the foam into the steepest part of the breaking wave, leaned forward to gain speed, backed off to let the wave build, leaned into it again, stepped to the middle of the board, climbed to the top, dropped down to the bottom, climbed back to the top, back to the bottom, coasted until the wave formed up again way inside where I pushed the nose into the breaking water and grasses of the shallow water above the reef. It was a long, long ride and a long paddle to get back out.

Slowly others joined us. After two hours that was enough stress relief for me. I decided to work my way in by catching a few inside waves. I never caught one, though I padded for several of them. I paddled all the way in and my arms burned with fatigue. It was a great morning: glassy smooth surface, warm water, no wind, gentle power glide waves and a small friendly crowd to enjoy them with.