January 28, 2010 Thursday

Stinson Beach	Straight out from the showers
8:50 am to 10:15 am	3' to 5', sets overhead
High tide (7.0 ft at 8:45 am)	Slight onshore breeze to no wind
High clouds with occasional sunshine	Thrilling - fun session

As I was writing this I was sitting at a table at the Surfer’s Grill, which is closed for the winter, with a hot cup of coffee from the Stinson Beach Market watching Jimmy the retired Stinson carpenter now artist carve up these beautiful waves at a peak in front of the lifeguard tower. He had it all to himself; except for a boogie boarder that was a beginner and who caught only a few waves. I admired Jimmy’s skills. With perfect timing and little effort Jimmy stroked into wave after wave, streaked down the faces of head-high curls, cut-back, leaned into the shore breaks, crouched down in the middle of his board to duck under the lips of the curls until the waves broke all over him a few feet from shore.

Today was a classic Stinson day and the famous Stinson Beach “holes” were back. Several locals were on it: Pete the owner of the Livewater Surf Shop, John the owner of the Parkside Café, Professor Steve, Annette the expert stand-up surfer, Chuck the Bolinas knee-boarder and Robbie the long-time local Stinson surfer. The storms of the past two-weeks had removed tons of sand from the beach and uncovered the sandstone that resides underneath. Out in the water, the contour of the sandstone forms shallow areas next to deep water holes. The waves break in the shallow areas and continuously peel towards the deeper water. When the holes appear the surf gets good and the locals love it.

The other day when we were lamenting about the lousy surf and asking about the reappearance of the holes, Scott pointed out and mentioned the great views from Table Rock, which sits half way up the mountain above the center of Stinson Beach. From there when the holes are in one can see how the ravines in the side of the mountain line up with the holes, meaning geologically the ravines continue out into the ocean. This implies that the ravines and the famous holes were formed by hundreds of years of erosion from rainwater draining off the mountain. Scott reminded us that at one time the sea was much further out and today’s holes were once on dry land. Nowadays in the summertime the sand fills in the holes and in the winter the big storms remove it exposing the holes.

I was greeted by a beautiful peak straight out from the central showers when I arrived this morning. Three surfers were out getting long clean rides. That was enough to convince me to go out. But more than that was the channel (i.e. hole) on the north side of the peak. The peak waves peeled continuously left until they broke on the sand at the channel. This was what an old surfer loved to see: a channel with no white water in it, meaning I could paddle out to the line-up without getting my hair wet; that did it, I’m going.

Big drops, fast initial sections followed by swooping cutbacks: all the rides were like that today. But the waves were difficult to catch. In the hour and twenty minutes I caught only five waves, but each one was a thrilling ride. After paddling around for twenty minutes and missing several waves, I finally connected. The wave was thick and breaking on me when I took off. I pushed over the edge, dropped down a head-high face, a ton of white water poured down in front of me; I braced myself, drove under it, climbed back into the swell and pulled out to let the woman surfer behind me to continue on.

I saw Robbie the Stinson local longboarder catch a good one. He was sitting outside when a big set came through. Stroking on his knees with his long outdated hippie hair-do draped over his head, he glided into the wave as it was breaking, with his back to the wave he dropped down an overhead face, climbed back up to the top of the wave, shot through the initial section and disappeared. From the back, I could see the wake of his board cutting through the breaking curl. Way on the inside, he popped out as the wave slammed onto the beach. It was a great wave.

“Are you the one who writes the blog?” asked an athletic woman with a tan face and light colored hair as I was walking back to my car to suit up.

“Yes,” I replied.

“You have a picture of me on my standup board,” she said. Now I remembered her. It was on a good day at Groin in Bolinas, she was there on her standup board and she was good (see September 14, 2009). “You said that my board was 12 feet. After I read that I said I have to find that guy and tell him my board is 9’ 3.”

I introduced myself and met Annette. I admitted my ignorance about standup boards having read once they were 10 to 12 feet in length. Wrong, standup boards are going through several changes and are becoming shorter. Her latest board is 9’ 2” and the Hawaiian guys are experimenting with 8-foot standup boards. She went on to mention that she was searching the web for surf sites and came upon Lorenzo’s Surf Journal, read several of them and discovered her picture there. Having read that I’m from Palos Verdes, she mentioned that she too grew up Los Angeles Bay Area, in Redondo Beach and lived near Ave I and the Esplanade.

“Across the street from Millie Rivera’s Sea Food Restaurant?” I commented being very familiar with that area. Millie Rivera’s was a long time landmark that was replaced several years ago by high-priced condos.

Annette was out in water this morning on her new standup board skillfully maneuvering down several large waves. From the side I watched her cut down a head-high wave, she disappeared as the wave broke, and from behind I saw her paddle waving above the breaking part of the wave as she cruised along and finally popped out as the wave flattened out on the sand.

An hour has passed since I began writing this. Two skilled surfers have joined Jimmy at the peak in front of the lifeguard station. By now the sun was shinning, the wind had stopped, the sky was blue and all the waves peeled to the left. I was watching every surfer’s dream: warm sunshine, blue skies, a consistent march of perfectly formed waves and only three guys out.