February 2, 2010 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
8:45 am to 10:15 am	3' to 5'
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze to no wind
High overcast - threatening rain	Fun session

The surf was bumpy, not clean, just wind swells on top a small ground swell. The buoy report had 6 ft swell from the west at 12 seconds. The weather forecast called for possible rain and fog in the morning. However, a big storm was approaching and should arrive tomorrow afternoon bringing a big swell and south winds. So if I was going to surf this week, it had to be today.

From the cars parked at the tennis court on Brighton Ave, I could tell that Mary, Russ, Ray the Petaluma fireman and David who rides the Becker board were already in the water. Great there must be waves I thought.

David was at the peak in front of the ramp. In an email yesterday, Marty related he and a few others were at this peak and for thirty minutes it was great. Then the tide came in and the waves died. The change was sudden; within a few minutes the waves slowed down and then disappeared. I stood at the seawall for five minutes and David didn’t catch any waves though he tried for several of them. The bumpy wind swells did not look inviting. The others were at the Patch. I walked down the beach to take some photos of them. The wind swells would peak, break and then die. The set waves would reform on the inside and build into decent right waves. Mary, Robert and Ray all caught good waves that reformed into fast, long curls. The above photo is Mary on one of the good inside curls. These waves looked like fun and my friends were out there, I’m going.

A petite young woman in a Mercedes sedan with board inside pulled into the spot next to me while I was suiting up.

“How’s it look?” she asked.

“Small but fun,” I replied.

“I thought I would wait awhile and finish my crossword puzzle.”

“I would go now because you never know what the wind is going to do,” I said. “And besides it should it get better, the tide is coming up.” That did it; she decided to join me. She was from Boston and was vacationing in San Francisco where she grew up.

“Do you surf in Boston?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Maine and Cape Cod,” she replied. “My husband also surfs in Rhode Island.” After her session she said she caught a few good waves was glad she took my advice.

The waves were difficult to catch and I only caught four of five of them in my session. The wind swells had little punch. To catch them I had to be right at the peak when they first broke. I learned that the hard way after paddling for and missing countless waves. I finally caught one; I dropped down a head-high face, turned right, cut back and jumped on the nose of my board to push it over the ledge of a reforming wave. Mary was having more success though she too paddled for several waves and missed them. She moved around looking for the best take-off point and always managed to catch at least one wave of every set. I observed her location closely because she seemed to have a good sense of where the waves would break. The impact zone was shifting due to the upcoming tide.

Ray sat way, way outside waiting for the big ones, which came through once every fifteen minutes. On one good one, Ray stroked into a head-high peak, faded to the right, straightened out, cut back into the white water, pushed himself into the reforming inside wave, dropped into it, cut right again and cruised for another fifty yards. It was the longest ride of the morning.

“You know what I liked about Costa Rica,” Mary said between sets. She had recently returned from two weeks of surfing there. What could that be I thought: warm crystal clear water, blue skies or spectacular sunsets?

“The number of waves,” she exclaimed. “There were always several people in the water, but it was never a problem. There were plenty of waves for everyone.”

After an hour I started moving inside toward the beach to call it a day. I paddled for wave after wave and missed them all. After missing one, I turned around and a four-foot wave was cresting in front of me. I turned and went for it. I dropped right down steep face, drove into a flat shoulder, cut back towards the peak, went left for a few seconds, swung back right into a reforming fast inside section. The surface was smooth and I raced along a steep curl. “Finally!” I said to myself. Then I saw the exposed inside rock right in my path. I cut behind it and came within a foot of colliding with it. My familiarity with this reef helped. I knew this was the only sizable rock in this part of the reef. Thus going around it was a safe maneuver. I traveled on for another twenty yards and thus ended my session with my best ride of the morning.

Afterwards Mary, Robert and I agreed, as all surfers do, that we got wet, got some exercise, saw some great scenery and connected with friends, thus it was another fun surf session and time well spent.