March 17, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Straight out from the north seawall
8:00 am to 10:00 am	3' to 4', sets shoulder high
Low upcoming tide	Offshore breeze
High overcast	Per Marty, a 4-Star session

Marty’s B-day

On Saint Patrick’s Day, I went through my normal pattern of taking photos before my surf session. But I didn’t have time to write up my session nor take notes on conditions, and if I don’t write something down on the day that I surf, it is forever lost. Thus I had no plans to write up this day. However, after uploading the photos, my plans changed. I had three great shots of Marty in the curl at the peak in front of the north seawall. I had to write this one up because it was also his 71st birthday. The above photo was the best one, but the other two were close seconds.

A couple of weeks later I asked Marty about his session on his birthday. Being a scientist, Marty had precise notes. He pulled his Tidelog out of the car and flipped to the March 17th entry. A red ink rectangle outlined 8 am to 10 am, the time of his session. He noted that it was an upcoming tide and the words “shoulder high” were neatly printed in the upper corner to denote wave height along with four asterisks as a rating of the quality of the session (four stars is top-notch). The surface was glassy, the wind was slightly offshore and a new 10 ft NW swell at 16 seconds had arrived early that morning. The surf gods had delivered the ideal conditions as a birthday present and he had taken advantage of them.

So what are the rest of you going to be doing on your 71st birthday? Six years from now when I turn 71, I hope to be screaming down some clean shoulder high curls like Marty here.

Marty, you are an inspiration to the rest of us. Keep on doing what you are doing.