March 24, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 10:45 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Mid outgoing tide	Onshore breeze to no wind
Sunny with high clouds	Great session

Today turned out to be an ideal surf day for me. I had no expectations. I was going to the beach no matter what to collect water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program. The Internet buoy report looked good: 6.8 ft NW swell at 16 seconds and a 2.3 ft south swell at 16 seconds underneath with a slight NW wind. From the Panoramic Highway, the view was clear; the ocean surface was textured but no white caps. Water was draining out of Bolinas Lagoon. Two white Vee’s appeared, one on the Seadrift side of the Channel and the other at the Patch. After the good session I had there on Monday and with the tide going out, I knew the Patch would be the call.

Cars of the Bolinas regulars with boards gone were on Brighton Ave when I pulled up, a good sign. Mary, Frank the stand-up guy, David who rides the Becker board and Scott who only surfs on Wednesdays were already in the water.

“After that brief look, you decided to go out,” I said to Martha who rides the Dewey Weber board as she came up the ramp after checking out the surf.

“Yes,” she replied. “It looks good out in front of the Green house.” She is referring to the house above the north seawall, the one with all the graffiti.

David and two others were at that peak. The tide was already low and getting lower. I stood on the sand with camera in hand to check out the waves. Scott was out at the Groin but I didn’t pay any attention to him because I knew the Patch was the call. Frank, Walt who also rides a stand-up board and two others were at the furthest peak at the Patch. That’s Walt in the above photo catching the white water of a set wave. The swell looked strong and consistent at both locations, but I didn’t see anyone get a good ride. Finally David caught a long right wave on the inside section of the Patch. “That’s it, I’m going,” I said to myself. Again thinking about the good session I had at the Patch on Monday and how the waves improved as the tide went out, I decided to head out there to join Frank and the others.

Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic pulled up as I was suiting up. He said Dillon looked good, no wind and glassy conditions, but his wife had a yoga class in Bolinas so he came here. I told him the Patch was the call.

As I entered the water, Martha was at the peak in front of the green house, and David had moved out to the furthest peak at the Patch. Paddling out I looked and looked for the outside rock and finally found it. It was still submerged. Water boiled around it and a mound of seaweed would appear as the set waves drew out the water. From experienced I knew that the waves would peak around this rock and break in both directions. It became my marker.

Like I did last Monday, I positioned myself north and further out from the outside rock. A big wave approached, a wall of water that stretched clear across the impact zone with a definite left shape was cresting with white watering feathering at the top. I paddled toward the peak, glided into the wave and sharply swung to the left dropping down a head-high face of a perfectly forming wall. I drove under white water sliding down the face, climbed back into the swell, locked the rail mid-swell under the breaking lip, stepped to the middle of the board and cruised along a fast section. I cut back into the breaking part of the wave, swung left again and cruised through another section. I repeated the cutback and swinging left two more times before the wave finally petered out in the shallow water of the reef. What a great ride. I looked around and noted that I had crossed the entire Patch reef, starting from the south end near the outside rock to the north end around the small point that forms the north edge of the reef.

After a long, long paddle back, again I looked and looked for the outside rock but didn’t see it. Inside and further south David waited for an approaching wave. The rock appeared as David stroked into a set wave. David and Jeff were also using the rock as their marker. Only three of us were out there. David and Jeff sat on the south side of the rock to catch the rights while I stayed by myself on the north side of it to concentrate on the lefts. For one hour I had the lefts all to myself and in that time, I connected on five more big lefts like the previous one. I watched Jeff and David glide into one good long right after another.

Paddling back after my fifth long left wave, I paused, looked around and marveled at the conditions. It was a sunny Marin morning with high fog covering the top of the green Bolinas Ridge. Beautiful scenery, consistent left peaks, only two others out and they are good friends going for the rights leaving the lefts for me. It doesn’t get any better than this.