April 26, 2010 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
8:50 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid incoming tide	Offshore breeze to no wind to NW cross wind
Sunny with a fog bank on the horizon	Fun session

Ten people were out at the Patch at 8:15 am when I walked up to seawall with my camera in hand. Two more went out while I took pictures. By the time I entered the water the number had grown to fourteen. What gives? The waves were ok but not spectacular.

“Mary, why the fourteen people in the water this morning?” I greeted Mary when I paddled out.

“I think it’s because there is a storm coming tomorrow and everyone knows that today is the day to go out.”

Later I asked David the same question.

“There’s a storm due tomorrow.” All the weather guys on the tube were predicting rain Tuesday and Wednesday. As I have always known, surfers pay attention to weather predictions and schedule their days accordingly; this proved it.

Several of the Bolinas regulars were there: Mary, Marty, David who rides the Becker board, Frank the standup guy, Russ, Hans, Jaime the cartoonist, Ray the Petaluma fireman, and Robert the now Terra Linda carpenter. The Internet surf sites predicted modest conditions: 5 ft NW swell at 11 seconds with a 2 ft south swell at 16 seconds. From the seawall the waves at the Patch looked good. A well-formed peak peeled in both directions around the submerged outside rock. I watched Ray connect on three long right waves. The outside waves were fairly steep; they would slow down after the initial break and would build up again on the inside for a long continuous right curl. Three times in succession Ray glided into long right rides. After that he remained on the inside, away from the crowd, and caught one good right after another.

Walking down the beach with board in hand, I saw Hans on one of the long inside rights. While strapping on my leash, Mary connected on one of the good rights and rode it up to within a few feet of the shore. She calmly knee-paddled the near quarter mile back out to the far peak. Paddling out I saw David skillfully coming down the face of a four-foot face.

“Russ, where’s your standup board?” I called to him as he was paddling in.

“I was out on it all day yesterday and today I had to give it a rest.” Last week Russ purchased a used standup board and was giving that a try. He has a bad back thus switching to standup makes a lot of sense. I saw it for the first time last Friday.

For one hour the waves were great: the wind had stopped, the surface glassed off and consistent sets kept coming through. Though fourteen surfers were spread across this one peak, the crowd was mellow with lots of hooting and encouragement with every wave. Everyone was having a good time. Paddling out after a long left I got a good view of Marty trimming down a beautiful three-foot peak. Time and time again I watched her take off while I was paddling over the waves, and a minute or two later I would look back and see her three hundred yards inside knee paddling back out. I caught two good rights in succession. A set came through, everyone went for the first wave and I was in position for the second one, a four-foot wall that stretched across the impact zone. I stroked into it, cut right, dropped down the face watching spray feather back off the top, climbed to mid-curl, stepped to the middle of the board and stood there for a good four seconds cruising through a fast section. The wave eased up a bit, I cut back into the white water but I went a little too far, I turned right again as white water broke in front of me, I tried to get back into the swell but couldn’t. For several yards and with good speed I moved along just behind the breaking part of the curl until the wave collapsed in the shore break. It was a great ride. Paddling out a second set came through, Ray took off on a good one, and right behind it was another steep wave that was cresting. I turned and stroked into it and was up on another fast inside curl.

Around 10:00 am, the regulars were slowly calling it quits. Soon only David, Robert and I were out there. David and I like to sit outside and wait for the sets. But by now the tide was filling in and the waves died, and a few minutes later they literally disappeared. Being optimists, we sat there waiting and waiting, scratching for promising swells but caught nothing. Robert finally went in. David remained sitting outside. I kept drifting further and further in. Soon I was within ten yards of the rocks on shore. Sets waves would break on the north side of the reef. I drifted over there and connected on one two-foot right curl that ran up to near the shore. The ride ended in two feet of water over rocks. I was pushing it. I unsuccessfully tired for a couple more before I gave it up and rode white water to the beach. While walking back to the ramp, David paddled from the outside peak at the Patch to the Ramp. There he caught a couple of small two-foot walls. He would not give it up. After I had changed and was chatting with Mary and Robert, David finally came up the ramp. It was a beautiful morning with fun waves before they died and David was there milking it for all it was worth.