July 21, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 11:15 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
High tide (2.5 ft at 10:00 am)	South breeze to NW cross wind
High fog	Fun session

“The lunch crowd has arrived!” Jaime the starving cartoonist greeted me at 8 am just after finishing his two-hour session at the Patch. He reported that he had a fun session, the south wind was dying and the waves were getting better. He had trouble sleeping last night thus he was out in the water at first light. I complimented him on his classic square-tailed, big single fin, Dewey Weber longboard that was lying in the back of his truck. This was his Patch board that he only rides here. He pointed to a repair around the fin box. On his very first wave on this board, here at the Patch, he hit a rock and flew spread eagle over the front of the board. When he surfaced, he flipped it over to discover the entire fin box pulled out of the tail of the board. He had it repaired and now the fin is set at a slight tilt.

“Is it like when you take your hands off the wheel and the car swerves to the right?”

“Yes, my board is out of alignment. It veers to the right,” he laughed.

I went up to Terrace Road above the Patch to take some photos. Russ was out on his standup. He took off on a four-foot wall on the inside. I reached for my camera, turned it on and by the time I focused the wave broke all over Russ and sent him flying. He later told me that he a great session and that the waves were getting better.

Dexter drove up in is pickup truck. “Dexter, you’re back. Did you go to Mexico? I haven’t seen you for awhile.”

“No, that fell through. I have been hanging out at other places like Santa Cruz. I was there for the Fourth of July.”

A big south swell had hit Northern California that weekend and per Dexter Santa Cruz was wall-to-wall surfers on the Fourth. But he hung on a couple more days and on Monday July 5th the crowd had thinned out and the surf was huge. Dexter went out at first peak at Pleasure Point and the sets got up to fifteen feet, which even for him was intimidating. He showed me his small gun that he used that day – a brand new John Moore shaped Mystic shortboard. It was a beautiful board, wide in the middle for floatation and thick in the nose and tail for strength. Dexter claimed that yesterday evening the Patch glassed off and was great. He planned to go out there later today.

Prospects for waves on the Internet looked good this morning: 6 ft NW swell at 10 seconds, a 3 ft south swell at 17 seconds with NW winds. Stormsurf labeled this swell “S6” (sixth major south swell of the season) and predicted that “pure” swell would arrive today. I scheduled my week around their forecast and had high hopes for good waves. The swell had arrived but so did the south winds. Stormsurf had mentioned that the NW winds could have an eddy affect along the coast. Weather fronts, like hurricanes, spin as they move, thus the eddy affect in our case causes south winds from the rotating weather front. The south wind had ripped up the ocean this morning; a good swell was coming through chop, bumps and ripples. Despite the wind the Patch had strong waves and a big crowd to greet them.

My plan was to paddle out to the furthest peak at the Patch while my arms were fresh and work my way into the inside break. Once out there I decided to join Mary and Hans who had moved north to separate themselves from the crowd and to go for the lefts over the shallow reef. Mary talked about the great waves she caught here yesterday and the good lefts she had got this morning. We chatted and waited and waited. Hans gave up and paddled back to the main peak with its crowd of twelve surfers. A set came through; I paddled for two of them and missed them. Mary caught one that quickly mushed out and died.

“I’ll wait for one more set and then I’ll go in,” Mary announced. And we waited and waited. Another set finally came and again I missed two of them. Mary caught one and continued paddling in. I wasn’t going to give up on this peak. A big set arrived and I scored. I took off late on a four-foot wall, dropped down the face, the wave had some force and broke in front of me, I drove under the white water and climbed back into the swell. Now I was on the inside over the shallow reef. The wave picked up, I crouched down mid-board and shot through a section, cut back and turned into a steep shore break curl. I pulled out as the wave crashed on shore. It was a long, great ride.

“Loren, how are you?” I turned and looked back. It was Carl from Petaluma. Carl who is in his fifties grew up in Hawaii and has surfed all his life.

“Carl, I haven’t seen you in a while. Where have you been?”

“I haven’t surfed here in a long time.”

“But, judging by the sunburn on your face you have been in the water.”

“My son and I have just returned from a surf trip to Nicaragua, north Nicaragua, not the south where the crowd is.” Carl and his son got some good waves and caught the tail end of the hurricane that hit southern Mexico. The storm kicked up the swell and the wind that ripped up the water making the waves un-surfable.

“Loren, you cannot believe the poverty.” Having been a Peace Corps volunteer on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, I could imagine the poverty of rural Nicaragua.

“What were your accommodations like?”

“It was a surf travel service and it was reasonable, $1000 for the week. They picked us up at the airport. They had a home on the beach, provided meals and had a boat to take us to the surf spots. We had a great time.”

Carl and I shared a few waves and then I moved back to the pack. The crowd grew, my arms gave out and the cold was setting in. One more and I would go in. It never came. After a long wait I started paddling in from the main peak. As I approach the inside break, a set came through and by the third wave I was in position. I stroked into it and I was so tired I rode it on my belly. It was a good wave with a steep inside curl that deposited me close to shore and I paddle in from there. I was exhausted, it was a fun session and the waves were getting better.