November 17, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 3'
High dropping tide	No wind
Warm sunny day	Fun session

I didn’t have much time this morning. On Wednesdays Marty and I collect water samples at Bay Front Park in Mill Valley, Stinson Beach and Brighton Beach in Bolinas for Surfrider Marin’s water testing program. I collect the Mill Valley and Stinson samples, Marty takes the Bolinas one and after a morning surf session Marty drives the samples to the Branson School, which is near his house. Jamie the environmental sciences teacher and a team of student volunteers run the tests, which require an eighteen-hour incubation period. This morning Marty couldn’t make it, thus I had to make the hour drive to Branson. The samples have to be there around noon for the students to begin the tests during their lunch hour.

I arrived at Bolinas late (9:15 am) and figured that I had to be on the road by eleven, thus I had one hour for a short surf session. It was a beautiful day, Mary and couple other regulars were already out at the Patch. Surf forecasts were ok: 10.8 ft NW swell at 12 seconds combined with a 2 ft south swell at 18 seconds. It looked like the south swell was hitting the Patch, and I needed the exercise thus I decided to go. I would make it a sprint; paddle like mad and get in as many waves as I could in one hour. To my surprise the waves were small but fun despite the high tide. In one hour I connected on five well-formed long right waves, ones that kept reforming and reforming. It turned out to be a short but fun session.

That’s me in the above photo. Near the end of a long ride, way on the inside, I saw Mary sitting on her board pointing a camera at me. Note the sunshine, glassy surface and the long line of the swell. Mary had just recently begun taking pictures in the water. She told me it’s harder that it looks. Capturing a good shot takes luck. Both the subject and the person with the camera are moving. The camera doesn’t have a viewfinder, only a 2.5-inch square LCD screen that shows the image and thus is constantly changing. With bright sunlight and no sun glasses framing the shot is pure guesswork. As Mary put it, she points and hopes. She has numerous photos of sky and blurry water, but still a few turned out well and are worth the effort.

I too have thought about taking pictures in the water. The surf magazines are filled with incredible in-the-tube side views taken in the water. A small inexpensive camera would be fun. I have seen a few guys in the water with the new Go-Pro waterproof digital cameras. Mary has the Pentax OPTIO WS80 waterproof camera. I looked up its stats online; here’s what Pentax claims: palm size body, high-quality, high-resolution image (10 megapixels), optical 5X zoom lens, airtight body that allows taking of pictures underwater to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to two hours, and it features Pentax’s exclusive highly water-repellent coating on the glass in front of the zoom lens. Simple fresh water removes dried salt, dust and dirt. They retail for $275 from Amazon.com.

Mary told me that this was her second one of these cameras. Her first one she had dropped in the water. She had just purchased it and was getting using it. She was standing in waist high water on the rocks at the Patch. She pulled the camera out from beneath her wetsuit and before she could put the cord around her neck she dropped it in the water. It sank and due to the murky water Mary couldn’t see it. She frantically jumped around doing the chicken stomp trying to feel for the camera with her feet. The camera had disappeared and after a few minutes she gave up. She soon purchased another one and now always ties the camera around her neck before tucking it inside her wetsuit.

The real reason Mary purchased a waterproof camera was to capture images of sunlight on the ocean’s surface. Mary is an artist and she has been studying for several years the patterns of light and color on the water and has been trying to reproduce them in her paintings. She has become very skilled at capturing the images of the ocean. Don’t take my word for it. Check out her website (link below) and see for yourself. You will be impressed.

Mary's website