December 15, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:00 am to 11:20 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Mid dropping tide	Offshore breeze to no wind
High overcast to patchy sun	Fun but frustrating session

Jack the Dave Sweet team rider had just put his board in the back of his truck and was sitting in the driver’s seat with his wetsuit on as I came back from checking the surf at the overlook above the Groin.

“Jack, are you taking off for some other break?” I asked.

“No. I’m cold and I’m going home to take a nice warm shower.” Jack had just finished a good session at the Groin, but now the outgoing tide was impacting the waves. He recommended that I go to the Patch.

“Loren, I heard Jaime on the radio last night.” Jack was referring to our surf buddy Jaime the starving artist cartoonist. He has a show on the local West Marin Community Radio station, KWMR (89.9 FM).

“It was cool.” Jack added with enthusiasm. “He plays good rock music and he gave a salute to us. He said, ‘Here’s to the Bolinas dawn patrol. You know who you are: Mary, Frank, Russ, Marty, Jack, Hans and Loren.’ It was so cool. You should check it out. I can’t get it in Sebastopol so I listen to it on the computer. Just Google KWMR and click on KWMR LIVE and you get the live broadcast. Check it out.” And with that he drove off.

I followed up on this and yes there was Jaime in the station’s schedule:

Faultline Radio with Jaime Crespo - Curing your insomnia by spinning random music randomly each and every Tuesday evening from 8:30 pm -10:30 pm (PST).

The surf had come up overnight, a mix of NW and south swells. Internet data had: 8 ft NW swell at 11 seconds and a 2 ft south wind swell at 8 seconds and a water temperature of 54 degrees. The weather guys on TV were predicting a series of storms coming in tomorrow and lasting through Sunday. Thus I had to go out today. Only three surfers were at the Groin when I arrived and six were out at the Patch: Mary, Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water, Jaime, Hans and the standup guys Russ and Frank. That’s Frank on a small one in the above photo. The outgoing current from the lagoon was knocking down the waves at the Groin. The Patch waves were clean, small and slow. Jack was right; the Patch was the call this morning.

Again, while suiting up my friends at the Patch all left. Frank, Russ and Jaime were toweling off and jazzed me about “the lunch patrol” as I headed for the water. On the beach, Hans was wrapping his leash around his favorite Bear longboard. Mary had just exited the water and Susan was paddling from the Patch to the Groin.

I paddled out to Robinson’s reef, the inside right peak at the Patch to join Tom and another surfer. The morning and the waves were beautiful, lots of God shots of sun beams pouring through breaks in the clouds onto the glassy blue-gray peaks of the Patch. But the waves were slow, weak and had no push. With the tide going out the water was shallow and the larger rocks were beginning to show. All three of us independently came to the conclusion to move south of the reef over the sand. Our tactic was to catch the waves over the reef, cut right and connect with the steep shore break over the sand. Easier said than done. I only managed to do it a couple of times. While paddling out I looked sideways to see Tom tucked into a squat, ass over heels, in the curl of a well-formed three-foot right peeling wave.

After an hour, the three of us ended up way inside going for the shore break. We had this nice little peak of fast curls to ourselves for a half an hour. Tom and I caught the same wave and connected with the inside curl and hummed along until it finally closed out in knee-high water, ten feet from dry sand. That did it for me. I waved good-bye to Tom and headed in.

Mary, Robert and Pete were sunning themselves on the seawall as I walked by. They inquired about my session.

“Fun, but frustrating and it’s getting better on the inside peak.”


Click on the link below to listen to Jaime’s radio show -

KWMR 89.9 West Marin Radio