January 21, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:15 am to 10:45 am	4' to 5', sets overhead
Mid upcoming tide (6 ft at 11:30 am)	Slight North breeze to no wind
Sunny with high clouds	Thrilling session

Per Stormsurf, a big swell (Swell #5 – fifth big north swell of the season) was hitting Hawaii and California. The Jetstream was in a holding pattern, blowing hard from Japan to Canada causing a low pressure front to form off of Japan that blew consistently 35 to 40 knots for four days straight generating a huge swell aimed at Hawaii with remnants headed for Northern California. The holding pattern also set up high pressure over the West Coast generating fair sunny weather and light NW winds. Ideal conditions: mild sunny weather and a NW big swell. The surf forecasters on the Internet predicted that the swell would hit Northern California Friday afternoon (7 ft at 19 seconds), peak on Saturday (9 ft at 20 seconds) and hold on until Monday (7.5 ft at 15 seconds). Long intervals mean high-energy ground swells. I had to go to the beach to see what was happening.

Coming down the Panoramic Highway I could see lines of swell marching in. White water lined the Duxbury Reef and Stinson had end-to-end walls crashing on the beach. Cars were already parked beyond the tennis courts and half way to the post office on Brighton Avenue at 8:00 am. David who rides the Becker board had just checked the waves and was excited. From a distance I saw Don Holm, my Kahuna Kupuna Surf Contest buddy, suited up and bristly heading for the ramp with board in hand. Doug and Jim the jazz guitarist were changing at their cars after their session. Doug said it was great.

High tide was not for another three hour but already the water was rushing up the ramp and waves were pounding the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp. I took some photos from the overlook above the Groin. Twenty surfers were packed into a single peak, and the waves were big and powerful but not clean. I didn’t see any good rides. One after another would drop down the face of an overhead wall only to plow into a ton of white water. I stood there a long time because I kept seeing lines far at sea of another big set coming in.

From Terrace Road I got some good shots of the Patch, like the one above. Ten surfers were out there including Mary, Marty, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Russ on his stand-up board. The waves were breaking way, way out there and then reforming. The crowd sat on the south edge of the impact zone to catch the rights. The take-offs were flat but the waves reformed on the inside into steep fast curls. I watched Mary catch two set waves; on both she faded left letting the waves reform and then swung right to cruise across two long walls of water. Jaime caught a good one; he worked it into an inside right peak to hum across a sizeable and fast shore break curl. Feeling my age and the lack of conditioning I opted for the No-Fear-Factor and headed for the Patch.

Walt, Matt, Robert the Terra Linda carpenter, DB the Safeway checker and Mark the archaeologist suited up at the same time and all headed to the Patch. Mark pulled out his short (6’ 6”) Hobie. He usually rides a 9’ 6” longboard.

“Mark, that’s the wrong board. Where’s you big Hobie?”

“I just got back from several days working in Bakersfield, was dying to surf and just grabbed this one.”

“The take-offs are flat, thus catch the white water and work them into a reforming wave.”

“That’s the plan.”

After our session, I saw Mark with his short board tucked under his arm.

“Mark, you must admit that you had the wrong board.”

“You’re damn right. But I did manage to catch the white water and turn them into decent rides. I did better way outside when I first went out.”

That sums up my session. I connected on some great waves when I first went out there. Then as the tide came up, the waves changed. They became bumpy, mainly due to the backwash coming off the cliff and they broke closer to shore, head high swells looming onto shore.

When I first paddled out, I watched Jaime, who was sitting way inside, come down a head-high peak, cut back into the curl, swing right again to shoot through a fast shore break wall and pull out as the wave collapsed on the sand. Wow, that looked like fun. I decided to join him and besides it was a short paddle. The crowd was way outside at the far peak.

“Jaime, is this the spot or are you working you way in?”

“Hey, I was going in. My arms are spent. But then I connected on a good right and decided to go for one more. That was several waves ago.”

In came a sizeable wall that was feathering at the top. I went for it, dropped down a head-high face, leaned right, cruised across a fast curl for twenty yards and bailed out as it crashed near shore. Great ride. Jaime and I traded several great waves over the next half-hour.

DB paddled over to join us. After a few minutes she drifted outside to wait for a set. I watched her get a good one. The wave broke ten yards outside of her, which was fifty yards from me. She stroked into the white water that was sliding down from the peak, jumped up, continued straight as the wave began to reform, and swung right into an overhead face. I got a great side view of her turning into the curl as I paddled over the wave.

Robert executed his usual tsunami strategy of sitting way, way outside waiting for the big one. I saw him at least three times catch waves a hundred yards outside of me. He would fade left, letting the swell build up, swing right, cut back, swing right again to connect with the inside curls that we were going for. Each time he rode these waves to the shore.

With the tide coming up, I kept watching the waves boom against the seawalls. Getting in was going to be an adventure. I caught a big one that put me near the rocks and near to the shore. Matt and Mark were paddling in, and I decided to follow their lead. They paddled outside of the first seawall, the one with all the graffiti painted on it. Mark had no problem timing the waves and paddling into the beach. Matt struggled. A big shore break wall clobbered him and knocked him off his board. He drove under a couple more waves before wading up to the beach. I decided to try for the patch of sand just north of the seawall and the big tree trunk sitting on the beach. You know the one, a large eucalyptus that came down during the first El Nino in 1997. I let a couple of sets go by and then sprinted for the beach. I didn’t make it. A big wave broke outside of me; I bailed and dove under it. When I surfaced I was now mid-seawall, bouncing around the incoming waves and the backwash coming off the wall. The current had carried me about thirty yards south. I jumped back on my board and dug hard to go back out and to the north to try again. The second time I made it into the beach.

Though I didn’t catch any memorable waves, it was an adventure being out there when the ocean was throwing some of its finest and strongest waves at us.