February 23, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:20 am to 10:20 am	1' to 2', sets to 2.5'
Low tide (0.5 ft at 10:10 am)	Offshore breeze to stiff onshore wind
Sun with high clouds - a cold day	Exercise session

“Loren, I bet if you had been here by yourself, you would have never gone out,” Mary commented after our session this morning. Mary was right, if it had not been for my friends going out, I would never had done it. There’s a lot to be said about joining your buddies in the water. A little camaraderie and a few waves is a lot of fun. That describes this morning because the surf was terrible.

As I pulled up at 8:15 am, I saw David’s truck with his Becker board sticking out of his camper shell, not a good sign. The surf fanatic who always goes out no matter what the conditions was not in the water.

“It must be flat for all of you to be standing around,” I greeted Jacek the tattoo artist, Jeff from Mill Valley, Novato Pete and Mary.

“There’s not much there,” said Pete. “Maybe when the tide turns.” David with wetsuit on and board in hand walked by and announced he was going for it. Pete and Jacek went to check out the waves and Jeff and Mary continued practicing strumming techniques on their ukuleles.

“Well are you going to do it?” I asked Jacek and Pete when they returned. “There are a couple of waves out there. I’m going,” Pete said. Jacek decided to pass.

“That does it, I’m going too,” Mary announced. “We have to go out this morning. The weather is about to change. Rain is coming tomorrow and they are predicting snow for Friday.”

“Mary, you’re from Maryland. You must be used to snow.”

“No I hate it, that’s why I moved out here.”

I walked down to the Groin with camera in hand. David and stand-up surfers Frank and Russ were out there. The surf was almost non-existent, but every once in a while a rideable well-formed left peeling wave would come through. I haven’t been out in over a week, I needed the exercise and my friends were out there, thus I decided to do it.

The waves were tiny and with all of us bunched together at the only peak, we constituted a crowd. There was David, Jeff, Mary, Novato Pete and stand-up guys Frank and Russ.

“Jeff, I haven’t surfed in over a week and my arms are feeling it,” I commented to him when I paddled out to the line-up. “The first things to go are your arms.”

“And they are the first to return,” he responded. “After a couple of sessions you will be back to normal. The second things to go are your stomach muscles.” He was referring to the necessity of lying on your stomach. To gain paddling force and to lift one’s chest off the board when jumping up, surfers tighten their stomach muscles and when they are out of shape, the stomach muscles tire quickly.

Pete got the best ride this morning. He was at the apex of the Channel peak when a good set wave came through. He stroked into it, angled left, locked the rail under the lip of the curl, crouched down in the middle of the board and cruised a long ways before the wave finally closed out on the inside in front of the Groin wall. A few moments later while paddling out, I saw Pete do it again on his next wave. Pete was riding his brand new Johnny Rice longboard. He showed it off to us back at the cars. It was beautiful: 9’ 4” in length, three stingers, one single large fin, wide in the nose and 3 1/8 inches thick. Pete’s previous board was 8’ 6” and now on this longer paddling machine he was catching everything he tried for. Pete loves it.

David managed to connect on a couple of good rides. A set wave came through and we both went for it. I caught it as it was breaking and remained laying down. I cut left into the white water trying to work back into the swell. From there, I had a water level view of David locked into to this small curl, crouched down mid-board with spray coming off the lip over his shoulder. It only lasted a couple of seconds but for today it was a great ride.

Mary, Pete and I gave up after an hour. The wind had turned straight onshore with some force. The chop was getting worst, the waves were not improving and the cold was setting in. Only David remained in the water. We had changed and were soaking up some sun when David finally came up the ramp.

“Time check!” I yelled checking my watch. “It’s ten thirty-eight and the surf fanatic has come in. Proof that the surf is lousy.” David usually stays out for three to four hours and comes in when he is completely exhausted and hungry.

“David, what brought you in? The lousy waves or the cold?”

“Both! If there were waves I could stand the cold.”

Back to Mary’s original point: I exercised, soaked up the elements and the beauty of the morning and rode a few waves with my friends. It was a good morning.

February 11, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid dropping tide	Stiff southeast cross wind
Sunny and cold	Exercise session

It wasn’t very good this morning. What more can I say? Small weak lines came through the Patch and at the Groin the tide was too low, the waves were sucking out due to the ebb current flowing out of the lagoon and a funky cross current that rippled through the impact zone. The Internet data was so – so: 4 ft west swell at 14 seconds with a southeast 15-knot wind. But it was a beautiful morning, a low-pressure front was moving in tomorrow that would break up this sunny weather and I have not been in the water for twelve days, thus I had to go out.

Randy was suiting up when I arrived this morning. He had his new stand-up board lying next to his car. Randy is an excellent longboard surfer who recently had taken up stand-up surfing. Remember Randy was the guy a couple of years ago who snow boarded on Mount Tam at dawn and at noon surfed at Bolinas.

“Randy, the waves must be non-existent so you are taking out your stand-up just to paddle around, right?”

“No. I really enjoy this. I’m getting into it.”

Judging from the cars Mary, Novato Pete and stand-up regulars Frank and Russ must be in the water. Martha’s board was still on top of her car. I ran into her coming up the ramp from checking out the surf.

“Well?”

“There’s not much there, but I’ve got to go out to get some exercise.”

I walked down to the Patch to take some pictures. Frank, Russ and Randy were way out there on their stand-up boards. Mary and Pete were sitting inside. Rocks were beginning to peek above the water. With the tide going out, soon all the rocks would be exposed. The waves looked small and weak, but Mary caught three nice inside curls in the ten minutes that I was standing there. That’s Mary in the above photo on a small inside curl. The stand-up guys caught a couple of small waves as the cold crosswind put a fine texture on the surface.

Just my luck, while suiting up the wind picked up and all my friends came in. I passed Randy on my way to the Patch. On my way out Mary and Pete caught waves and paddled in.

“Hey Loren, watch out for the rocks. It’s getting shallow out there,” Russ yelled at me as he paddled in.

“There’s just too much wind,” Frank called to me as he was exiting the water.

Only Kirk was still out there. A few minutes later Robert the Terra Linda carpenter and his carpenter friend Hoyt came out. On my first wave I caught a decent right that I kept working as it reformed on the inside. As I traveled on, the rocks started to boil, and an exposed rock was a few yards in front of me. I turned to avoid it and my skeg hit a submerged rock and knocked me off. What am I doing? I clobbered myself a few weeks ago hitting my head on a rock here at the Patch. So here I was again at the same place, with the same low tide and shallow water doing the same stupid thing. Wake up Loren!

Kirk and I figured out the strategy. Sit near the outside rock, wait for the sets and catch the white water sliding down the waves when they first broke. The waves would reform and the lefts got fairly good in the shallow water over the reef.

Robert did his usual thing of sitting way, way outside waiting for the tsunami wave. And it again it worked. In came a four-foot ground swell and he was on it. Fading left into the breaking part of the wave, he would swing right, cruise down a smooth section, cut-back, swing right again across another good section and on and on he would go working the wave all the way to the inside shore break.

Paddling out to the rock I looked back and saw Robert connect on a nice shore break right curl. Then he did it again and I decided to join him. I managed to catch three of them. I would catch the waves over the south edge of the reef and cruise right over sand area. In all three, I barely caught the wave, remained laying down not to lose momentum by standing up, cut right, ducked under white water, climbed back into the swell, jumped to my knees, then stood up and plowed the nose of the board into the breaking wave a few feet from shore. It was a good way to end my session.

Surfers never admit they wasted their time. Neither would I. I was out in the elements, the scenery was beautiful and I had that glow of satisfaction from vigorous exercise.