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.