June 7, 2011 Tuesday

Bolinas	Channel, Groin & Patch
8:45 am to 10:45 am	3' to 4', sets to 6'
Low dropping tide	Offshore breeze to NW cross breeze
Bright sunny morning	Fun exercise session

I sure got my exercise this morning. In the two hours that I was in the water, I started at the Groin, paddled to the Channel, then back to the Groin, from the Groin to the Middle Peak just north of the ramp to Robinson’s Peak on the south edge of the Patch Reef, to the outside peak a hundred yards beyond the outside rock to the shore to finally come in. With all of this paddling I caught less than ten waves, but it was worth it. I burned thousands of calories and for the rest of the day I had that satisfying glow from vigorous exercise.

When I arrived this morning I put the 400 mm lens that Jacek had loaned me on my camera and headed to the Groin. The waves were clean and peeling left, maybe peeling a little too fast. Three surfers were out there: Josh the Bolinas fisherman, David who rides the Becker board and Kathy the biology teacher. It was a long wait between sets but all three caught decent fast curl rides. On the first set I saw a surfer jump to his knees and duck his head under the lip of a fast breaking curl. Then I knew it was Josh, the one who has perfected riding on his knees. That’s him in the above photo.

I started at the Groin joining David and another Bolinas local. The small left peeling waves were clean and the surface was smooth. The long predicted south swell was in (2 ft at 12 seconds). Every ten to fifteen minutes a set of four or five long lines that stretched from the Channel to the Groin would come through. With luck we could pick off one with an edge that allowed us to drop into a long left curl. But most of the time, the waves would jump up and dump over when they hit the shallow water of the sandbar. The Bolinas local went in and I paddled over to the Channel hoping to connect on some good left shoulders. David remained at the Groin. Jacek paddled out to the Channel on his eleven-foot paddling machine. He caught a couple of close out set waves and then announced he was going to the Patch and off he paddled.

After getting clobbered on a three-foot wall that sucked out in two feet of water, I moved back to the Groin to rejoin David. With another hour to go before the tide turned, we concluded that the Patch looked better. David started paddling for the Patch while I patiently waited for another set wave. The set never came and I too started paddling north towards the Patch.

David had mentioned that waves were breaking at the Middle Peak, just north of the ramp. I was not anxious to make the half-mile paddle to the Patch, thus just moving over to the Middle Peak sounded like that plan to me. I saw David, who was a hundred yards ahead of me, connected on a four-foot Middle Peak wall. Great I would try for that. But the Middle Peak was deceptive. The waves crested way outside but did not break; they just kept coming and building. I tried for several and missed them all. Finally I caught one, a sizeable four-foot wall. I jumped up and pushed my weight forward to stay in the wave. It continued to build and I kept pushing forward. I finally pushed over the edge and dropped down a curl that was sucking out in two feet of water. The wave bounced me when it broke, I bailed out to the side and my hands hit the bottom. I was lucky I didn’t land on my own board. So I gave up on riding the Middle Peak.

By this time David had joined Jacek at the furthest peak at the Patch. I kept resisting making the long paddle out there, so I worked my way north along the shore thinking I would connect on some good right waves at Robinson’s Reef, just south of the exposed rocks of the Patch Reef. Again I had no luck. Every time I stroked into a Robinson’s Reef wave, it would collapse into a solid curtain of white water on the shore.

I concede that I had to move further out. Next I tried catching waves at the outside rock. It was totally exposed and waves peaked on both sides of it. Again I tried for several and missed them all. I watched David connect on a sizeable wave way outside. It was over his head when he first dropped down the face. He cut back left, then swung around right turning into a now head-high line-up and glided down a beautiful swell for another two hundred yards.

That was what I wanted, thus I had to venture out to the furthest peak. I joined David and Jacek, and now I had completed the long paddle that I had been resisting. I was more than a hundred yards beyond the outside rock and my arms felt like lead pipes.

The sets were infrequent, ten minutes or more between them. Jacek sat cross-legged on his board another thirty yards further out from David and I and patiently waited for the next big one. When it came he was on it. A set wave came and Jacek calmly turned to go for it. I started paddling out thinking I would go for it also. The wave was definitely left and Jacek was at the peak; it was his wave. He waited and waited and at the last second he stroked hard four or five times and jumped up. He crouched down three-quarters the way up on his board to push himself into the wave. I paddled over it and looked back. Jacek faded left, then quickly turned right and dropped down the face. He disappeared, then reappeared again high in the curl and then dropped down again. From then on he cruised all the way to the inside portion of the reef.

How does he do it? He has the perfect board for the Patch, a real paddling machine: an eleven-foot long, narrow, pintail, no rocker dart.

I finally caught a good one. David and I paddled for the same wave, I went left and he went right. I jumped up to my knees and dropped down a steep face. The wave was fast, and the surface was textured causing that rapid-fire slap-slap sound as I screamed along. I jumped to my feet, cut back and turned left again. I milked that wave as far as I could and ended up way inside and north of the Patch reef. It was time for me to call it a day. From there I had a long paddle to reach the sandy shore south of the Patch reef.

“Great I will make it to work on time. I thought I was late,” Jacek said back at his car after his session. “The Patch was ideal this morning. Beautiful day, warm water and nice clean waves.” Jacek is a tattoo artist at Mama’s Shop in the Haight in San Francisco and the shop opens at noon. Drawing tattoos require intense concentration.

“Jacek, tell me. Do you work better after surfing?”

“Oh yes, definitely. I’m calm and relaxed all day.”

That was just the answer that I expected. I too feel the same way, as do most surfers after a morning session.