July 27, 2011 Wednesday

Pacifica	Linda Mar - South end
8:15 am to 10:15 am	3' to 4', sets head high
Mid upcoming tide	Offshore breeze to onshore breeze
On the deck fog to bright sunshine	Fun session

This morning I decided to head to Pacifica. Why Pacifica? South wind. The conditions favoring Linda Mar were: a four-foot NW swell, Linda Mar is a north facing beach and the north swells head directly into the narrow cove; an upcoming tide (4 ft at 11 am), Linda Mar breaks best at high tide; and a three-knot south wind that would blow offshore there. Also on my mind was the upcoming Kahuna Kupuna surf contest. Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, who enters this contest every year, reminded me the other day to send my money in. We entered the contest last year, had a great time and placed second and third in the “Legends” division (65 to 69 year olds). The contest was in two weeks and I needed to get in a couple of sessions in to get familiar with the feel of the waves.

What a good decision. Ocean Beach was a mess, strong onshore wind, chop, white caps, crumbly waves and no one out. A dense on-the-deck fog greeted me at Linda Mar, but the wind was offshore and the waves were clean. Standing on the shore with camera in hand I could barely see the surfers in the water and could not make out the conditions of the peaks. I asked a young shortboarder who had just exited the water about his session. He stated he was at a good right peak half way between the Taco Bell and the south bathrooms. I walked down there and saw a gaggle of six surfers bunched together, but I still could not see the quality of the waves.

I decided to head for the left peak that is always at the very south end of the beach. I paddled out and only one other surfer was out there. Ten surfers were at the peak to the north. After missing a couple, I caught a small, slow left wave. After coming down the face, my board hit the brakes and I tumbled off. Kelp, I had hit a patch of kelp. Sea grass was hanging on my arms and shoulders when I surfaced. The whole south end was thick with kelp and sea grass. On my next two attempts, the kelp wrapped around my feet and arms preventing me from paddling when I turned to go for the waves. A few minutes earlier the other surfer had moved to the peak north of us. No wonder no one else was here. After struggling with the thick kelp, I too moved north to join the crowd at the next peak.

After a frustrating hour I finally figured out the waves. By then the fog had lifted and hung on the horizon, the sun broke out, the sky was a deep blue and the crowd had grown. I sat inside, waited for the sets and took off when the waves were breaking. The smaller waves were flat, slow and difficult to catch. The late take-offs on the four to five-foot waves were steep, fast and challenging. If my timing was good, I dropped into a fast curl that held up. Often I was too late and merely plowed down into a ton of white water. The water and sunshine were warm, the crowd was mellow and my arms felt strong. I after each ride I quickly paddled back out for another one.

A young shortboarder paddled from the north to our peak. I could tell by how cleanly he moved through the water that he knew what he was doing. He was riding an old beat to crap thick green board with a pointed nose and fish tale. A big wall came through and with two strokes he was on it while I paddled over the wave. I looked back to see him drop down the face, disappear, shoot back up to the top, cut back and trim down the face. I was right; he was good.

Back out in the line-up I heard him grumble about having to go to work. “Is work getting in the way?” I asked.

“Yes, and it’s just starting.”

“Where do you work?”

“There,” he said pointing to shore where a surf camp was just starting. Twenty little kids in camp tee shirts sat of the beach listening to a camp leader.

“Surf camp instructor. What a great job working with little kids. You must be a hero to all those little guys.”

“Yes, it’s a great job and I love it.” And with that he caught a wave and rode it all the way to shore. After my session, I saw him with his white “Instructor” shirt on surrounded by ten excited little surfers. He smiled and gave me a wave as I walked by.

Back at the car, the ambassador of Linda Mar, Greg Cochran, had parked next to me and was suiting up to go out. Greg won the Legends heat that Jack and I were in at last year’s Kahuna Kupuna contest. I assured him that I would be in this year’s contest. Greg showed off his new board, a Harbour, 9’ 8” epoxy foam, single fin, beveled nose beauty. He claimed that it was strong and light and insisted that I pick it up, which I did, a 9’ 8” board that only weighed 15 pounds. On such a paddling machine, Greg will be impossible to beat.

While driving out of the parking lot, I nearly ran over Don Holm, a Bolinas regular and Kahuna Kupuna contestant. Don had signed up for the contest and he assured me that our other friend John Fordice would be there also.

The above photo was taken on the deck of the Taco Bell that sits on the beach at Linda Mar. I’m not a fan of Taco Bell but their 7-Layer burrito was awfully good, but the main benefit of this establishment was its location. The view from the deck was fabulous: bright sunlight, fog on the horizon, blue sky, surf camp to the south and a hundred surfers spread across the peaks to the north.

As I turned onto the Great Highway on my trip home, the sky was overcast, the fog was drifting in, the chop and the whites caps were still there and no one was out. Linda Mar was definitely the correct decision this morning.