October 12, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:20 am to 12 noon	3' to 4', sets to 6'
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze to no wind
Sunny and warm	Good session

The NOAA weather radio announced this morning at 6 am that the Point Arena buoy was 15 ft at 17 seconds and the San Francisco buoy was 7 ft at 17 seconds. Those were Maverick's size swells. Also the wind was NW at 5 knots and the water temperature was 58 degrees. The weather had changed. Monday a small front came through and shrouded the whole coast with dense fog, south winds and drizzle. I went to Bolinas and didn't bother going out and went for a jog at Stinson instead. But today high pressure had settled in, the cloud cover was gone, the sun was out, the wind had died and the swell was big. My hopes were up for some good waves.

From the overlook above the Groin, fifteen surfers were bunched together at the only rideable peak - half way between the Channel and the Groin. The waves were big and closing out. I watched one surfer after another drop down an overhead faces into a ton of white water. I didn't recognize any of them and it didn't look inviting.

From Terrace Road I saw fifteen surfers spread across several peaks at the Patch. The waves were smaller and mellow. Several of the Bolinas regulars were there. David who rides the Becker board, Shu-Shu and Martha were going for the rights on the inside. That's David on a good one in the above photo. Marty, Mary, and DB the Safeway checker were 50 yards north going for the lefts and Ray the Petaluma fireman, Russ the stand-up guy and a few others were outside at the furthest peak. All the rides were slow, gentle, long and infrequent. But that looked like a lot more fun than the pounders at the Channel; I would head for the Patch.

David and Marty had started at the Channel and had moved to the Patch. Marty told me that the waves were powerful and that he was humbled. Marty and a shortboarder took off on the same wave and collided causing a side fin on the shortboard to snap off. Both were cordial, no angry words were spoken, but it was then that Marty decided to move to the Patch where he had a great session. David mentioned that he got skunked at the Channel due to the number of shortboarders. Like Marty, David paddled to the Patch where he connected on numerous good waves. Ray usually goes out to the Channel and often over to the Seadrift side to be by himself. This morning he arrived before dawn, couldn't see a thing and thus followed Russ and DB out to the Patch.

Next to me while suiting up was Leonard from Santa Rosa. He introduced himself. Like me he was retired and about my age. He hadn't surfed in six months and was anxious to get back into the sport. He told me about the old days of growing up in Marin. He graduated from Redwood High and the College of Marin and rented a room on Brighton Avenue in the sixties to surf and go to school - in the days before wetsuits, booties and leashes. We entered the water together and hung out at the same peak. For someone who hadn't surfed in six months, Leonard connected on several long rides. Afterwards he felt great about his session.

The waves were good but not exceptional and at first I floundered around and the crowd impacted wave selection. After an hour things improved: the crowd left, I don't why, the wind stopped and the surface glassed off. Suddenly only four of us were out there - Lea, Leonard, one other guy and myself.

The other guy, who was an older gentleman about my age, had a great session. He sat twenty yards further outside and patiently waited on his big, thick, no-rocker paddling machine for the big sets, where he managed to catch all the big ones. I was amazed at how he could get that big board moving to push into these waves just as they peaked. He would fade into the peaks, swing into the curls when the waves broke and would coast down the faces for a long ways. He did this time and time again. Lea also had a good session. She is a Bolinas local and knows the Patch well and has that instinct to anticipate where the waves are peaking, and today the peaks were moving around. Several times she stroked into sizeable waves, skillfully dropped down the faces, cut back into the breaking part of the waves and swung around into reforming curls.

I started out slow but towards the end of my session I began to connect. After an hour and a half my arms were beginning to feel it. I figured I would go for some rights to work my way in. I was sitting inside of the others when a beautiful set wave came through. The others didn't go for it, thus I swung around quickly and dug hard to get into it. The wave picked me up; I jumped to my knees and leaned on the nose to push the board into the wave. I jumped up to my feet and looked down the line of a perfectly forming head-high wave. I cut right, climbed high in the wave, stepped to the middle of the board and trimmed through the first section. I cut back, stalled for an instance to let the wave build up, swung right again and flew down another section. The wave jumped up and broke in front of me, I crouched down, planted my feet and hung on while I drove under the white water and climbed back into the swell. The wave stood up again and I locked my inside rail under the lip and flew down another fast section. I cut back and the wave died ten feet from shore. What a great way to end a session.