December 30, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:40 am	3' to 4', sets to 5', occasional overhead
Low tide	Slight onshore breeze
Fog, drizzle and cold	Good session

The waves at the Channel were good - clean fast peeling lefts. One hour into my session I connected on my best wave of the morning. The crowd was a consideration today - 30 people were in the water when I began my session and 30 people were in the water when I left. The surfers around me went for the first two waves of the set, leaving me alone and in position for a well-formed five-foot wall. I paddled hard and felt myself almost in the wave. I hung at the top looking over the edge of a vertical drop. It instantly reminded me of the videos I saw of the recent Rip Curl Pro surf contest held at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I was amazed how the pro-surfers would hang at the tops of the waves with the noses of their boards sticking out of the water and then they would quickly jump up, drop down the steep faces and lock themselves under the lips of the curls. For an instant I felt this was happening to me. I jumped up, shifted my weight forward to push over the edge and dropped vertically down the face. I thought I was going to lose it. The nose of my board dipped into the water and bounced back up. I hung on and cut left at the bottom of the wave. From the momentum the board shot back up to the top of the curl, I leaned forward and again vertically dropped down the face and shot back up the top. I quickly regained control of the board, set the rail under the peeling lip and cruised through another steep and fast section. The wave continued building on the inside. I cut back, let the swell build up, leaned into the curl, climbed back to the top, cut back down, climbed back up - and up and down I went until the wave closed out inside the Groin wall. What a great ride! I had several other fast curl rides as well as several close outs this morning. The waves were right on the edge between incredible locked in the curl rides and blasting walls.

Everyone this morning stated that the waves have been consistently good all week. A series of west swells were driving right into Bolinas. Kevin and I came out here Monday, the day after Christmas, when waves were bigger and the crowd was thicker. We caught some incredible fast curls and got blasted on several hard breaking walls.

Several of the Bolinas regulars were here this morning. Mary was at the Patch and Francine went to join her. Hank was thinking Patch; he walked all the way down there, turned around and walked all the way back to the Groin to join us. Marty and David who rides the Becker board were already out at the Channel. Martha and I arrived at the same time and walked down to the Groin to check out the waves. She saw two good rides, decided that was all she needed to see and headed back to the car to suit up. Professor Steve and his four-year-old son Johnny were suited up and about to enter the water. Johnny had received a new little kid's soft-top board for Christmas and Steve was taking him to try it out. Yes, Johnny was excited.

Paddling out I said hello to Martha, David and Hank at the north edge of the Channel and continued out to the far peak to join Paul and Dexter. Dexter was on a classic longboard - I mean a real, made in the sixties, glassed on single fin, '9 6", sun-yellowed, beat to shit longboard. He claimed it was his first time ever on a heavy old classic. Well, he did fine. The board paddled fast and allowed him to catch all the waves. He could stroke into flat waves, jump up, position himself in the waves, drop down the faces and then cruise across the middle of the swells. When exiting the water, I looked out at the waves and watched Dexter, with his back to the wave, drop down an overhead wall, cut left, climb to the middle of the swell and glide across the face for several yards before the wave exploded around him.

After half an hour, Barry the management trainer and excellent surfer paddled out. I had not seen him in months. Following his normal pattern, he stroked out to the furthest peak at the Channel and patiently sat there waiting for the good set waves. His patience paid off, he caught at least one wave of every set. I asked him if he had been getting any waves lately. He said that he made it out for every big swell this season and that he was currently on a roll of surfing ten days in a row. To him the waves had been fantastic and he was capitalizing on the good consistent surf.

Today the water was cold. After and hour and an half, I was freezing, my hands were turning numb and my leg muscles were beginning to cramp up. Time to go in. I paddled around for another ten minutes before connecting with that elusive last wave, but it was a good one - a three-foot curl that went on and on, all the way inside the Groin wall. I looked back in time to watch David come down a spectacular wave. He dropped down the face of a head-high wall and with his back to the wave David stepped to the middle of his board, climbed to mid-swell and hung-on. He passed through one steep section, shifted his weight to let the inside curl build up, crouched down again and shot through another steep section. As the wave was collapsing near shore, David grabbed the outside rail and pulled himself out over the top of the wave. What a great ride - typical of today.

As I left the water, the waves were still good, the crowd was still pegged at thirty and I was freezing. Despite the cold and the crowd, it was a great morning.

December 14, 2011 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
10:15 am to 11:30 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Mid upcoming tide	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Sunny, clear and warm	Fun session

Correction: Lorenzo's Surf Journal has a correction.

"Loren, by the way I make my lunch every morning, not the night before," David who rides the Becker board said to me while paddling out to the Channel after a long ride. He was referring to the Surf Journal's September 21st entry that was posted on December 13th, which stated that David prepared a lunch every night before a surf session. His lunch is always the same - a cheese and lettuce sandwich, a piece of fruit and some carrot sticks. "Hey, I can't have stale cheese and wilted lettuce on my sandwich."

"Well, excuse me, I will correct that error," I said in jest. "David, tell me something. You make your lunch every morning, you live in Berkeley and drive an hour plus to get here and you usually enter the water between 7:00 and 7:30. You must get up earl." I asked as we were walking down the beach after our session.

"Four o'clock. I get up at four o'clock, putter around for an hour or so and leave the house at five thirty."

So here is my correction: to David surfing is as important as work. He is like a dedicated stockbroker who is up before sunrise to get the latest quotes from the New York Stock Exchange. David is up and out the door before sunrise to beat the wind and the crowd to the beach.

This morning was another pleasant surprise. I had no expectation of waves. The swell that came in last Friday was fading, and today's buoy reading was 4 ft at 11 seconds. Mill Valley was freezing with a low Tule fog that trapped the cold air at ground level. At the top of the mountain I broke through the fog into bright sunshine and warm air. It was ten degrees warmer on the ocean side of the mountain.

While suiting up I chatted with the early morning crew who had just finished their sessions. Stand-up guys Frank and Russ said that conditions were improving because it was warmer. They froze when they entered the water at 7:00 am. Marty and Hank confirmed that the waves were getting better from the push of the incoming tide. That's Marty in the above photo.

David, Jacek the tattoo artist and Francine were at the Channel when I entered the water. Francine caught one more wave and went in. A few minutes later Pete from Napa joined us. Thus the four of us had the Channel to ourselves for over an hour. I paddled out to the line-up, paused, looked around and took a deep breath. Conditions were ideal: here it was mid-December, the sun was out, the air was warm with no wind, a glassy surface, nicely formed two to three-foot left peeling waves and a friendly crowd. The waves were smooth, gentle and long. They weren't much to write about except that all of us caught several long rides that took us all the way to inside the Groin wall.

Pete proudly announced that his daughter had been accepted to Georgetown University - one of the nation's better schools. Pete has the double whammy of twin daughters who were seniors in high school and were applying to colleges. Obviously his daughters were doing well in school to be applying to the high-powered universities.

"Congrats," I said. "Now comes the hard part."

"Yeah, like paying for it!"

We will continue Pete's saga later. But for today, the sun was out, the scenery was beautiful and we exhausted ourselves in these small fun waves.

December 9, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:20 am to 10:40 am	4' to 5', sets overhead
High tide (6.1 ft)	NW cross wind to no wind
Sunny and cold	Great session

"Seas seven feet at twenty-one seconds," squawked the mechanical female voice of the NOAA weather radio. I couldn't believe it. "Seven feet at twenty-one seconds," I kept repeating to myself. "Oh today is going to be a good day." A new swell came in last night. Two days ago, the waves were flat and I didn't bother going out and Monday they were a weak barely rideable two feet.

No one was out at the Channel when I first saw the waves from the seawall at the base of the ramp. Expecting big waves, at first I was disappointed and surprised that the Channel was flat. The swells would come through but they wouldn't break, the water was too deep due to six-foot high tide as shown in the above photo.

Five Bolinas regulars were at the Patch: David who rides the Becker board, Marty, DB the Safeway checker and stand-up guys Russ and Frank. They were just sitting there. After several minutes, a set of long line waves came through and David connected on a good inside right, revealing that the waves had power.

While strapping on my leash before entering the water I watched DB skillfully come down perfectly formed head high right that continuously peeled in front of her, taking her from the far outside peak to ten feet from the shore. The waves were perfect: big, steep and fast; long lines that jumped up over an outside reef, curled over at the top, landed halfway down the swell, slid the rest of the way down and would continuous break to the right all the way to the beach. With such waves, everyone connected on several good rides.

While paddling over a set wave, from the side I watched Hans drop down an overhead face. From the back I could tell the white water was in front of him. He drove under it, got back into the swell, crouched down and cruised all the way into shore. Hans' nephew Troy got the ride of his young surfing life as he dropped down a head high wave, cranked a big turn at the bottom, climbed back to mid-swell, crouched down and hummed across a beautiful wall for fifty yards. On my first wave I took off late on a five-foot wall, cut right, climbed high in the curl and screamed across a well-formed face, cut-back to the let the wave build up and cut right again to fly down another section. After catching several rights, I connected on a good left. I dropped down a steep face, lean left at the bottom, the wave began to break in front of me, I leaned on my front foot to trim the board and sped along the bottom of the wave just behind the breaking curl for several yards until the wave jumped up and collapsed in front of me. It was a great ride.

All of us were puzzled that the Patch would break with perfection while the Channel didn't break at all. Surfers know not to question such things; they just flow with the conditions that the ocean presents. It was a great morning.

December 5, 2011 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:45 am to 10:45 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
Mid outgoing tide	NW cross breeze to no wind to NW cross breeze
Sunny and cold	Exercise session

"Loren do you have a band-aid?" Ray the Petaluma fireman greeted me as I jumped out of my car this morning. He was holding a paper towel over a gash on his forehead.

"Better yet, I have a first-aid kit." I retrieve the kit that I always carry in my car as part of my surf equipment and handed it to Ray.

"Thanks, I usually have one in my car," Ray continued. "But on Thanksgiving I unloaded my car to carry six people and forgot to put it back." I was wondering why a fireman/paramedic wouldn't have a first-aid kit in his car.

"Ray what happened? Did you get hit by the skeg?"

"No I was going left (Ray is regular foot thus his back was to the wave) and the board got sucked up the curl, the rail turned up and I slammed my head on the rail. At first I thought I was ok and started to paddle back out. Then I wiped my forehead and noticed the blood. Then I came in."

"Ray don't tell Loren about your wound, he will write about it in his blog," Mary chimed in.

"I was thinking about taking a picture of it."

"Please no pictures. The last thing I want is more stitches." Ray pointed to a scare on his chin, but all I could notice was his bleeding forehead. "See twenty stitches from a previous surfing accident."

Frank the stand-up guy joined us. Frank is a retired fireman and thus now two professionally trained first-aid experts were conferring over the wound. "Boy you are going to have a bump with this one," Frank commented. Swelling now rimmed the gash on Ray's forehead.

"Thanks," Ray handed the first-aid kit back to me. "I'm going to the station to get some ice for this," and he jumped into his car and drove off.

The early morning crowd (Mary, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, and stand-up guys Russ and Frank) had finished their sessions and every one of them complained about the cold. Mary had lost feeling in her hands and had difficulty turning the key to unlock the door to her car. The big winds this past weekend had stirred up the ocean and brought the cold water to the surface. With everyone complaining about the cold I decided to wear my gloves. Friday I didn't and my hands froze. Gloves were a must this morning.

Hans and I checked out the waves at the base of the ramp. Two surfers were leaving and only David who rides the Becker board was in the water. The waves didn't look good but the sun was out and the air was warming up. "I'm going to suit up and get some exercise," Hans turned to go back to his car and I walked down to the Groin wall to take some pictures. Jacek showed up and also decided to go out. "One hour," I thought to myself. "Join my buddies and get some exercise."

At first the surf looked good, but it deteriorated as the tide went out. The current began to flow out of the lagoon; it picked up momentum and quickly became a river. Jacek and I sat at the apex of the Channel peak hoping to connect on the set waves. But the current kept dragging us out. We continuously paddled in, stopped and within minutes the current had pulled us back out. No set waves appeared, and we froze paddling around and watching David and Hank who were inside and to the north catch the small inside waves. Jacek and I gave up and paddled in to join Hank and David.

Jacek managed to connect on two classic lefts - long line peeling curls with him crouched down mid-board, back to the waves, locked in with spray arching off the tops of the waves. David scored on a couple of long inside curls. He always has a knack of knowing where to line up. I paddled over to where he was and managed to connect of two long-left curls. But that was all. I spent most of the time fighting the current, paddling and missing waves and trying to keep my hands and toes warm. After an hour I was spent and freezing. Exercise was all that I accomplished this morning.

"How is it out there?" Another surfer, who I didn't know, pulled up, and jumped out of his truck while I was changing after my session.

"Pretty crappy," I responded. "The current is pouring out of the lagoon and the water is freezing." After he had checked out the waves I asked him if he was going out.

"No. Looks like a good day to practice the guitar."

"What about exercise to keep your arms in shape? You have to be ready for when the good waves arrive."

"No thanks. I have this problem with surfer ear. My ear canal is closing down due to the cold water." A condition I know all about. I could tell he had made up his mind and nothing was going to change it. I couldn't disagree - today was a good day to practice the guitar.