March 11, 2013 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:25 am to 10:35 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 4’, occasional 5’
Mid upcoming tide	North cross breeze
Sunny and warm. Fog had just burned off	Fun session

With every session my arms were getting stronger. This morning in one hour and ten minutes I caught and stood up on ten waves, all of them good.

Today was also the first Monday of daylight savings, thus 9:30 am was last week’s 8:30. The sunlight was dim and the wind was calm. At 10:30 the wind picked up and put a chop on the water, just like 9:30 of last week. The time change had cut into Jaime the starving artist’s surf time. He arrived at his usual time, six o’clock, but it was still pitch black and he had to wait for thirty minutes before going out, and the on-the-deck-fog didn’t help either. But he had to get out at his normal time to open up the 2-Mile Surf Shop.

Several of the regulars were on it this morning: Mary, Marty, Jaime, David who rides the Becker board, Jacek the tattoo artist, DB the Safeway checker, Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water, and Stand-up guys Russ and Walt the photographer.

Mary was suited up and about to go out when I arrived. I handed her a copy of Kate’s latest novel, Blackstone’s Bride. Last week Mary said she wanted to read one of Kate’s books.

Marty pulled up as I was getting my camera out of the car and we checked out the surf together. The fog had just lifted, the wind had died, the surface was smooth and a decent swell was coming in. One surfer was at the Channel where the waves were walled and closing out. Four people were at the Patch: stand-up guys Russ and Walt, David and one other. That’s the other guy on a good left in the above photo.

Jacek, who had arrived shortly before me, claimed there were good small waves at the Patch as he pulled out his “Patch Board” – a 10’ 6”, 23” wide, yellow “Fresh Pineapple” longboard, a real paddling machine.

“Walt, I bet yesterday that you had waffles for breakfast,” I said to him after his session. Walt loves waffles and is an expert waffle chef. Kate and I attended his annual “Waffle Fest” a couple of weeks ago where Walt had three waffle irons going non-stop as he cranked out a ton of perfectly grilled waffles.

“No, not yesterday. My step-son and I had French toast with peanut butter.” I should have guessed as much.

Marty and I entered the water together and headed for the north side of the Patch to go for the lefts. Jacek was out at the furthest outside peak. I caught a good view of one of his classic rides – a long, high in the curl right that he rode all the way to the shore. After that, he stayed at the inside peak with David.

Susan was on the north side of the peak with Marty and I, thus we three goofy-foots (right foot forward) had the lefts to ourselves. What a good move, they were consistent, strong, fast and plentiful. All three of us got several good rides. On my first wave I took-off late on a four-foot wall, jumped up quickly (I surprised myself with that one), dropped down the face as the wave broke, cut underneath the white water, climbed back into the swell, stepped to the middle of the board and cruised. For a second it felt like the days of old.

“Loren you’re back!” Susan yelled. “Nice wave.” That was the first five long lefts.

After forty-five minutes Marty had to go in due to a tutoring commitment. I then drifted in and south to join David, who had the inside rights wired. Three times I saw him locked in a wave, high in the curl, and crouching down under the lip of a fast–breaking wave.

On the inside, the high bluff blocked the wind and the surface turned to glass. A set wave came through and I was ready for it. I stroked into the wave as it was breaking, jumped up, cut right, and blasted under the curl as it pitched out in front of me. I climbed back up the swell, cut back, turned right again into a second fast section. What a good ride. I then stayed on the inside, even further inside than Jacek and David and managed to connect on two more good, clean fast rights.

Jacek and David agreed with me that this morning was special – warm sunny weather (temperature in the mid-sixties), warm water (warmer than last week’s frigid water), and good clean fast waves with only four surfers on the peak. It doesn't get any better than this.