March 25, 2013 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 10:30 am	3’ to 4’, occasional 5’
Mid upcoming tide	Slight offshore breeze to strong NW cross wind
Sunny with high clouds and a storm front on the horizon	Great session

“Well I passed everyone going to the beach this morning. I wish I was one of them.” Julie the Bolinas local, who works for the Mill Valley planning department, greeted me as she headed to Peet’s for her morning coffee. I was sitting on the bench out front with my two morning coffee buddies, Matt and John. I often see Julie in the mornings in Mill Valley.

“Who did you see?”

“Hank, DB and Mary.”

“Did you go out this weekend?”

“Yes and the waves were good, the weather was perfect and the water was cold.”

Per Stormsurf.com a three-foot south swell arrived this weekend and combined with a three-foot north swell, resulting in some decent waves. But the south swell was fading and this morning’s NOAA weather radio buoy report didn’t mention the south swell. I thought it was over. But I was pleasantly surprised at my first glance of the Patch. Nice long lines of 3 to 4 feet rights continuously peeling from the middle of the Patch to the inside shore break. Fourteen people were out there. They were separated into two groups, one way outside at the apex of the Patch reef and the other on the inside going for the fast right curls close to shore. Within minutes I got shots of David who rides the Becker board, Hank, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider, Mary, DB the Safeway checker and Marty on good long rides. There was no doubt I was going out.

Frank the stand-up guy was back in the water. He recently had a hip-replacement operation and was out of the water for several weeks. On top of that his daughter gave birth to his first grandchild, an event that kept out of the water for a few more days. So Frank, like me, was in rehab. However, I watched him stroke into a four-foot wall, sail down the face, cut back to stay in the wave and work it all the way to shore. He exited the water after that good ride. That’s him in the above picture. In my mind, Frank was back.

“Bill I hear that you really ripped it up in Santa Cruz this weekend.” Bill from Berkeley had entered the All Paddle Craft contest and Marty informed me that he was there on his water ski and he came down a couple of monster waves at Steamers Lane.

“Yeah I ripped it up,” Bill jokingly responded. “I did have a great time. The weather was perfect, the surface was glass and the waves were big.” There was an eleven-foot swell rolling through the Lane that day. “But they were beautiful, easy to catch and easy to ride.” Meanwhile Bill was all over the place this morning. I saw him way out at the north peak, then he was back with us, and later he headed south and ended up surfing the Seadrift peak with the Stinson Beach stand-up crowd.

I had a good session. I paddled out to join David and Hank at the well-shaped inside right peak. On my first wave I took off on a four-foot wall, jumped up, cut under the feathering curl, shot through a second section, cut back, bounced over a series of backwash bumps coming off the cliff, cut-right again into the shore break curl and popped over the top as the wave crashed on shore. That was the first of ten waves that I caught within an hour, all were well-formed fast right curls. The cold water and wind forced me out of the water – not my arms, they felt great.

The wind was the story today. When I took pictures before my session the waves were glassy smooth. When I entered the water, the NW wind had picked up and had put a texture on the surface. But it was a cross wind that didn’t affect the waves and it even held up the curls a little bit. The wind continued to build and the cloud cover on the horizon kept moving towards us. An hour later it was Victory at Sea – stormy and choppy with white caps everywhere. But it was still a cross wind and the waves kept their good shape.

It was time to go in and afterwards I felt great – my arms were not tired and the good waves were invigorating. Today I felt that I was back.