May 1, 2013 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:20 am to 12 noon	2’ to 3’, sets 4’, occasional 5’
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze to stiff onshore wind
Sunny heat wave morning to eerie wispy fog	Good session

My expectation for waves was high – hot weather, a 2 ft 17 second south swell and light winds. The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Alert for today due to the strong, hot and dry NE winds blowing over the inland ridges. The Park Service closed the Bootjack and Pan Toll parking lots and the road to Mt Tamalpais.

The parking area in Bolinas was full at 9:15 when I arrived; a good sign. Jacek walked up the ramp with a board under his arm to his car. He put down his 9’ 4” Donald Takayama and pulled out his 9’ 4” yellow Fresh Pineapple.

“This board is too heavy,” referring to the Takayama one. “I need a lighter board. Besides this one is perfect for my weight,” referring to the Fresh Pineapple board. “And there are waves.”

I walked with Jacek down to the Patch carrying my camera with his 400 mm telescopic lens attached. He paddled out to the inside peak and immediately caught a nice two-foot wave. That’s him in the above photo. Fourteen others were spread across several peaks. Jacek, David who rides the Becker board and two others were going for the inside right waves. Six stand-up surfers were way – way outside including Frank, Russ and John the owner of the Parkside Café in Stinson Beach. Mary, DB the Safeway checker and Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water were at the outside north peak, while Matt and several others were at the peak near the exposed outside rock. There was plenty of white water at all peaks but I didn’t see anyone scoring any great rides. The waves looked merely “so – so.”

“So is this the spot?” I asked David when I paddled out to the inside peak.

“No. There’s no spot. It’s all over the place.”

After a couple of slow ripples where I almost hit the rocks, I decided to try my luck at the outside rock. What a good move. I immediately stroked into a four-foot right peak, dropped down a nice face and then the wave died as I passed the rock. So I moved further out and to the north to try for some lefts. A beautifully shaped one came through and I stroked into it, jumped up, cut left, glided down a long left face, cut under some white water that was breaking in front of me, climbed back into a reforming swell, stepped to the middle of the board and cruised. What a long great ride. That was the first of ten such waves. I kept moving outside and north and soon I was alone, two others were out there also but they were twenty yards away. In short I had this peak to myself for forty-five minutes.

When I first paddled out a fog bank filled the horizon. It slowly moved in and an hour later it engulfed us with a thin wispy fog. I couldn’t see the shore. After a good long wave that left me north and inside in waist deep water, I glanced towards the shore. All I could see were the dark outlines of the huge boulders of the outer edge of the Patch reef peering through the mist and wisps of fog. It was an eerie sight.

After an hour and a half I started heading in. It took me ten minutes to make it to shore. I was way outside and the wave I caught only had enough force to carry me half the way in and I paddled the rest of the way. I was back to my pre-operation session level. I felt great and my arms were tired but not exhausted. I was finally getting there.