January 22, 2014 Wednesday

 

Bolinas	Patch
10:00 am to 11:10 am	3' to 4', sets to 6'
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Sunny and warm	Fun session

Not a holiday but still a big crowd. With seven surfers out there, the Channel, like last Monday, was clean, head-high, peeling left, but coming over too fast. No body had a decent ride. That's one of the brief Channel rides in the above photo.

The Patch was all over the place, smaller than Monday but breaking way out there. Four surfers and two stand-up were sitting a 100 yards beyond the outside rock. The waves were sizeable and soft, big walls where white water would slowly slide down from the top into a long line of white foam that would reform and break again on the inside. I saw David, who used to ride the Becker board, catch a set wave, angle right across a big face, straighten out letting the wave reform and then turning into a nice clean inside curl. That did it, the inside rights, like last Monday, was my call for today.

The old crowd was there this morning: John the Surfrider webmaster, Hans the management trainer, Mary, Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water, David, Hank, Steve the Bolinas local, Barry the management consultant, Russ the stand-up guy and Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic.

While putting my camera away, Jeff pulled up. I hadn't seen him in months.

"Jeff, with this swell Dillon must be huge." Jeff lives at Dillon Beach.

"It's great, but I have been surfing so much I'm tired so I had to come here."

"With this good weather, you must be busy." I was referring to all the Valley types that pull boats down to Dillon to go fishing and need boat repairs, and with the sunny weather that's what is happening.

"Yes I have a ton of work waiting for me, but I took off the whole month of January and have been surfing everyday. There have been lots of waves and no wind at Dillon. I had to come here to slow down."

Jeff and I entered the water together and we exited at the same time. I sat on the inside and Jeff was further out. Several times I saw him skillfully high in a big wall, crouched down mid-board, calmly trimming across the face of a head high wave. Jeff is in excellent condition and was all over the place – outside north of me, outside south of me, right next to me and on the inside going for the right curls.

"Jeff, the last time I saw you, you were working on another hollow wood surfboard. Did you finish it?"

"Yes I did. It's right here." He had brought it with him but chose to ride a normal foam board today. He showed it to me and of course it was another beautiful piece of work – 9' 3", 22" wide, single lamented old style glassed in fin. The core of the board is hollow, lamented wood fastened to a wooden lattice frame forms the bulk of the board. This one had 200-year-old small grain redwood (purchased at the wood yard in Dogtown) for the outside rails and balsa wood down the center, all perfectly put together.

"Jeff, as I have said before, this is a work of art and should be in your house as a coffee table or hanging on the wall."

"No, no. This is a surfboard and is used as one."

I was putting on my shoes as David walked by dripping wet and board under his arm.

"David, it's 11:35, a half hour later than your normal session. You're cheese sandwich will be melted by now."

"No, no. It will be perfect."

Today was another four hours plus session for him. A half-hour into my session (around 10:30) I watched him paddle into a flat wave. "He will never catch that," I thought to myself. But with extra effort he glided into it, cut towards the peak, cruise under some white water back into the curl and on he went. He had been in the water of three hours when he did that. I could never do that. I would be too exhausted.

Barry was toweling off as I walked by. He came over to say hello. I hadn't seen him in months. With a grin from ear to ear, he had to tell me about his good session. Barry was at the Groin going for the fast breaking curls.

"On my first wave the curl was right there," putting his hand a couple of inches above his head. "I crouched down and felt the lip slapping the back of my head. I didn't do anything; I froze and let my board do it. I came out onto the shoulder, eased up slightly, turned into the shore break and stepped to the nose. At that point, I knew I was in for a great session."

"Barry, earlier at the Groin I didn't see anyone make a wave. Everyone would drop down the face, turn at the bottom of the wave and get buried."

"That's because they are all over too far. You know you have to move away from the peak to find the shoulder. But what a great time I had, and there were only five guys out there and all of them were nice." It sounded ideal to me and knowing what a good surfer Barry is, I had no doubt that he ripped it up this morning.