December 29, 2008 Monday

Stinson Beach	Out front from the showers
10:30 am to 12:00 noon	3' to 4'
High tide - 5.9 ft	No wind
Overcast	Fun session

My New Board – Second Session

Late last October, two days after I had ordered my new board through Nate at Proof Lab, I was back in there to confirm that my ordered had been placed with Doug Haut in Santa Cruz.

As soon as Nate saw me walk in he emphatically said, “Your board is done. It’s in the back.”

“What?” I responded.

“You are just like all other surfers,” Nate continued. “You order a board and come back two days later wanting to know why it isn’t done.”

“I just wanted to ensure that Haut had my order,” I said.

“Your order is in,” Nate stated. “It’s a done deal. They’re working on it.”

“Great. Call me when it is done,” I responded.

I know that one has to be patient when doing business with surfers, and that includes 70-year old Doug Haut. Surfers have additional priorities that other businessmen don’t have, like surf conditions. What was supposed to take three weeks, took two months. My board came in Christmas Eve; I picked it up the day after Christmas and took it out the first time on Dec 27th.

I was anxious to ride it again. I drove to Bolinas, which was flat due to the high tide, thus I returned to Stinson. The waves were similar to the other day but smaller; peaks pushed up the berm and broke close to shore with no wind and glassy conditions. I had more wax on the board today and didn’t slip like the other day. I caught several small rights and lefts. I felt more comfortable on the board. It paddles faster than my old board, and enables me to get into waves sooner to position myself high in the curls. My last wave was my best, a three-foot fast breaking left where I managed to lock the board just under the lip of a well-formed curl and shoot through a good section. This was my first good nose ride and yes the board performed well.

I’m the type of surfer who has only one board in his quiver. Others like to have several boards of different shapes and sizes to match the different conditions. Not me, I ride the same board in small waves, big waves, flat sliders like the Patch and steep crunchers like at Montara and Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay. Over time my body adjusts to the size and feel of the board. I become accustomed to its speed, its ability to turn, its support on the nose and its maneuverability in the curl. An analogy here is baseball players with their bats and tennis players with their racquets. A good major league hitter has ten bats, all of them exactly the same. He doesn’t change bats because of a different pitcher. Weight, feel of the bat and timing are critical to hitting the ball. Only when a hitter gets into a slump does he experiment with different size bats. The same holds true for tennis players. They walk into the tennis stadium with five racquets, everyone of them the same. They don’t switch racquets after the first serve because they know the second serve will be slower and with spin. No they use the same racquet because their bodies are accustomed to the feel, weight and timing of the racquet they have been using for months. Thus with time I will meld with the particulars of this board.

Last October I destroyed my old board when due to a crack in the bottom water pressure ripped off a three-foot sheet of fiberglass from mid-board to the tail fins (see my October 1 entry). I was due for a new board. I dithered around a few weeks looking at all the new boards at the local surf shops. While at Proof Lab I mentioned to Nate that I might go to Haut’s shop in Santa Cruz. Nate informed me he was an official Haut dealer and could get me a better price. He called them, read them the model numbers from my old board and placed an order for a custom built board. My new board was suppose to be exactly the same as my old one: length 9’ 2’’; thickness 3”; mid-point width 22”; nose width 16” and tail width 13.5”.

But my new board felt bigger. When I got home this morning I compared the model numbers on both boards; they were the same. I measured them and discovered that my old board is 21.5” wide and thinner in the rails. Thus I was right, my new board is slightly bigger, which for me is good. I was ready for a larger board. When you are 63 years old, you don’t downsize.

In my thirty years of surfing I have owned several boards but only three of them I purchased brand new. And they were all Hauts and were all the same. In 1996, I first went to Haut’s shop in Santa Cruz. I told the sales guy I was thinking of downsizing to an 8’ 6”. He pulled one off the rack and explained that this one was 9’ 0’’, 3” thick for plenty of floatation but thin in the rails thus less volume. It was a squaretail with three fins. I bought it and he was right. It floated me well and was very maneuverable. Five years later after driving this board into the ground, I returned to order a new one. On a Saturday, Doug Haut was there. I showed him my old board and told him I wanted another one just like it but a little bigger. I was ready to order a custom board. He looked at the board, read the numbers and pulled one off the rack.

“This one is very close,” he said. “And it’s on sale for $500. I could make you a new one for $800 and I could have it ready in eight weeks.”

“Sold,” I said. “I’ll take the one on sale.” I surfed on it that afternoon at the Hook. It was a great board, and I rode it for seven years until I ripped the bottom off it. So now my new board is just like my last two boards. For the last twelve years I have owned and ridden Doug Haut 9’ 2”, 3” thick, thin rails, squaretails, tri-fin boards and I love them.

Special thanks to Nate and crew at the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley for securing my new custom board.

December 27, 2008 Saturday

Stinson Beach	Out front from the showers
10:00 am to 11:30 am	4', sets to 5'
High tide - 6.1 ft	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny	So -so session

My New Board

Today was my first session with my new board: a Doug Haut, 9’ 2”, tri-fin. I picked it up yesterday from Nate and crew at the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley and spent the rest of the afternoon rubbing wax on it. I was anxious to try it out.

Kevin and I headed to Stinson first to check it out. It looked ok. I insisted that we look at Bolinas, which was flat due to the high tide. We ran into Professor Steve exiting the water from his morning exercise paddle. We headed back to Stinson. We ran into Nate, who sold me my board, and a friend just getting out. Lots of closeouts was Nate’s assessment of the waves.

Due to the high tide the waves pushed up the berm of the beach and broke close to shore. Most were walls with a couple with shape. Kevin entered the water and started paddling. A set came in and he had to duck-dive three waves before getting out. I waited for a lull, pushed into the water, jumped on my new board and cruised out to the line up only touching white water once. My board paddles fast, much faster than my old one.

On my first wave I went right, it closed out ahead of me and I straightened out. Not much of a ride. The next wave was same thing. Later a left wave came through and I got a decent angle down the face of a four-foot wave before having to straighten out again. Despite my sore arm from rubbing wax on my new board yesterday, it wasn’t enough. The board was slippery. Whenever I turned from a sitting position and leaned forward to begin paddling, the board slipped right out of my hands and I would be hanging onto the tail block. When I would stand up, the surface was slippery and I would very tentatively step up to retain my balance. Coming down a sizable wall I stepped back to keep the nose of the board from knifing into the water and slipped right off the back. The board shot forward, my feet went straight into the air and I landed tail first in the water. Next I misjudged a wave; I was too late, the fast paddling board got me too far in front of the wave, it broke on my back, the nose pearl dived straight down, I went to the bottom and the board shot high into the air, so Kevin told me. On my last wave, I came down a four-foot wall, coasted out in front of the white water, the wave bounced, knocked me off and the board continued with the surge of the white water. Underwater, I felt the tug of the leash on my ankle, and then it went flat and my board continued up to the beach. The knot of the line that connects the leash to the board pulled undone and there I was with an empty leash strapped to my ankle and my board washing around in the shore break.

That was enough for the first day, not a great success but a start. “It takes awhile to get accustomed to a new board,” I said to myself. It was a so-so session but I knew I had a good board that I would soon master.

December 26, 2008 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', sets to 6'
High tide - 6.1 ft	Offshore breeze
Sunny and warm	Fun session

It was the day after Christmas and the swell had spiked. A one-day Mavericks size swell materialized: 13 ft at 16 seconds. The NOAA buoy forecast predicted this swell a week in advance. It also showed that the next day the swell would drop to six feet at 12 seconds.

Weekend/holiday atmosphere struck the beach. All the parking slots on Brighton Ave were taken when I arrived. I had to park near the liquor store. From the overview above the Channel I counted thirty-seven people surfing; long boarders, short boarders, stand-up surfers, men, women, kids and even dogs in the water. Warm sunny day, offshore breeze and some nice shoulder high lines peeling off both left and right. Every one had three or four surfers competing for position. It didn’t look like fun.

I decided to head to the Patch were there only few people out. Good move. The waves were smaller and slower than those at the Channel. The crowd at the Patch was positioning for the rights. I went for the lefts and managed to catch several good long left waves into shallow water above the reef. After and hour and a half I had exhausted myself and worked my way back to the ramp.

It was a beautiful morning and I was anxious to get home because this afternoon I was going to pick up my new board at the Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley.

December 12, 2008 Friday

Bolinas	Ramp
9:00 am to 10:30 am	4'
Extreme high tide - 7.2 ft	Slight offshore breeze
Sunshine with high haze	Didn't go out

Today was the highest tide of the year: 7.2 ft at 10:00 am. I scanned my Tidelog and confirmed today was the highest tide of the year. Only the full moon last January had a tide of 7 ft. The lowest tide of the year, -1.9 ft, occurred this afternoon at 5:00 pm.

Doug, Robert the Larkspur carpenter, Robert the Oakland fireman and I stood at the overlook above the Groin and Channel with discouraged looks. The tide was too high and the water too deep. Four-foot swells came through the Channel; they peaked, looked promising and kept moving in. They didn’t break, they crested but they did not break. They continued coming in until inside the Groin wall and then they went flat, no foam, no white water, nothing. At the Patch, the swells mushed up against the cliff. Ten feet in front of the ramp, the waves broke and pushed white water half way up the ramp. The four of us chit chatted for a half an hour about past days of great surf and hope for better days. We broke up, got in our cars and drove off promising to reconvene here next week.

I was determined to photograph the extreme high tide. I got several shots of water surging up the ramp and of backwash bouncing off the seawall. The Bolinas Lagoon was full, with water up to the edge of Highway 1. I took shots of the north end and shots of the abandoned dredge at the south end. Usually the entire dredge is visible, but not this morning, only the top platform peeked above the water. I pulled into the parking lot of the Stinson Beach Water District office, walked to the south edge of the wetland to take more shots. Usually the south end is grasses and mud with no standing water. Today the water was up to the border of the wetland. Ducks, pelicans and seagulls were having a field day feeding on insects and worms they normally cannot get to. At Stinson Beach, the water surged over a berm in the sand forming a small estuary with lots of debris, logs, old pilings and blocks of wood.

Jim the Stinson contractor and another short boarder were out in the uneven and bumpy surf. They both sailed down some sizeable curls. I was tempted to go out but hesitated after Jim struggled to get back out. After a few more minutes he came in. Of course he claimed it was a fun session, like all surfers do.

Was I disappointed? No. It was another beautiful Marin morning and I witnessed and photographed a natural phenomenon of the highest tide of the year. Note that the next extreme tide of 7.2 ft will occur soon, January 10, 2009.

Check out my “Hide Tide 121208” photo album at:

http://gallery.me.com/lorenlmoore1

December 1, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	4' to 5', sets 6' to Overhead
Mid tide	Slight offshore breeze
High overcast	Good session

It was my first day back in the water since our weeklong trip to Barcelona. I was anxious for some waves. I caught the tail end of one of the best swells of the year. Stormsurf predicted “a fading Dateline swell, 8.1 feet at 14 to 15 seconds with 11 to 12 foot faces.” The San Francisco buoy reported a 2-knot southeast breeze and a 9.2-foot west swell every 15 seconds. The Groin was a strong four to five feet with powerful fast breaking lines coming in. But everyone was telling me that I should have been here yesterday, twice as big with seventy guys out. I met Pete, who owns the Livewater Surf Shop in Stinson, at the overlook above the Groin. Yesterday, he had connected with some long beautiful rights on the Seadrift side of the Channel. Russ raved about the long good rights that he caught on the inside of the Patch yesterday. The Groin was too crowded so he went to the Patch and had a great time. He was heading back out to the same spot when I saw him this morning. Marty reported that he drove out to Fort Cronkhite just to look. The waves were breaking way, way out there over a hidden reef generating lines of white water from one end of the beach to the other. The waves were too big to ride. No one dared to go out.

Yesterday was an ideal day at Mavericks. On December 3rd, the Chronicle published a front-page photo of a classic thirty-foot Mavericks tunnel with some brave soul powering down the face. The Bruce Jenkins article raved about the perfect conditions, pristine weather and 20 foot swells that jumped to 40 feet over the Mavericks reef. All the well-known Mavericks riders were there. Mark Healey and Dave Wassell flew in from Hawaii and Greg Long (winner of last year’s Mavericks contest) flew up from Southern California to join the local Maverick stars: Jeff Clark, Flea Virostko, Kenny Collins, Matt Ambrose and Grant Washburn. In the afternoon the wind dropped, the tide went out and conditions became perfect. Marty emailed me two photos taken by a friend and former colleague from a boat in the Mavericks channel. Mary forwarded to me a YouTube video of incredible big drops down thirty-foot walls. It would have been the perfect day to call the Mavericks Men Who Ride Mountains contest. Per Bruce Jenkins, the contest directors were still searching for sponsors and thus were unable to hold it. To the Mavericks crew the contest was secondary, perfect conditions and beautiful waves were all that mattered to them.

This morning was beautiful, high overcast with a slight offshore breeze caused gray skies and water and a tabletop smooth surface. I had to go out. I paddled out to the peak north of the Groin wall. Creighton and another long boarder who I have seen several times at Bolinas were at the peak at the Groin. They were positioned far outside waiting for the big sets. The water had that storm surf feel, swirling currents pushing me around with a small wind swells bobbing up and down. The set waves would draw the water out and the bobbing would stop. The first wave I caught was head-high and fast. I managed to power through one section, stall for an instant and drive through another section. Good ride. A later wave was overhead but slow. I expected a big drop, but no, the water merely slid from the top, I slid under it, and the wave died on the inside. The other waves I caught were like the first one, critical and fast.

After an hour and a half I called it quits. Reflecting on my session, I caught five to six head-high fast, long rides. With luck I had connected with one of the best swells of the year. Isn’t retirement great?

November 26, 2008 Wednesday

Spain	Barcelona
4:30 pm to 5:00 pm	2' to 3' wind waves
Tide: unknown	Slight onshore breeze
Sunny and cool

Surf? In Barcelona, Spain?

There I was standing on a sandy beach near sunset watching thirty or so guys in wetsuits and on short boards going for two to three foot wind swells. Kate, my son and daughter and I spent Thanksgiving week in Barcelona, a wonderful trip. Barcelona is located in the northeast corner of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea. It’s an old city, dating back to before the Roman Empire. We had a great time wandering up and down the narrow cobblestone streets, visiting museums and seeing the architectural feats of Spain’s most famous architect, Antonio Gaudi. My son, who had been there twice before, mentioned the city had a beautiful beach.

I insisted that we check out the beach just to get a feel for the Mediterranean. Kevin guided us down a board boulevard with a wide stone sidewalk past the yacht harbor to the beach. As we got closer to the water, the old town took on the look and feel of a beach town with one outdoor restaurant after another, large apartment buildings, and tourist shops selling beach gear.

I walked out on the sand and to my surprise thirty guys were in the water, spread across several beach break peaks. The rides were short but the waves were definitely rideable.

“Dad these wind waves remind me of the Great Lakes,” Kevin exclaimed. While a grad student at the University of Wisconsin, he traveled to Sheboygan to surf in Lake Michigan.

I wondered out loud, “The Atlantic must have a similar pattern as the Pacific with north swells in winter and south swells in summer.” Kevin snapped me out of it.

“Dad, this is the Mediterranean. The Atlantic swells have no impact here.” He was right, what was I thinking?

“These waves are caused by storms in the Mediterranean, just like the storms in the mid-west generate wind swells on the Great Lakes,” he added.

We had no idea if this day was typical or exceptional. We suspect today was unusual. Barcelona must not be a surf town; I didn’t see any surf shops or board rentals places. The surf is not great, don’t take your board, but the food is excellent, the wine is reasonably priced and the atmosphere of the old city is exciting. On the flight home, as the plane lifted off and traveled over the beach, lines of swells were marching in and an offshore wind was sending spray off the tops of some nicely formed peaks. It was just another good surf day in Barcelona.

November 21, 2008 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3', sets to 4'
Mid outgoing tide	Slight offshore breeze
Bright sunshine	Mellow session

Intense or mellow, which one should it be? I chose mellow and that was the wrong decision.

The Channel and Groin had continuous head-high to overhead fast breaking powerful waves coming through. That looked intense. The Patch had smaller, longer, gentler waves rolling through way out there. That looked mellow to me. The Internet sites had some impressive numbers this morning: 11 ft swell at 15 seconds from West-Northwest (282 degrees), which is close to Maverick’s size waves. Stormsurf reported six to twelve feet waves going into Bolinas.

I just wasn’t in the mindset for intense waves. I had a lot to do, like pack for a weeklong trip to Barcelona, Spain, leaving tomorrow. Today was going to be my last day surfing for ten days.

I met Jeff coming up the ramp from the end of his session. “How was it?” I asked.

“Great. I was way out at the Channel,” he responded. “There’s a big peak breaking both left and right. It was great.”

At the overlook above the Patch, Nate, one of the owners of the Prooflab Surf Shop, came up the road, wetsuit on, a small 5’- 6” potato chip of a board under his arm and still dripping wet.

“The inside waves are bowling up real nicely,” he said. “Look at that left,” pointing at a picturesque fast peeling left just north of the Groin wall. “It was great,” and off he went.

Despite two “it was great” recommendations, I chose mellow. Mary and Matt were at the Patch and the outflow current from the lagoon was starting to impact the shape of the waves at the Channel. Those were my excuses for not choosing intense.

When I paddled out, Mary and Matt were way on the inside of the Patch just south of the rocks over sand. “Why are you here?” I asked Mary.

“No particular reason, just looking for the good peak,” she said. That indicated to me that it wasn’t very good outside. Sometimes on a good swell long well defined right waves form at this peak. I think Mary was hoping to find one of those, but it just wasn’t there. I caught one right that quickly ran out of steam and just died.

Matt and I paddled out to the far peak, which wasn’t any better. Despite the strong swell, the waves didn’t line up. They formed small random peaks across the impact zone. Most people go for the rights. I like to move outside and north of everyone else and go for the lefts. This beats the crowd and the waves are steeper due to the shallow water over the rocks. Today the lefts were there, but there just wasn’t any push in the waves. Matt went for the rights and caught several. I connected with one good one, a four-foot set wave. The swell lined up across the outside peak. I waited to let it build, took off late, which is not a problem in these gentle waves, quickly moved to the center of the board and cruised under the white water sliding down from the crest of the wave, climbed up in the curl, stalled to let it build up again and hummed through another section, cut back into the white water, let the swell build up again and cruised through one more section. I went a long way and ended up on the north edge of the Patch reef on the inside in knee high water. Two women novices were impressed; I could see it in the expressions on their faces.

After an hour I gave it up and started working my way back to the ramp. The idea was to catch a wave, go right, paddle towards the ramp, catch another wave, etc. This effort didn’t work out as planned. The first wave I caught was a good left, which moved me in the wrong direction. I paddled south. Sizeable swells were coming through, but they didn’t break until they pounded on shore. I ended up getting some great exercise paddling all the way to the ramp.

Afterwards, I ran into Ray, the Petaluma fireman. “Ray did you get called to fight the Montecito fire?” I asked. Hot dry Santana wind conditions prevailed in Southern California last week setting off several brush fires, one being in Montecito in the Santa Barbara area.

“Yes we sent one engine and one crew,” he said. “By the time we got there the fire was just smoldering. It was so fast and hot it burned two hundred houses in one day. The fire was essentially over when we got there.” I related to Ray that when I was a freshman at UCSB in 1963 there was a big fire in Montecito. My friend Greg, who has a house there, told me this year’s fire was in the exact same spot as the 1963 fire. The Santana winds funnel down this particular canyon.

A surfer never admits his session was bad, but choosing mellow was the wrong decision. However, it was a beautiful day, I had things on my mind, and I had just burned off 1000 calories.