March 4, 2013 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 10:30 am	Consistent 3', sets to 4’
Low dropping tide (0.2 ft at 10:30 am)	Slight north offshore wind
Overcast and cold	Fun rehab session

Last Friday was a good rehab session for me, but today was better. In one hour, I caught over ten waves, stood up on all of them, and connected on four really long rides despite the wind and the cold. My new wetsuit and gloves kept me warm and toasty.

I had no expectations for waves today though the swell was still strong (10 ft at 14 seconds) but still too north to get into Bolinas. However, the little that did wrap around the point resulted in consistent lines of three to four foot waves. The tide was low and dropping, not a good sign. All the Patch rocks were exposed and seven surfers were out beyond the outside rock – including Mary, Marty, Mark the archaeologist, David who rides the Becker board, Russ the stand-up guy, Ray the retired Petaluma fireman and Creighton. I stood on shore at the Patch with camera in hand and waited … and waited. The sets were infrequent and only the sets were rideable. It was discouraging watching the crew just sitting there and I had my doubts about going out. But I had to try out the new wetsuit and gloves that I purchased yesterday and today was the last day of decent weather this week. Tomorrow a new low-pressure front would move in bringing rain and south winds. Thus I had to go out today.

After months of bearing the twenty or so small holes in my wetsuit, I finally got down to Proof Lab in Mill Valley to buy a new one. Nate and friends picked out an XCEL XLS (extra large stocky) for me to try on. I struggled but did manage to squeeze into it. The price was good so I bought it. Driving to Bolinas this morning I had my doubts about squeezing into this thing a second time, thus I bought my old one along just in case. To my surprise it went on a whole lot easier standing at my car than in the Proof Lab dressing room. Thus now I was set: new booties that I received at Christmas, and a new wetsuit and gloves purchased yesterday. I didn’t feel the cold at all this morning and since I was warm my arm strength and endurance greatly improved.

Mark commented that the waves were good, especially earlier. Mary said they were good lefts and rights beyond the outside rock, and Marty claimed he had several long rides this morning. While paddling out I watched Hank come down a nice right wall, locked in the curl he waved to me as he cruised by on his way to shore. Wow, everyone was right, the waves were better than they looked.

I paddled out ten yards beyond the outside rock to join David and Jacek the tattoo artist. Conditions were getting better and the sets more frequent. The swells would jump up just before reaching the rock and due to low tide would break with some force. Often at higher tide and deeper water the waves would look promising but wouldn’t break. Not this morning, all the waves broke near the rock. Also we could see solid lines approaching way out there and knew they wouldn’t break until they reached the rock.

My first wave was a good one. I was sitting outside and south of the rock when a four-foot wave peaked a few yards south of me, forming a good left. I decided to go for it knowing I would be heading directly for the rock. I stroked into it, jumped up, dropped left down the face, straightened out to steer around the rock, cut left again, climbed back into the swell and cruised a long ways until in died on the inside. What a good ride. I knew I was in for a good session and I wasn’t cold.

Jacek as usual had another good session. He was riding one of his “Patch boards”, long (10’ 6”), narrow with little rocker, a real paddling machine and inscribed on the deck was Vaquero de las Olas, (cowboy of the waves). He never missed a wave; he caught them all.

The waves were consistent and there was never a long wait. I caught over ten waves in one hour. That was one wave every five to six minutes. Catch a wave, paddle back out, wait a minute or two and catch another one. It was a good morning.

March 1, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:35 am to 10:40 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 4’
Low upcoming tide	Slight north cross wind
Overcast, high fog to hazy sunshine	Fun session

Today was my best session since my recovery began. I caught ten waves in one hour at the Patch and stood up on all of them. My arms and legs were stronger and my endurance was good – though I did run out of gas after an hour.

“Loren there were a few head high waves way out there,” Hank greeted me at the water’s edge. He and Mary had just finished their sessions. “Look at that inside peak. You should go there. Nobody is there and I just got a good right wave there a few minutes ago. As you are paddling out, if a good one comes along, turn and go for it.”

The tide had turned at 7 am (0.6 ft) and at 9:30 the water was still out, most of the rocks were still exposed. Ten surfers were sitting at the peaks way beyond the Patch reef. On the inside, at the spot we call Robinson’s Reef, small consistent lines were breaking over the rocks and peeling to the right along the contour of the sand beach. And yes, no one was there.

Hank was right. I paddled out to the spot that he had pointed out, aligned myself beyond and to the south of a large exposed rock on the edge of the rock pile. This rock became my marker for the morning. A set approached led by a wall of water that stretched across the impact zone that started to break over the exposed rocks and continued peeling down the line towards me. I turned and went for it. With a few determined strokes, I glided into it. The wave was forgiving. It broke next to me but left me with a just forming shoulder allowing me plenty of time to stand up. The shoulder turned into a steep inside curl and I sailed along the top of it, going a long ways before the wave ran out of energy near shore. Hank gave me a high five from the shore. That was the first of ten good waves.

I paddled back out near the rock and within a couple of minutes I was on another one. For my first three rides I was the only on at this spot. An hour later ten others surrounded me. David who rides the Becker board and Jacek the tattoo artist had drifted over from way outside to my peak. Paul who was heading in caught one good right and decided to stay with me for the next hour. Julie the Bolinas local who works for the City of Mill Valley had exited the water when I started my session. After I connected on a couple of good waves she decided to paddle back out for a few more. Martha arrived about ten o’clock and joined us at the inside peak.

Jacek caught a classic wave. A good set came in and he paddled his 9’ 0” Fresh Pineapple yellow board out to meet it. The first wave was breaking, and Jacek turned and caught the white water sliding down the face. He jumped up, glided under the breaking part of the wave and climbed back into the swell, paused a second for the wave to build up and then ran to the nose and stood there as he shot by me and continued on until the wave broke on shore.

Good waves and warm weather brought out the crowd. Several of us commented on the number of cars in the parking area and people in the water. The Bolinas regulars were there, 14 in all, let me list them: The Dawn Patrol – Doug, Ray the retired Petaluma fireman, and Creighton. The Normal Morning Crew – Mary, Marty, David, Hank, Mark the archaeologist and Jaime the starving artist cartoonist. The Gentlemen’s Hour Crew – Jacek, Matt from Santa Rosa (who hadn’t surf in the last few months), Julie, Martha and myself.

All of us had good sessions and felt great. There’s nothing like a jolt of cold water, warm sunshine, vigorous exercise, consistent fun waves and friends to cure what ails you, like: colds, depression, flus, job blues, or general funks.

Note that is Marty on a good one in the above photo and special thanks to Hank for pointing out the classic inside peak.

February 27, 2013 Wednesday

Bolinas	Patch
10:15 am to 11:20 am	2’ to 3’, frequent 4’ sets
Mid upcoming tide	Slight north cross breeze
Warm sunny day	Fun session

Yesterday Hank sent out a broadcast email stating how good the Patch was and that missing in action were Marty and Loren. What, a challenge? How dare he. Marty shot back that we would be there the next day, Wednesday, the day that Marty and I collect water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program, of course we would be there.

Hank was right; today’s conditions matched yesterday’s and the whole crew was on it, including Marty and I. Conditions were good: a new swell had arrived (8 ft at 14 seconds), again very north resulting in small lines at Bolinas that stretched across the impact zone of the Patch. The overcast disappeared around 9 o’clock, and the sun came marching out, warming up the air to 60 degrees. A good swell and warm temperatures brought the crew out.

Martha and her son Woody were there with their classic Dewey Weber longboards. Woody is a member of the Dewey Weber surf team. I hadn’t seen Woody for a couple of years and he had grown. Per Martha he is 6’ 5” – tall and lanky. After graduating from my alma mater, UCSB, Woody worked two years in Santa Barbara and had recently taken a new position with Merrill Lynch in Mill Valley. Thus we will be seeing a lot more of him at Bolinas.

Jack the Dave Sweet team rider came up the ramp. I hadn’t seen him since my operation last August. He had just returned from a trip to Florida where he did a little fishing (Jack is an avid fisherman) and a whole lot of relaxing. The weather was warm and sunny and demanded wearing of shorts and Aloha shirts. Jack had to show all of us the three-foot long crack he just put in his transparent, light green classic Dave Sweet board. He claimed he was weaving around the rocks at the Patch when he collided with a mean old nasty one. He told us not to worry because he has patched boards all of his life and would quickly fix this one.

When I went down to the seawall to take some pictures, no one was at the Channel and ten surfers were spread across several peaks at the Patch. Marty connected on a good long right wave before I could focus my camera. He rode the curl right up to the shore and exited the water. He told me he had a good session and that he scored several good lefts on the north side of the Patch. That sounded good to me.

I saw Hank catch a couple of good ones. He claimed that today was better than yesterday. Mary also stated that she had a good session way outside and to the north of the crowd. Jaime the starving artist cartoonist was just finishing his session before opening up the 2-Mile Surf Shop. Jaime said that earlier he connected on two head-high lefts. DB the Safeway checker exited the water as I was entering it. She was having a good session but had to leave to rescue Dexter’s dog, which she was baby sitting while he attended school in Santa Cruz.

“I was going in but it got better,” said Jacek the tattoo artist as I greeted him at the exposed outside rock. “The wind died and the waves cleaned up, look!” He waved his hand at an approaching four-foot wall of water, turned around and glided into a long right peeling wave.

David who rides the Becker board was with Jacek and I at the outside peak. He slowly drifted his way inside and south, a good right peak was forming there. After several good waves I began to tire and moved inside to join David.

“What happened to all those four-footers that were rolling in?” David asked after an especially long lull between sets.

“It must be the tide,” I said. Yes those good sets dropped off around 10:45, and that was when I started working my way down the beach to go in. On the inside, Rob, Mr. Malibu, paddled out and immediately started dominating the peak.

While changing after my session, Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water pulled up. She made several comments about why she was arriving at eleven o’clock. Basically she was squeezing in a brief surf session into her busy schedule. Sunday she had a good session and was hoping for the same today.

I too had a good rehab session. I caught eight waves in one hour, stood up on most of them and felt that my arms were getting stronger. “It’s going to happen,” I said to myself. “I am going to get back to my old level of surfing.”

February 25, 2013 Monday

Bolinas	Patch
9:15 am to 10:20 am	2’ to 3’, sets to 3.5’
Mid upcoming tide	Offshore north breeze
Warm sunny day	Good rehab session

Here was the Bolinas Surf Report from the 2-Mile Surf Shop, written by Jaime the starving artist cartoonist: “With the upcoming tide there is still a bump rolling through the Clam Patch as well as at the Snags. This is all thigh-to-a-very-occasional-waist high slide. Six folks on longboards over at the Clam Patch are discussing last night’s Oscars right now.”

The Oscars were last night and Argo won best picture, Daniel Day Lewis won best actor for Lincoln and Ang Lee won best director for The Life of Pi.

Marty, Mary, Hank, Jaime, David who rides the Becker board and one other were at the Patch when I took my daily photos of conditions. As stated in the 2-Mile surf report, the waves were small. At 8 o’clock the San Francisco buoy reported 8 foot swells at 14 seconds, direction 320 degrees and water temperature at 49 degrees. The direction was too far north to come into Bolinas, and we had just a small wind swell on top of a remnant of this past weekend’s south swell, resulting in weak and infrequent two to three foot peaks at the Patch.

“Hey have a good time.” Jaime drove up in his truck, rolled down the window and greeted me. He was on his way to open up the 2-Mile surf shop.

“How’s the water?” I asked.

“Cold!” Then Jaime paused and thought about it. “Let me re-phrase that. It’s BLOODY cold!” and off he drove.

Only David was at the Patch when I entered the water. Shu-Shu came out a few minutes after me. All the others had left. Jaime was first. Mary was walking up the ramp as I came down. Hank exited the water as I walked across the top of the first seawall and Marty went in a few minutes after I had paddled out to the peak. Thus David, Shu-Shu and I had the Patch to ourselves on a warm sunny morning with small, no-fear waves in freezing water.

My surf rehab was going well. In one hour I caught eight waves. My best ride was a good right curl that I rode on my knees. I locked into the wave, ducked under the lip of the curl as it pitched over my head and maneuvered the swell all the way to shore.

As usual, it was another beautiful Marin morning.

February 22, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
10:15 am to 11:20 am	2’ to 3’, occasional 4’
Mid dropping tide	Slight NW cross breeze
Warm sunny day	Fun session

Another surfer was walking several yards ahead of me as I headed for the Patch with my board in hand. My friends were out at the far peak near the outside rock. This guy was old school – a single fin longboard with a thin nose, no leash, no booties and no gloves. He paddled out to the inside right peak and immediately stroked into a wave. I didn’t even think about going out to this peak. While I was putting on my gloves, this guy caught another good one. He calmly paddled towards the peak as it jumped up over the rocks of the Patch reef, glided into the top of the wave, drifted left, pulled a huge fish-tail turn to the right, dropped down the face with his knees slightly bent and one hand in the air, cruised under the white water and climbed back into the swell. He quickly ran to the nose, wrapped five toes over the nose of the board, stepped back, switched stance (yes, right foot forward), and hung a big left turn as the wave collapsed on shore.

Yes, Rob, Mr. Malibu, was back.

I remember him from last summer when we had a string of south swells that formed a beautiful left peak north of the Groin. Rob has the Malibu style, which is the ability to hang five on a six-inch wave. Most of the time Malibu (at least 300 days of the year) is less than two feet. Due to crowds, all the good surfers learn to rip up tiny waves. As it turned out, Rob did learn to surf at Malibu and frequented all the other right point breaks along that stretch of the California coast. I hadn’t seen him since last summer; he was back and he ripped it up.

With Mr. Malibu dominating the inside peak, I decided to join the Bolinas regulars at the outer peak. Besides I was anxious to get some of the left waves that Mary and Marty were riding on the north edge of Patch reef.

“So Mary what would you write about this morning’s session?”

She thought about it briefly. “The fact that we waited for the tide to turn. That was a good move. The waves got better as the tide dropped.”

“What time did you get here?”

“Seven am.”

“But you didn’t enter the water until nine. That’s two hours. So what did you do for two hours?”

“Oh it was no problem. We sat around and talked.” High tide was 8:30 am (5.7 ft). The others who also waited were: Marty, Mark the archaeologist, Hank, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Bill from Berkeley.

I’m glad they did because I had a fun session and enjoyed chatting with them at the outside rock between sets.