Surf: 1-4ft. Blown out, closing out. Warm sun but too windy and small for most people.
Gear: 9’4

Aside from the screaming winds, it was a warm, beautiful day up in Bo. The 9’4 was back from the shop and I was more than happy to get it back in the water.

Bo was small, choppy, and being ravaged by the winds, but still catchable with the 9’4. Anything smaller, thinner, or with a steep rocker would have had a hard time picking anything off to call a ride, but the 9’4 took on anything coming in. I got a handful of long rides in.

The first few I out and out pearled the board after standing up. It took a few tries to recenter myself after being out on the 9 for a few weeks. After that it was back to business as usual. The new center fin didn’t feel much different, but all that float felt pretty good in the water.

On the way back I realized I forgot to snap a pic so the pic above is from highway 1 on the way back to the city. The California coast is one of the best places to drive/bike/hike. Every turn is another amazing view.

Surf: 2-5ft, inconsistent, windy, hard to catch.
Gear: 9’0

With the upwelling in full swing, my hands and face burned to touch the water. Oh man was it cold. Upwelling is a yearly event caused by the NW high winds. Warmer surface waters are blown into shore and are forced down by the bathymetry causing colder deep water to rise to the top to replace it. One day the water will seem a little colder than usual, the next it’s painfully cold and it stays downright icy until the winds stop. I absolutely made the right decision buying a new wetsuit when I did. I need every ounce of warmth.

For Monday’s session I’d worn my fuzzy hat and mittens to the rendezvous point. Today I’d almost wished I’d worn them in the water. After a few hours my pinkies had given up on me and refused to join the rest of my fingers in cupping my hand to paddle. The wind just added insult to injury. I have no idea how Chris goes without booties. That’s soul beyond soul right there. Brrrrrr.

Buoys and reports had suggested bigger waves, so I took the 9. As soft as these waves wound up being, the 9’4 would have been better. It’s got the float to take on anything and the weight helps with the drop on mushier waves. The 9 did hold a nice line on my last wave in. It’s fast enough to keep out ahead of the wave and as a result I managed to connect the outside wave with two inner breaks and make it all the way to shore. Yay.

Once on land there was a lovely numb footed shuffle back to the car. My hands stayed frozen for a good hour. Brrrrrr.

Surf: 2-4ft, fairly clean. A little bit inconsistent.
Gear: 9ft Stewart

My friend Chris is working on a project up in Marin and with my new flexible work schedule, picking up a dawn patrol was high on the list of great ideas. As it was also the two year mark of me learning to surf, I figured I’d give the early session a go. We met up at 6am, drove over the mountains, then surfed 7ish to 9.

The sun cut through the fog right as we got to the beach. The morning was just beautiful. Waves were small rolling mellow ones and the crowd was friendly. Folks were hooting and hollering, cheering on other surfers when they got a good ride.

I really got to work my new 9ft. I could take off in a steeper spot and got the hang of shuffling it around more fluidly. Man, I got some great long rides in. This board is good staying just in the pocket and picking up speed when needed. The board offers a lot of room to chase on the right wave.

Heading back was the hardest part. I could have stayed out all day if I didn’t have an 11am meeting. Heading up the 1 we met a parade of classic cars coming the other direction. Must have been over two dozen beautiful roadsters cruising the coast, living the dream.

Surf: 1-3ft and inconsistent. Warm water, warm sun.
Gear: My usual Stewart and a 6’3 twin-keel retro fish.

Work was slow and the sun was out so I headed up to Bolinas to meet a few friends. It was small! Teeny tiny little waves rolling in, but man was that sun wonderful.

I caught lots of mellow rides on my longboard, knee paddled around. We all got ride after ride, me on the stewart and Tom and Bonnie on their fish. After a while Tom and I switched boards. There’s a good 3ft difference between our boards, plus his fish is about a third as thick so we joked how I prob wouldn’t even be able to sit on the little thing. I kept trying to line up with the snarling tiger face on the front. Rar! Rar, I sunk the nose. Rar too far back and stalled.

But I did sit on it, and I paddled on it, and I caught a wave, and I stood up!
It was a squirrelly ride, I was all over the place, but I was up! First shortboard ride standing.

I’m pretty proud.

On the drive back through Mt Tam I crossed paths with this coyote, out enjoying the sun a little too.

SURF: 3-4ft mellow waves. Light to VERY strong offshore winds. A little choppy with the wind but mostly clean.

I drove Josh and his friend Andre up to Bolinas. The WNW and NW swells hitting the other breaks made most spots anywhere near SF pretty big and junky but Bolinas was working nicely.

The offshores were blowing so hard that more than once my board caught a good gust and flipped over. Taking off on some waves the spray was so heavy I was taking off completely blind. Luckily (or unluckily depending how you see it) most waves I caught blind rejected me. The wind would push me back so I couldn’t drop down let alone complete a bottom turn. Wow was it blowing. I had to dash to the nose a few times trying to keep the board moving with the wave. I’m very glad I had my hood and my gloves. I was roasty toasty paddling even with the wind.

Even with the crazy gusts, I did manage to get in many many fun rides. Poor Andre though, with the low tide he didn’t have whitewater to practice on. It was his first day out and we didn’t manage to get him on anything. Josh and I can survive on stoke alone, but a good wave really makes the day newbie or not.

We spent about 3 1/2-4 hours in the water. I usually put in around 2. I think this session was the longest I’ve been in the water straight since my surf class. Maui may have been longer, it’s hard to tell how long you’ve been out without the shivering, ha!

Surf: Knee to Shoulder high waves.

Went up to Bolinas with Luke and Beth. Everywhere else was blown out bigger waves and I’d been wanting to get up to Bolinas. It was a good day for it. Sunny, nice waves, pretty mellow. I got in once nice right. It switched up and went left making me realize I need to work on my cutbacks and turns so I can stay on a wave like that, but I got some good time in before kicking out.

We got locked out of the truck so I got to spend a few hours sitting in the back of the Marin sheriff’s squad car trying to keep warm. Of all the times not to have my camera!