Tag: bolinas

Surf: 6.9 ft at 14.8 s from the WNW at 290°. Incoming.

Day three of “whatever, shoulders, I’m gonna paddle”

Feeling more sore today. Opted for one side of the beach, hoping for a shorter paddle, but the slosh and the crowd was too much. Managed to get my leash wrapped around my hand trying to keep the board close after a closeout in the crowd. Oww. Upside was it worked, downside is I’ll have an awesomely black middle finger for a week. Rawr.

The other side was much more my speed and paddling to there from the first side didn’t put me any more into the red. Waves were lumpy but every now and then one really lined up. After a few of those, my shoulders were worn out. Got some lunch in Stinson and headed back over the mountains to a beautiful show of clouds over the ocean.

Oh! And a guy in the lot recognized Chris’s Stan Fujii. It used to be his. Pretty neat to find a used board’s former owner. 🙂

Surf: Windy. 2.3 ft at 10.5 s from the NW at 325°. Incoming tide.

I’m not sure that was “surfing” but it was a nice summertime drive. Winds were howling up at Bo. I got in the water just to get a little workout in. The handful of not terribly great waves I got were a total surprise. Paddle workout against the current to keep the arms in shape till the wind chills out.

Grabbed dinner at Sol Food and watched the sunset in the city.

Surf: 4.6 ft at 7.7 s from the NW at 304°. High tide. Light to med NW winds.

Unexpected Saturday detour north. I packed a bag full of beach-hangout supplies fully expecting little to no surf. To my surprise, there was a small desperado wave just nice enough to merit checking it out.

I had my hull with me (I can’t fit my log in the Westie) so it took a few waves for me to remember how to surf it. OnceI got up and running, I founds some actual wave type things! Yessss. What a workout hunting down little scraps on a little scrappy board.

There was an RC surfer out, too. I’ve never seen one in real life, but it look like it’s owner was having a blast.

Left 75° and sunny Bo to head back to the insanely foggy city. Wow. We drove over Mt Tam, then back down to Hawk Hill and it was almost zero visibility. We had white fog, blue fog, orange fog (that was confusing), rain, and wind on the way back. Fun fun.

Surf: 6.6 ft at 16.0 s from the W at 271°

Nice weather for a beach day. Tide was coming in and swallowing up the beach, but otherwise nice.

I think that might be the steepest I’ve seen Bolinas. I faceplanted left and right. Maybe it’s because I’ve been surfing the patch, maybe it’s just this swell, but yeeesh. That was some work.

I did manage to work a wave all the way to the lagoon, so it wasn’t impossible.

Ice cream after. Yum.

Surf: 5.6 ft at 17.4 s from the W at 273°

😀 YAY

Back from family holiday travels just in time for some warm sun and lovely waves up north.

It’s pretty rare to get in a beachy Saturday, but there were lots of long, fun, waist+ high waves, snacks, wine, and cookies. It’s a great “Welcome back” from the sunny coast.

I think my longboard cutback is really coming along, even if my cross stepping skills were still hibernating. Pretty stoked.

Surf: 3.0 ft at 10.8 s from the NW at 310°. Incoming tide. Sideshore wind.

I’ve neglected Bo this year. The forecast has been so small or the winds so high that I haven’t felt like making the haul.

A couple of the girls wanted to give it a shot and needed a drive, so I agreed, despite the feeling that it might be flat.

Thankfully, there was a bit of a wave at the patch that was perfect for my longboard practice (peeling, nice little wall, super low consequence but not total mush.) Plus sunshine, so much sunshine. Wow.

The big highlight of the day was actually completing a full cross step up the board (4 whole steps!) without falling on my face. The waves were a little short so I didn’t get to walk back to center before I ran out of water, but it’s a huge improvement. I’ve never been able to get the second step in without losing my balance.

I’m super stoked!

Surf: 7.9 ft at 20.0 s from WNW at 288°

With all the local spots all time epic huge and dazzling, I headed north for some less-than-epic waist high Bo waves.

Fun drive up putting the car through it’s paces, but averageish to slightly above averageish surf. When I first got there, it was punchy but small. I got in some nice long rides, swooping back between right and left trying to dodge the sections. It was fun. I was satisfied with my more-cutback-like cutbacks.

Got to see a stingray and the sun set behind the Farallones. That’s good enough for me.

Surf: 2.6 ft at 16.7 s from S at 190°. High tide. Light/moderate shifting winds.

BOOOOM. Wave after wave of the set hit the breakwall. The ramp was swamped and folks were trying to time their entrances just right. Today was one of those no-beach days where the water swallowed the coast of the town whole. With the fog it was hard to see the next wave coming, but with the long period there was a pretty good window to make it out in one piece.

Waves were typically on the soft side and with the holiday the crowd was typically on the thick side. Thankfully the long sets made it easy to find a wave to yourself here or there.

I’ve been complaining for weeks about surfing terribly. Blowing waves, flying all over the place, etc. Today I finally felt like I was surfing competently. After getting a nice long wave, I paddled back out and was met by a woman laughing to herself. She looked over at me and said “Every time you get a wave, there’s five guys who frantically paddle to the spot you were just at trying to get the next one. Then you move somewhere else and they follow along behind you.” I kind of couldn’t believe anyone was pay attention, let alone following me. Ha.

Later a guy yelled out to me: “Great wave! You’re tearing it up out here!” I was seriously blushing under my sunburn.

It felt good to hear some kind words from folks in the lineup. In the back of my mind I’m still thinking they’re cheering me on because I’m doing terribly. I mean, there were folks out there cross stepping away and all I was really doing was squeezing soft little waves into long rides. My best guess is all my smiling and hooting for other folks makes it a little easier to hoot for me. 😉

Brien and I were certainly having fun out there. He got some long ones and one great one where he came down the line nice and clean before I managed to get in his way. He zipped right around me and back down the line. I got a wave early on that I thought I might bail on because of traffic on the inside and overall meh-ness of the wave. Instead I wound up catching the wave riding on my knees. It turned out to be a silly, very fun ride dragging my hand in the face and steering while sitting nearly on my nose. I laughed the whole ride. Weeeheww.