Dave Lorenz, Will Cramer and I have been sailing the Bodega Bay area for close to twenty years. Sailing together on a regular basis for about six years, we are just starting to realize the full potential of this place.
In the beginning, on one design Windsurfers, "rounding the rock" was something the elite did. Bodega Rock, the "shark deli", had a pretty imposing history of ship wrecks and well, sharks. If you were brave enough to go out there and skilled enough to come back you were held in awe. Looking back, those days were mild, and sunny, no swell and with a light breeze. Life was alot simpler then.
Over the years, as equipment got better and skill levels got higher, we started seeking out new challenges. There's a logical Bodega Bay progression from learning to waterstart, jibe, and chop hop in the harbor, to speed sailing in the channel, to that first offshore wind experience at the hook, to wavesailing the closed out shore break at "surfer" beach. We were content with those options for many years but the rock and its wave sailing potential always loomed in the distance. Somehow the stakes seemed higher since windsurfing came of age. The conditions we sailed in were rougher, equipment break down was not uncommon, and we were at the mercy of the wind. We were no longer sailing boats.
The wave bug really bit me a few seasons ago when I started sailing the shore break at Doran. It was chore at first to get people to join me. Conditions are not optimum. I've broken alot of stuff here. There are maybe 4 or 5 days a year when conditions get really nice. Over the years I've gotten pretty good at handling the sometimes overhead shore break. The experience has anesthetized me somewhat to big powerful waves.
Our tight little Bodega sailing area really started to open up in spring '97. I pulled up to the beach and Jim Caroll was out sailing alone. It was a typical late spring day, 20kts or so, 1-2ft beach break. I watched him take off downwind. Out to the rock, back to the coast down to Estero Americano, then out of sight, gone to who knows where. I figured he was nuts. He did eventually come back, but in my mind he had taken incredible risk. Still it made me think. We were perfectly capable of sailing far out to sea and returning. It was just a matter of balancing the risk with the reward. Later that summer I found myself sailing at Doran again with Jim Caroll and Sean Plikuhn. We had been reaching back and forth between the rock and beach. The wind was pretty solid and swell inside bay was pretty mild. Things just felt right for something a little more adventurous. Jim and I had talked about a run out to a buoy about 2 miles offshore to the southwest. He had done this before and I expressed interest. I took the initiative and slogged out through the shadow of Bodega Head and orbited just past the wind line. Jim took the bait and was right there within minutes. Sean soon followed and we were off. It was a really enlightening experience. The Sonoma coast line is incredibly rugged and beautiful and I had never seen it from that vantage point. The 10ft ocean swell was was just joy to sail in. Lots of big lazy turns.
Things pretty much snowballed from there. I started dragging my regulars, Will and Dave out there. Each time we'd spend a little more time outside, callousing over our fears.
Winter 97/98 arrived in force and we had our first close up look at what can happen on the reef southeast of the rock. El nino. Gotta love it. It brought the storms far to the south and gave us days and days of un-ending easterly winds. It made the reef accessable in a single broad reach, like an invitation. With the 20ft+ winter swell, waves would break completly over the top of the rock. It was pretty dramatic. We found a deeper section of reef further south that peaked up near critical but only broke with the largest of swells. This was our big wave training ground. The callouses got a little thicker.
Sailing the reef in a northwesterly was the next step. Things started to happen for us out there only a couple of weeks ago. What we experienced Sunday, Mar 29th, were the biggest waves any of us has ever sailed in. What can I say? I am unbelievably stoked. It was good.
We tend to worry alot about our longevity. Thats the biggest reason it has taken us so long to sail the rock. We try to get mentally prepared for anything that may happen. I think that is one of the most important things you can do. Just have a plan, and stick to it. We've got enough sailing years between the three of us that we've experienced just about every kind of equipment failure. A buddy system is a must. Three seems to be a good number for a sailing group. #1 goes down, #2 can assist, #3 can go for help. One of our biggest worries is losing a sailor. Even when everybody is sailing its a chore to keep track of who is where. A sailor who is down is invisible. When your trying get out through the break or riding a wave in your totally focused, in that little dream world, just me and my wave. Heck, that's why were there in the first place. That leaves little time to regroup and find everybody again. When Will got rinsed and lost his gear neither Dave nor I had a clue. That's scary. Even with buddies you know and trust you are on your own. We're buying radios for each of us and formulating a plan to check in on a regular basis. We keep learning.
They are here. I've had no personal ecounters with Whitey yet. The most recent significant event at Bodega Bay was in 1994. A great white reportedly made a meal out of a sea lion while a boat load of fisherman looked on (I'll fax a copy of the newspaper article). That happened early on a Tuesday morning. Dave and I happened to be sailing the Monday evening before. The place was kind of surreal that evening, the ocean like big bathtub and a light breeze powering or 6.0's. It was warm and calm and deathly quite. The Rock, usually teaming with birds and squaking sea lions was barren. Looking back we realized that they knew about the food chain and were gone for good reason. I understand that a great white will come back to the same hunting ground the same time each year and stick around for a few days before moving on. June 14th is marked on my calender. I noticed lots of small sea lions playing in the waves on Sunday. I had to look twice to make sure they weren't my buds They had no gear and were still smilling so I knew they weren't. I make it a point to check the rock for sea lions every time I sail Doran.