Making a splash in 2023

New Year’s Day is low key becoming one of my favorite holidays.

It hasn’t always been so.

In my younger years when I pressured myself to try to keep up socially, New Year’s Eve meant going out late which, naturally, ate into my available time on New Year’s Day.

Later, during my journalism career, it meant working late, especially during my years in Las Vegas where New Year’s Eve is an all hands on deck in case of disaster situation.

But I’ve still managed to mix in some memorable New Year’s Days. There have been a couple of Rose Bowl games in Pasadena. Some fun backcountry ski tours on Carson Pass.

This most recent New Year’s Day I had been planning to spend in the Sierra skiing and spending time with my love.

But a series of winter storms making landfall in California at just the right moment to prevent me from making the drive meant I’d be on my own in the Bay Area.

I spent Saturday, New Year’s Eve, walking the streets of San Francisco in the rain before heading back to our apartment to make dinner and get some sleep.

And on Sunday, New Year’s Day, the storms broke and the sun came out.

Early Sunday morning I threw my wetsuit, SUP and camera gear in the truck and decided I’d go out to Bolinas. Last time we were there it was summer and we arrived late morning, the town was lovely but it was parking and driving chaos due to the number of visitors and confined streets.

When I rolled into Bolinas Sunday is was much calmer than it had been that summer day. I parked and made my way down to the beach.

Although, at the time, there wasn’t much of a beach to go to. The tide was in and covering virtually all of the beach up to the seawalls.

So I decided to walk around town while I waited for the tide to recede.

The water was receding when I returned about an hour later and I walked along the beach shooting photos. I also made the decision I was going to take a New Year’s splash into the ocean, just shorts, no wetsuit.

After stowing my extra clothes and pack on the beach I made my way into the surf.

It was cold.

But I willed myself further and further into the water. Each step numbed my legs a bit more making it easier to proceed.

Eventually, I was a little more than waist deep and the surf was high enough to crash over my shoulders.

After a couple breakers I waded back out to the beach. But by then I’d acclimated a bit to the cold water so the air and sun felt great, even though it was only about 50 degrees.

Rather than run directly back to dry off and get dressed, I decided to stay and make some more forays into the surf.

I did this for about 20-30 minutes before finally deciding it was time to pack up and go.

On the drive out I was passing Bolinas Lagoon, which is more protected than the beach, and it looked lovely and calm so I pulled over with plans to deploy the SUP.

By then it was warm enough to paddle with no wetsuit. I inflated the SUP and was ready to put in but, alas, the plan was foiled.

The tide had receded to the point that it exposed the underlying mud flat, which was too thick to walk in to get to a point deep enough to clear the fin on the bottom of the SUP.

After an initial moment of disappointment, I realized the sun was still shining, I had a great parking space shielded from the road and facing the sun with the truck blocking the breeze.

It was a perfect spot to read, listen to music and sunbathe for a couple hours. I also managed to take some more photos of the lagoon and its wildlife.

It turned out to be a sublime couple hours of peace and California sunshine, in January, no less.

By Monday morning the next round of winter storms were approaching bringing heavy cloud cover, more rain and cooler temperatures.

But I still had that brief window of surf and sun to be grateful for.