March 3, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3’, sets to 4’
High dropping tide (5 ft at 9:00 am)	No wind
Warm sunny day	Good fun session

This should be a great week of surfing; the weather forecasts are predicting a period of high pressure with warm sunny days and little wind all week. The buoy report this morning was encouraging: 7.9 north swell at 14 seconds with an air temp of 51 degree and water temp of 52 degrees. 

First a quick word about water testing. Surfrider Foundation of Marin tests water at the local beaches for enterococcus, a type of bacteria caused by fecal contamination. We have testing equipment at the Branson School and biology teacher and surfer Jamie supervises a group of students to conduct the tests. Marty and I gather the water samples, and we have consistently provided samples for Bolinas and Stinson Beach this whole school year. 

At the end of January during a major storm the Mill Valley Sanitary District had two major sewage spills into Richardson’s Bay. Other sewage plants in the Bay Area have had similar accidents. The Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal have been reporting everything about the spills and all the local politicians are publicly demanding for “heads to roll” and major fines. The local sanitary officials posted “Beach Closed” signs all along Richardson’s Bay and after a week removed them claiming the water was again safe. I began collecting water samples at Bay Front Park, which is directly in front of the Mill Valley water treatment plant, to include them with the testing of samples from Bolinas and Stinson. As Jamie put it, four weeks of tests from Bay Front Part have been “off the charts.” An enterococcus index reading of 140 MPN or higher is assigned a “Red” warning meaning “Very High Bacteria Contamination”. The first test was 1760 MPN and all others have been in the 400 MPN range, meaning all of them are in the unsafe RED category. 

Marty, a scientist and long time biology teacher, warned me about the dangers of handling contaminated water. Skin rashes, which I now have on my hands, are a common symptom. He insisted verbally and in emails that I get protective gloves, rinse the samples in clean water and wash my hands with sanitary soap. Listening to the expert I took his advice. This morning was my first gathering of samples with all the protections. There I was at 7:15 am in the morning with disposable surgical gloves on, bottle of clean water to wash the samples and a small bottle of anti-bacterial soap. Samples were collected, washed and carefully stored. We’re on to something here and are now prepared to continually test this sensitive area. I also collected a water sample at Stinson Beach before heading for Bolinas. 

Mary and Andy were watching the waves from the seawall when I arrived. They were waiting for the tide to drop in hope that conditions would change. Marty, Doug and a few others were at the Patch, which was small and barely breaking. No one was at the Groin, but I kept seeing these descent right peeling walls come through, which looked very similar to the good waves I got last Friday. Mary decided to go out at the Patch, I chose to go for the rights at the Groin and Andy elected to wait some more. 

As I was suiting up, Doug came up still in his wetsuit and board in hand. “Mary said you were going to the Groin. I’ll go with you. The Patch is just too slow.” We entered the water at the Groin wall, the outgoing current was strong and flowing parallel to the beach, we paddled across the current, which pushed us to the north, reaching the shallow sandy shelf where the waves were breaking. The waves were just like last Friday’s waves but a tad smaller: right fast breaking walls in shallow water. You could go a long ways in the curl but never make them; all of them would eventually closeout. The above photo shows the edge of the current, the shallow flat shelf and a nice right peeling wave. Both Doug and I caught several fun, short and fast curls. 

Professor Steve was enjoying the waves that morning. He mentioned that he had to go out today because he was taking a trip on Wednesday. “Where are you going?” I asked. 

Steve, who doesn’t say much, answered, “I’m going to a reading in New York.” 

“Are you going to read your stuff?” 

“Yes.” 

“Are you going to Columbia?” 

“No. St. Marks to a poetry conference. It’s kind of the high point for poets. They have been having these since the 60s.” 

Later I did a quick Google search on St Marks Poetry and came up with the Wikipedia entry: The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church was founded in 1966 by the late poet and translator Paul Blackburn. The Poetry Project has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetries for over four decades. 

Obviously this is a big deal. Steve also planned to spend an extra day in New York with his artist daughter. 

After hour and a half the waves became even more unmakeable and the out flowing current had picked up speed. We watched two fishing boats return home by heading in straight for the ramp, swing right close to shore to travel in the channel that now parallels the beach. They came within feet of the Groin pole and wall. Doug and I took one more and paddled in. From the beach I saw Doug losing ground to the strong current pushing him out. The current push him north and he finally managed to make it in. We both felt good about the session, the warm weather and the great exercise. 

It was just another beautiful day on the north coast.