April 28, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2’, sets 2 ½‘
Mid dropping tide (0.2 ft at 12 noon)	Steady onshore breeze
Sunny and warm	Fun session

Knee high curls again. In the above photo Mary lines up a swell, catches it and gets a descent ride. What started out to be disappointing conditions turned out to be a fun session. This morning’s buoy report had west swells at 6.2 ft at 11 seconds, 1.2 ft south swells at 12 seconds and NNW winds at 15.5 knots, not exactly stellar conditions. 

When I arrived at Bolinas, Mary was already in the water, Matt was suiting up, and few moments later Robert the Larkspur carpenter arrived. I watched Mary catch a few waves from the overlook and was disappointed; small mushy waves again. Also the wind was a surprise, it was onshore. What happened to the strong NNW winds in the buoy report? Should I go out or kiss it off? I have a lot of other things to do. I’m at the beach, my friends are going out, I haven’t surfed for a week and it’s warm and sunny, thus I decided to do it. 

Mary and Matt were at the peak south of the ramp when I entered the water. I went straight out hoping to connect with great lefts I rode here last Monday. There was a small ground swell running resulting in two foot walls that lined up across the Bolinas beach. The first few waves I caught closed out. I moved further north. The last couple weeks I lined up at the north end of the seawall to catch the good lefts. I tried that again and connected. The shape of the bottom forces these walls to peel to the left. I got one good small left curl and then another one and another. I managed to get up quickly, turn sharply to left, step to the middle of the board to hum through the first section, let the swell build and then step to the nose as the wave closed out in the shore break. I did this nine times this morning. Keep in mind that I do have a loose definition of a “nose ride”. Anywhere beyond the midpoint of the board is a nose ride for me, but all of them were long in the curl rides. 

When Robert paddled out he immediately turned and stroked into a good left curl. Later I saw Matt on a good left kneeling on one knee with his back to the wave and going on and on until the wave collapsed on shore. After a while all four of us were at the north end of the wall connecting on these small clean left waves. Mary and Robert kept eyeing the Patch. Every ten minutes or so an appealing set of waves would be breaking beyond the outside rock. Around 10:30 am they began the long paddle to the Patch to take advantage of these waves. I had to take the water samples to Branson thus after another long left curl that put be in ankle deep water at the shore I decided that was it for me. 

The warm sunshine felt good when getting out of my wetsuit. After gathering a water sample, Matt came in and a few minutes later Mary and Robert returned from their journey to the Patch. They claimed it was great, but I didn’t believe them. A surfer never admits that a long paddle to get to some distance break was not worth it. All four of us agreed that it was a beautiful morning and a fun session, and we were all looking forward to the reported arrival of the first big south swell of the season that is supposed to arrive late Thursday and last through the weekend.