April 30, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Straight out from the ramp
9:30 am to 10:30 am	2’ to 3’, sets were waist high
Mid dropping tide (4.4 ft at 8:00 am)	Stiff offshore breeze
Sunny, breezy and cold	Beautiful nose riding curls

Wind! That’s what I heard when the alarm went off this morning. Lying in bed I could see the redwood trees on the ridge across from our house swaying back and forth. With all this wind the waves will be terrible. What am I thinking? Shall I kiss it off? It’s Wednesday and I’m obligated to gather water samples for Jamie. It’s important to keep Surfrider Foundation’s water testing program moving. But there is too much wind. I could email Jamie that there won’t be any samples today. I went downstairs and logged onto the computer. Per the morning NOAA buoy report the wind was NNW at 24 knots. That’s a lot of wind for 6:00 am in the morning. The swell was 9.5 ft at 8 seconds, which are merely wind waves. But the wind could be offshore. I remember the strong offshore winds on February 13 held up the waves to form perfect nose riding curls. I’ll go to have a look and to gather water samples.

From the ridge at the Pantoll ranger station I could see white caps far at sea, but when I rounded the last bend of the redwood forest I saw nothing but smooth water in the Stinson-Bolinas bay. Great, the northwest winds are offshore at Bolinas and there was plenty of white water indicating there were waves. 

At Bolinas straight out from the ramp there were five surfers in the water including Marty, Doug, and Lou the boogie boarder. Waist high perfectly shape left curls were marching in. In the above photo, Marty is cruising down a nicely shaped left wall. That’s it I’m going. 

The cold really hit me when I entered the water. April’s strong northwest winds have stirred up the water causing the super cold water from the bottom to come to the surface. For the last three weeks, the water temperature at the San Francisco buoy, the one closest to Bolinas, has been pegged at 48 degrees. Cold water combined with a cold strong offshore wind makes for a freezing surf session and instant ice cream headaches anytime one has to put their head under water. 

But the waves were great. On my first wave I connected with a great long left curl. I turned into a good fast breaking line, stepped to the center of the board to gain some speed, crouched down to shoot under the lip of the breaking curl, stepped to the nose, climbed high in the curl and as the wave as about to close out the tail block of my board came out of the water causing the board to free fall sending me flying into some very shallow water. I had several other similar rides in this session. The wind was holding up the waves creating curls that seemed to last forever. Everyone out this morning was connecting with great long left waves. 

Out in the water, Lou thanked me for mentioning him in my Marin’s Other Athletes article that was printed in the Marin IJ. He had an interesting tale about it. He didn’t see it in the paper. Someone had taped the article on the door of his Laundromat in Fairfax. In the early morning when he arrived he scanned the article in the dim light. “What is this?” he said to himself, and then he noted the mention of a boogie boarder who owned a Laundromat. He quickly unlocked the door, turned on the lights to read the article. “Who wrote this?” Then he saw my name at the top and understood its source. Lou appreciated the article. 

Due to the cold I got out after only an hour. All four of us, Marty, Doug, Lou and I, were freezing, felt great about the good waves and vowed to be out here again when the first big south swell arrives on Friday.