December 10, 2007 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
8:00 am to 9:00 am	Flat
High rising tide	Slight offshore breeze
Clear warm sunny morning

What a disappointment. I had such high hopes for some good waves. Last week was the biggest swell of the season. Mavericks hit 50 feet; too big for paddle-ins. I went out at Bolinas last Wednesday and it was too big: 8 to ten feet walls of water, cold, choppy, thick boomers. I decided I wasn’t having fun and got out after one wave.

So I was hopeful for this morning. Buoy report was 6 feet at 14 seconds. Weather report was favorable and Stormsurf was predicting 5 mph east winds. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw Marty’s car and Doug’s pick up truck with their boards still in the vehicles, not a good sign. They are usually in the water when I arrive.

At Kate’s suggestion I was trying something new. I had the camera out and the big lens attached when I left Mill Valley, in case I pass some good photo opportunity I would be ready. I grabbed my camera and my coffee and headed for the ramp.

The ramp was being pounded by a big high tide surge and I could not get to the wall to check out the surf. I noted that all and I mean all the sand was gone. At the base of the ramp were exposed rocks I had never seen before. I walked up to the cliff to check the Groin. That is where I shot the above photo. The shore break was pounding on the wall of the house on the left of the ramp causing a fierce backwash to ripple back out to the impact zone.

The Groin was absolutely flat. Swells were coming through but they were not breaking. Last week’s storm has removed all of the sand, thus it is deep around the Groin wall, deep enough that the swells are not breaking.

Doug and Marty who had just returned from buying coffee soon joined me. A few minutes later Dan Hoag and his son Dan Jr. arrived. All five of us were very disappointed.

“Could we being seeing the future here?” I asked of my friends. With global warming and raising seas, Bolinas could develop a perpetual high tide where the water is constantly up against the sea wall and the cliff and the Groin wall is submerged under two feet of water.

Discouraged, we decided to check out Stinson. Matt Price met us in the parking lot and Marty, Doug, Matt and I drove to Stinson.

Good call. Stinson was rideable…in fact it had some size, four feet with sets to five and six feet. We went out in front of the houses north of the park. This section is known as the Calles. Due to the high tide and lack of sand, the waves were breaking high on the beach and thus forming some excellent peaks. I got some great rides. I remember one four-foot left that formed a perfect line. As one section was feathering into a steep curl, I leaned into the wave, gained some speed, shot pass the curl, backed off a little as another section formed and I leaned into that one and again shot pass the collapsing curl. Great ride. Great session. We were out for two hours. I got out due to the cold. My hands and toes were getting numb. We agreed and congratulated ourselves for making the call to go to Stinson. We all plan to meet again on Wednesday.