February 6, 2008 Wednesday

 

Stinson Beach	In front of main bathrooms
9:30 am	Three to four feet, walled, no shape
High tide (6.3 ft at 10:00 am)	Stiff on-shore breeze
Patchy sun, overcast and cold	Didn’t go out

 It’s been a week since I have been in the water thus I was hopeful for some waves this morning. Surf conditions as reported on the Internet looked okay: 

·      5.5 ft north swell at 12 seconds,

·      1.1 ft south swell at 14 seconds,

·      NNW wind at 13.6 knots,

·      Incoming tide, 6.3 ft at 10:30 am,

·      Air 50.4 degrees,

·      Water 51.8 degrees, and

·      Wind chill at 45.0 degrees.

Cold morning, descent swell, up coming tide and the wind blowing in the correct direction for Bolinas. I was hopeful.

Because of the six-foot high tide I decided to check out Stinson first. As I was walking across the parking lot to the beach, a white pick-up truck was driving out. The truck stopped and out jumped Doug wearing his wetsuit that was dripping wet. He told me he had just gotten out of the water. He had ridden about four waves and they were all slow and mushy. He was on his way to check out Bolinas.

“Loren, are you going out? If you go out I will go out too,” Doug stated.

“No, I want to look at Bolinas first,” I responded. I did look at Stinson before heading for Bolinas. Surf didn’t look good. It was blown out and mushy. Bolinas didn’t look any better: blown out, mushy and smaller. 

At Bolinas Professor Steve arrived for his morning exercise. “Steve, wait, I have a present for you,” I said. I rushed back to my car to retrieve the photo I had for him. From my trip to Palos Verdes I had pictures of Dean and Allison enlarged for my mother. At the same time I enlarged the photo I had of Professor Steve paddling towards the Groin in the early morning. The above photo is the one handed to Steve; I took it from the bluff overlooking the Groin on an absolutely flat day. He was surprised and very appreciative.

“Too bad I’m not of some monster wave.” 

“Steve, it was flat that morning,” I said. 

The surf wasn’t happening at Bolinas this morning. Doug decided to call it a day. I took a water sample and headed back to Stinson. Maybe I’ll go out. However, when I returned and looked at it again, the conditions weren’t inviting. Windy, blown-out, choppy, mushy and cold, thus I decided to kiss it off. I gathered a water sample, drove to Branson and went home discouraged.