February 8, 2008 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	4’ but soft, no punch
High, rising tide (6 ft at 12 noon)	No wind
High fog, patchy sun	So – So session

It’s now been nine days since I have been in the water. I’m anxious to catch some waves. None of my buddies were at Bolinas this morning. The Patch was flat and there were two guys way out at the Channel. I could barely see them through the high thin fog and patchy sunlight. There was a river of incoming current flowing into the lagoon. On the Seadrift side of the current there was a right peak that look like it had possibilities. There was also a right breaking peak outside of the Groin pole. Since I was dying for waves I decided to go out.

I entered the water at the Groin. Due to the fog I didn’t see the two guys who were at the Channel. At first I thought I would go out there and join them. But I didn’t see them. My plan was to paddle straight out from the Groin pole, get pass the surf line and then verve left to the Channel.  Fifty yards out a sizable set of four-foot swells came through. Maybe I should stay here. I glanced to the north to notice another surfer ending a good ride at the peak north of the Groin. Maybe I should go for that. So I drifted over to the north and the other surfer drifted south. After my first wave, which was initially fast and powerful but died quickly, I paddled out to where the other surfer was. 

It was Mark, the cancer survivor, riding his clear green Mystic longboard. Last week I saw Mark for the first time. On a sunny morning when Marty, Mary and I were changing out of our wetsuits, Mark, who had also just gotten out of the water, greeted us with enthusiasm about the great waves and the beautiful morning. Mark has dark hair, I guess in his late thirties, stocky with a solid frame. Mary knew him and returned his greeting. He then proceeded to announce that he was so glad to be back in the water because last year he had to battle cancer, quimo and all that stuff, but survived it and was again surfing. He was obviously he elated about his situation. 

This morning we chatted about the wave conditions. I introduced myself to him. The swell had some size but no punch. Again due to the deep water and high tide, the swells would peak, break, reform and die. We were going for the rights. The rides started with some speed but soon slowed down; we would straighten out to let the swell build. With luck we would work it into the inside, way inside adjacent to the Groin wall, but most of time the momentum died before making it to the inside break. Mark and I chatted about how frustrating the rights were. With a little more force the rides would be great. 

I saw possibilities of catching some lefts. The peak was definitely favoring the rights, but I knew that the bottom forced waves to break to the left on the inside. I caught a few lefts and they proved to be faster and more powerful than the rights. I would turn into the peak, go under white water of the initial section, cut back and let the inside swell form, which broke left into the shore break. I got one really good one where I managed to get high in the curl, step to the middle of the board and then plant myself there to sail through a fast section. There was only one of these the entire session. 

As the tide came in the impact zoned moved in. Soon the peak was not breaking at all. I moved way, way inside to catch the rights breaking onshore next to the Groin wall. In my twenty years of surfing this break, I knew that during extreme high tides often a small, fast, Malibu like curl forms by the wall. I thought I saw this possibility this morning. I caught one well-formed right very close to the wall. I turned swiftly to the right, got high in the curl, which was building and building, then the wave jumped up and I saw sand below me. I bailed out, diving back into the wave as it dumped onto the beach. So much for going for the inside rights. 

That was enough for today. The shore break was now surging up against the cliff and was creating a sizable backwash. It was a small challenge to wade through the backwash to the steps at the end of the wall. My next hurdle was the three-foot shore break crashing at the base of the ramp and the seawall of the first house. I walked along the beach to the end of the seawall and re-entered the water to paddle around it to the ramp. I had to go out about thirty yards offshore to get pass these pounders. I waited outside to let a set pass and paddled like mad behind the last wave of the set to let the wave’s surge push me towards the ramp. Once between waves I kept vigorously paddling to safely reach the ramp before the next wave arrived. What an interesting way to end a So-So session.