July 14, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 11:15 am	Consistent 3’, occasional 4’
Mid upcoming tide	Offshore breeze
High overcast	Great fun waves

“No swell of interest,” reported Stormsurf on the Internet this morning. Boy were they wrong. The waves were great. 

Conditions looked bad. The 5:50 am buoy report had the swell at 2.3 feet at eleven seconds. The Stormsurf graphic for the North Bay reported 0.9 feet north swells at eight seconds and south swells at two feet every twelve seconds. But there were three favorable indicators: 

1. The dominant swell was from the south, which goes right into Bolinas,
2. Wind was four knots from the northeast, a slight offshore breeze, and
3. Warm water, 60.6 degrees, unheard of around here. 

Warm water, offshore breeze, glassy surface and small south swells meant it was worth driving out to Bolinas to take a look. What a pleasant surprise. Stormsurf had it wrong. The waves were a consistent three feet with sets to four with excellent shape, machine like glassy left peeling lines. 

There were ten people at the Groin at 8:30 am all bunched together on the Channel side of the Groin wall. By the time I entered the water the number was down to eight and half of them had moved to the Seadrift side of the Channel where there was a decent right peak. Mary, who had just returned from a trip to Bali, and Jimmy the carpenter from Stinson were there. I knew it was Jimmy by his distinctive knee paddle. Since he stayed on that side of the Channel and didn’t paddle over the Groin meant the rights were good. 

I went out at the north end of the Groin peak to separate myself from the crowd., Based on last week’s experience, the makeable lefts were north of the Groin pole. The waves broke fast. It took a couple of waves for me to locate best take-off point, which was straight out from the Groin wall. The set waves were lines of water across the entire impact zone. They would start breaking mid-Channel and continuously peel left for 200 yards finally terminating mid-beach under the brown house that is sliding out the cliff. 

My tactic was simple and effective: sit inside, be selective, take off late, jump up quickly and run to the nose. If I made the initial section I was in for a great ride. If I didn’t and the wave broke in front of me I would drive the nose into the white water and dive off the front of the board. 

I managed to make the initial section on lots of waves, thus scoring several long, fast, beautiful curls. One in particular, a four foot set wave, I saw that the shape was definitely left, it was cresting, I paddled north to get a little further down the line, I turned around and went for it as it was breaking. I could hear the thunder of the train of white water rapidly coming down the line. I stroked into it, got up quickly, ran to the middle of the board, crouched down, felt the wave breaking on my feet and managed to keep the nose of the board in the swell just ahead of the breaking curl. The wave slowed up for an instant, which allowed me to push all the way into the swell, climb to the top of the wave, step closer to the nose and to shoot down another long fast section. I was locked in the curl and heading right at two girls, beginners with soft-top boards. They froze. I saw that I could pass in front of them, it was close but I didn’t collide with them. I shot by them and kept going into another inside section, right up to the shallow water of the shore break. They gave me that “nice ride” high sign. 

After two hours I was spent. I caught a good set wave that ended right at the shore. That’s it, I got out. By this time the high overcast clouds were breaking up and warm sunshine was pouring in. It was just another great morning in Marin, warm sunshine, patchy blue skies, combined with that relaxed feeling from physical exertion and the satisfaction of a good surf session.