August 28, 2008 Thursday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	0' to 2', sets to 3'
High, in-coming tide	Calm, no wind, glassy
Heat wave, sunny and hot	Waste of time session

“Tide’s too high, the water’s too deep and the swell is too small.”

That’s my tag line for describing this morning’s session. The day was beautiful, clear and sunny with warm water but no waves. All the elements were there except swell. Stormsurf had predicted a local wind swell, five feet at nine seconds. This morning’s buoy report stated the swell was 5.6 feet at eight seconds from the northwest. Water temperature was 57.7 degrees at the buoy, which is several miles out to sea. The water at the Channel was much warmer due to shallow water in the lagoon heating up in the hot sun and pouring out at low tide.

When I pulled up this morning Marty, Mary and Doug were already in the water. Since it was so warm (the Bay Area was experiencing another heat wave), I had to go out. The waves were small and weak; two-foot ripples with an occasional three-footer. Once in the wave, the momentum died and you were left wobbling back and forth on a stationary board.

After a half hour, Marty, Mary and Doug went in and Mark the archaeologist came out. We kept moving around to find the best take off point. A set of beautiful waves came through the Channel, picturesque glassy peaks peeling in both directions. We paddled over there and the waves disappeared. From the Channel we watched a set of picturesque waves break at the Groin, so we paddled back there. I kept studying the white water but it moved around also. The most consistent spot seemed to be straight out from the Groin wall. There was a sandbar there. I tested for depth by standing up in the water. It was chest deep a 100 yards out from the wall, but move twenty feet north or south and the depth was overhead. I waded around testing for the edge of the bar. Mark and I positioned ourselves at the outer edge. Sets would hit the sandbar, jump up and break. We managed to catch a few decent take offs, but once up, the waves moved into deeper water and died. Short take offs into dying curls. After a half hour I caught one that took me close to the Groin wall, that was it, I gave up. For exercise I paddled from the Groin to the Ramp.

As every surfer states when the waves are lousy, “it was great to get wet.” Translation: the surf sucked.