September 15, 2008 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2', sets to 3'
Mid upcoming tide	Offshore breeze, later no wind, glassy
High fog, overcast, sunny after 10 am	Fair session, good exercise

Five of us stood at the seawall watching Mr. Throwback, with no wetsuit nor booties, and another young surfer riding small waves at the Groin trying to decide whether to go out. Marty and Mary arrived first and were waiting for conditions to improve. Hans joined them. I arrived with camera ready. A good set of waves came through, “Why are you standing here?” I asked. They didn’t have a good reason. Mark the archaeologist arrived. Marty, Mary, Hans, Mark and I stood there undecided for a long time.

“If we all went out there we would create a crowd,” Mark commented. But he had come to surf so he left to suit up. The rest of us finally decided to go. We were here, the water was warm, the surface was super glassy and every five minutes a decent set would come through. As the others suited up I went up to the overlook to take some pictures. I watched several good in rights come through the far side of the Channel. I’ll go over there and spread the crowd out. I’ll head to the peak where Mr. Throwback is and then work myself south.

Once out there, I greeted him and inquired about the waves and if he had scored any surf last week.

“Yes, I went to Hawaii and caught the biggest waves of the summer,” he said. The south swell we enjoyed last week hit Hawaii also.

“Where in Hawaii did you go?”

“Oahu and Maui,” he answered.

A couple of years ago I spent a week surfing in Maui. “Where in Maui did you surf?” I asked.

“Lahaina Harbor,” he stated. “It was four to five feet.” Having surfed there, four to five foot Lahaina means long beautiful rides.

“I also surfed Ala Moana. It was ten feet,” he proudly stated. Ten foot Ala Moana is huge. Situated at the entrance of the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor in Waikiki, Ala Moana breaks in top to bottom tubes similar to Pipeline. Also localism is rampant there, the Hawaiians own it and are very protective about who surfs there. I was impressed. This hard-ass sixty year old was out there dropping into hard breaking tubes with the likes of Sonny Garcia and now here he was back into the gentle two footers of Bolinas.

I paddled further south to get on the rights. I caught a three footer that held up and went on and on. What a good ride. Now I was in the middle of the Channel, I paddled straight out and looked around. Here I was again far out at the Channel, a hundred yards from anyone else, all by myself in the middle of shark season. Oh well, I crossed my fingers. Let’s hope.

I caught another good right and noticed someone else had paddled out from Seadrift. I went over to him and asked if he had checked the waves over at Seadrift. He said it didn’t look good so he had come over to the Channel. He added how beautiful this was. He was doing a job at Seadrift, brought a board to sneak out for some waves and that he was new at surfing but loves it.

“You’ve come to the right place to learn. Gentle good waves and no fear factor,” I said. “The only concern here is sharks.”

“You know what I think about that?” He responded. “There is an interesting statistic. Since 1927 there have only been twelve shark attacks in Marin and none have been fatal. At those odds I’m willing to take a chance.”

“Yes, but each attack may not have been fatal but they certainly were gory,” I commented.

He continued, “If it wasn’t for the cold water and the threat of sharks, this place would be deeming with surfers.” He was right about that. Here we were on this beautiful morning and there were only six surfers out spread across three peaks. It was a dream.