September 2, 2008 Tuesday

Bolinas	Channel
9:30 am to 11:00 am	Consistent 2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, hot, heat wave	Fun session

Shark Talk

When I pulled up at Bolinas Mary and Marty were standing by their cars chatting; not a good sign. If there were any rideable waves they would be in the water.

“What’s happening? Don’t tell me the waves suck,” I greeted them.

“No, we’re deciding whether to go out. A shark killed a seal just off shore yesterday. Professor Steve was out for his morning exercise and told us about it,” Mary responded.

In the last two weeks there have been a few shark sightings. Park officials had closed Stinson Beach for a week. Lifeguards prevented anyone from entering the water over the busy Labor Day weekend. The three of us walked down to the Groin. Nobody was out, a slow current was coming out of the lagoon, the low tide had just turned, and the Channel and Groin had weak two-foot waves. Every few minutes some nice looking three-foot waves would come through. We were tempted to go out. We walked down to the Patch, the waves there were tiny and the rocks were exposed. We walked back to the Groin, by then two guys had entered the water.

Finally Mary said, “I’m going out. It’s a beautiful day therefore I’m going.” Marty and I decided to join her. There was a real shark threat, why would we chance it? We stepped through several rationalizations about sharks. Shark attacks on humans are rare. We’ll stick together in a group because sharks only hit people who are by themselves. We’ll stick close to shore. Sharks usually attack in deeper water. I pointed out that recent shark attacks were on short boarders, boogie boarders, divers and swimmers, situations where the entire bodies were submerged in the water. If we stay above water, on top of our long boards, we should be safe. Jonathan Kathrein was floating on his boogie board with his body submerged when he was hit at Stinson in 1998. In 2001 a shark hit Lee Fontan when he was submerged on a short board by himself on the Seadrift side of the Channel. Last year a boogie boarder was hit at Salmon Creek, and the recent attack in Solana Beach near San Diego was on an open ocean swimmer who was two hundred yards offshore. With our rationalizations firmly in place we marched off with confidence to suit up.

When I entered the water, Jimmy the Stinson carpenter and two others had paddled out to the far peak at the Channel. I decided to join them. Mary and Marty stuck to plan and went for the close in waves at the Groin.

“Did you see that? There’s something big out there. It looked like a large dorsal fin,” Jimmy shouted to me holding up his hands to note the size.

“I don’t see anything. Jim, is Stinson still closed?” I asked.

“Yes, those clowns are over reacting. They have closed the entire beach, not just the national park, but also all of Seadrift,” Jimmy complained. “Sharks rarely attack humans. Did you know a tourist from Oklahoma made the last shark sighting? The lifeguards didn’t see it. The head park ranger claims the sighting sounded credible thus he closed the entire beach.”

“As far as I’m concerned, shark attacks are as probable as golfers getting hit by lightning. It happens, but not often,” I added. “Bolinas must be officially closed also, but this is a county beach and the county doesn’t have anyone to enforce the ban.”

“Seadrift is a county beach too, but the park rangers are patrolling it also,” Jimmy ranted. “Boy I’m going to get a lot of tickets. If the sandbars start happening at Stinson I’ll be there. Why don’t they just post a warning instead of preventing people from entering the water?” Good point, I don’t know why.

Meanwhile, Jimmy and I were connecting with some fun long left waves at the Channel. Jimmy then paddled north to the next peak, and there I was at the furthest point out at the Channel all by myself, totally against our shark plan. In came another good wave, I caught it and stop worrying about sharks. A few minutes later four other guys came out. I continued picking off these clean waves and having a great time. After two hours I was exhausted and went in.

Fortunately no sharks showed up, the sky was blue with high fluffy clouds, the water was warm, the surface was like glass and the waves were fun. It was a great morning.