May 8, 2009 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
8:45 am to 10:45 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
Low upcoming tide	No wind
Bright, sunny and warm	So - so session

The weather had changed again: Wednesday was overcast and drizzling, yesterday the sun came out and today it was hot, heat wave conditions. A high-pressure front engulfed the entire coast of California. Hot dry Santana winds blew down the canyons of Santa Barbara touching off another horrible brush fire destroying one hundred homes. At Bolinas, the warm sunshine was a relief. The comfortably hot weather and blue-green knee-high curls were enough to entice me out into the water.

“It’s such a beautiful day,” I said to Matt when we checked out the waves from the seawall at the base of the Ramp. “We have to go.” Matt agreed. Mary and another surfer were at the Channel catching small left curls. Doug, Jim, Marty and a couple others were at Seadrift out in front of the tenth house. They were so far down the beach I could not tell if they were catching any decent rides. The lefts Mary was catching looked like fun, plus the tide was out far enough that one could walk out to the waves. With the tide coming in, Matt and I were optimistic that conditions would improve.

The waves were small, gentle and tricky to catch. They peaked at one narrow point and you had to be at that point to catch them. I had no success trying to catch shoulders, only at the apex could I obtain enough drop and speed to push into the waves, and with luck they would build up on the inside to provide a long ride. The opposite often happened also; I would drop down the peak, turn and the wave would die. After a half hour my strategy was set: sit outside to catch the peak, look for swells that stretched across the impact zone and take off late. The peak moved around but it was more or less mid-Channel. Swells that stretch across the impact zone had more energy and would tend to build up on the inside to provide long rides. Late take-offs provided the steep drops and momentum to continue in the swell while it built up on the inside. The strategy worked and I caught several waves, both lefts and rights. At first the rights were best and then a half hour later conditions changed and the lefts were better. These were gentle slow waves, the initial drops and turns had speed but I had to immediately cut back into the breaking part of the waves to stay in them. Often the waves would rebuild and I would coast down the inside mellow curls.

Several of the regulars were out today enjoying the warm weather. Mary stayed out for three hours and had a great time. Russian River Cathy was there on her ten-foot tanker catching wave after wave. Matt stayed inside and concentrated on the rights. Mark the archaeologist was right there with me at the peak. Professor Steve came out later and went for the small waves at the Groin. Walt the photographer arrived on his standup board; he stroked into one gentle swell after another. As the waves built up he would drag his paddle in the face of the swell to turn the board and then paddle while cruising along to build speed. After an hour, Doug, Marty and Jim paddled over from Seadrift to join the rest of us. Seadrift was good when they started but died as the tide came in. All three of them logged three hours in the water this morning. Last week I ripped the shoulder panel my wetsuit and was trying to convince myself that the hole wasn’t so bad. Water was pouring down the body of my suit and filling in the leg areas. After two hours I was freezing, yes the hole was bad, I have to get it fixed. With numb hands I paddled in.

Back at the cars, all of us were praising the warm weather, the beautiful ocean and the classic small waves. Wave prospects for next week don’t look good, thus we were glad we caught this morning’s modest offerings.