July 1, 2009 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
8:30 am to 10:45 am	Consistent 3' to 4', sets head high
High outgoing tide	South onshore breeze
Overcast, high fog, June gloom	Fun session

At 8:00 am I was taking photos of the three to four-foot waves at the Groin when I spotted Yoshi coming down the beach suited up and board in hand.

“Yoshi, Kate and I had a great meal at your place the other night,” I said. Yoshi and his wife own Umi’s Sushi on Fourth Street in San Rafael. We ate there for the first time Monday night before seeing the movie Food, Inc at the Rafael. The movie was an expose of the industrialization of America’s food. Yoshi’s restaurant is the opposite: fresh ingredients, small quantities, expertly prepared. He commented that food production is changing in Japan and that he presents the traditional Japanese dishes prepared in the time-honored manner.

“How’s business?” I asked.

“Business is like the surf,” he replied. “Some days it’s up, others it’s down. Monday was busy and yesterday was quiet. You never know.” We shook hands and he entered the water for a short session before heading back to prepare the day’s specials. That’s Yoshi in the above photo.

Hank with his big yellow board showed up. Hank is the Western Regional Director of Reitz-Carleton Hotels. I hadn’t seen him in weeks.

“Hank has the hotel business improved?” I ask.

“No. It’s still the same. It sucks,” he replies. “Rates are really down.”

“What about the low-end?” I continue. “Motel 6 must be doing well.” In retail and restaurants the low-end establishments, Wal Mart, McDonald’s etc, are growing in sales.

“I don’t think they are doing any better,” he replied. “There just aren’t customers. So they are down also.” Reitz-Carleton manages the hotels, but the properties are privately owned. Hank stated that several owners are suffering and some are selling because the need the money. Now is not the time to sell a major property, so most are holding out. Despite the recession Hank did take his yearly vacation to the Reitz-Carlton on Maui and had a great time.

Four of us sat at the peak at the Groin: Hank, Claude, Rene and myself. We were on the left side of the sandbar. Monday the rights were firing. Today, the rights were gone and the lefts were pumping. The Internet had reported a four-foot ten-second north swell combined with a three-foot fourteen-second south swell. Sizable ground swells stretched across the Channel with the sandbar forcing them to break continuously to the left. They were fast, bumpy, tricky to catch, difficult to make, and often reformed on the inside into decent fast breaking curls. The ground swells pushed a smaller swell in front of them. One had to catch the top swell, gain some momentum and drop over the edge of the front swell. Once over the edge of the front swell, I would lean into the curl, trim under the white water sliding down from the top, watch the wave reform and step to the middle of the board when the good inside curls would jump up. They were long fun rides.

Claude mentioned that the “Malibu Rights” were breaking. Often at high tide a small Malibu like right curl forms near the Groin Pole. Claude is an excellent surfer, big guy, ten-foot board and powerful arms. He powered into flat swells, stood up, swung left before the waves jumped up. I caught a side view of him gliding into well-formed four-foot wall, driving left for a long ways before the wave broke in front of him. I paddled over the wave and looked back to see him continue on and on. He was working the wave while it reformed. Near the Groin wall he swung right. I could only see his back and head, but all of sudden he accelerated to the right as he worked his way into a Malibu right. He ended up way on the inside of the Groin wall in about one foot of water five feet from shore.

Russ came out and joined us. He worked his way further north and on the inside. While paddling out he mentioned that he had connected on some good inside ones, with smooth water that allow him to get into the shoulder of the swell. Russ has a hip that troubles him thus his technique is to jump to his knees, work to the shoulder of the wave and then stand up. With these fast breaking waves jumping to his knees was difficult to do. But the inside waves often provided the time to do it. I decided to join him and caught my best ride of the morning. A big set approached, I let the first two go by and continued paddling out because I saw a bigger one outside. I was in position to stroke into a five-footer. I heard of the roar of the wave as it broke down the line. I paddled into the shoulder, swung left, saw a huge green-grey wall of water before me, climbed high in wave, crouched down, slid under the white water breaking in front of me, climbed back into the swell, shot through a second section, eased up a bit to work into a third section, continued humming across a steep face right into the shore break where I dove into the wave to avoid being pounded into the sand. What a great wave.

After that Russ and I agreed one more and call it quits, but it never happened. The ebb tide flowing out of the lagoon was knocking down the waves, and the current swept us north. We had to paddle against the current to stay in the impact zone, and the sets never came. For half an hour, we tried for and missed several smaller ones. After missing one, I was ten yards from shore and decided to just paddle in.

Again, it was just another Marin morning: beautiful scenery, fun waves and good company.