July 29, 2009 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 11:10 am	2' to 3', sets to 3.5'
Mid outgoing tide (3.8 ft to 2.5 ft)	Slight cross breeze
Overcast, high fog, drizzle	Fun session

“Hey Nick, I see that business is good,” I said to Nick the surf instructor, ex-owner of the 2-Mile Surf Shop and native to Bolinas as I was driving away after a fun two hour session.

“That’s right,” he replied. “With the surf camp during the week and group sessions on the weekends I’m pretty much going seven days a week.” I saw Nick with a group of twelve little kids, all with soft-top boards, out in the white water at the Groin.

“Well summer is your time to do it,” I said.

“Hey I saw you get a great ride,” he continued. “Long and fast, all across the sandbar.”

“There were some fun waves out there this morning,” I replied.

I connected with at least ten great waves. All inside curls from just north of the Groin wall to the shore break halfway between the Groin and the Ramp.

Expectations for waves this morning were not great. The big south swell had passed and predictions on the Internet were for declining wind swells. I was considering heading for Linda Mar. North swells go right in there. The NOAA buoy report changed my mind: 2 ft north swell at 9 seconds combined with a 2 ft south swell at 14 seconds and no wind. Wave heights of 2’ to 3’ were the same at Bolinas and Linda Mar. The south was at 220 degrees, which is directly into Bolinas. My decision was easy; go for my favorite break.

Mary, Kathy the biology teacher and Yoshi were out at the Groin when I arrived. They were going for these well shaped left waves straight out from the Groin pole. The same conditions I connected with last Friday and Monday were still in affect. The sandbar that stretch out twenty yards and curved to the north forced the bigger waves to break continuous left for 50 to 60 yards. All three of them stated to me that the waves fun. Knee-high curls; just my type of waves. For Mary this was her first day back after recovering from a minor surgery. She was glad to be back in the water and had a good session. That’s Yoshi on a good one in the above photo.

I applied the same strategy I had used Monday, which was to find the edge of the sandbar, sit inside, wait for the set swells that stretched across the beach, and go for the inside curls. It worked. I tested the depth of the water to locate the edge of the sandbar. Standing in chest high water I waited for the sets. When a set approached, I would paddle out to meet the waves, let the first two pass, position for the bigger third wave, stroke into it, turn left, climb to mid-swell, step to the middle of the board and trim through the first section. I would back-off an instant to let the wave build into the shore break, lean into the curl, step to a foot from the nose and stand there until the wave collapse around me a few feet from dry sand. I repeated this maneuver at least ten times in the two hours I was out there. Conditions were ideal for me: warm water, no wind, no crowd, short lulls, short paddles to get out and fast, long, left breaking knee-high curls.

After two hours, I ran out of gas. It was a great morning.