September 25, 2009 Friday

Bolinas	Groin
9:15 am to 10:30 am	1' to 2', sets to 3'
Mid outgoing tide	Onshore breeze (south wind)
On the deck fog	Exercise session

Definition from Lorenzo’s Dictionary: “exercise session” – the surf sucks! The only reason one ventures out is to get some exercise. It’s important to keep in shape, so when a good swell does arrive you are prepared, especially arm strength. You don’t want weak, limp arms in eight-foot waves.

At 8:00 am Mark the archaeologist, Hans and I stood on the seawall at the base of the ramp in Bolinas trying to decide if we would bother to go out. We watched four surfers at the Groin paddling for weak two-foot waves. Every once in a while a rideable three-foot wave would come through and we would get excited. Martha had already made up her mind. She was back at the car suiting up. Work had taken Mark to Bakersfield for a couple of days. He drove back last night and was anxious to get back in the water. So he decided to go out and left to suit up. Hans and I were more hesitant. We both had things to do.

“Hans let’s do it for the exercise,” I said. I was determined to exercise this morning, either surfing or jogging on the beach at Stinson. Why not go out, get in some paddling and be out there with my friends? So I decided to go and Hans chose to join me.

This morning’s buoy report had six-foot swells every ten seconds and wind from the south. At Bolinas that translated into two-foot ripples, choppy surface and an ebb flow coming out of the lagoon that knocked down the waves, not good conditions.

We all managed to catch a couple of decent waves but nothing spectacular. Mark caught the wave of the morning, a three-foot wall that produced a left curl that Mark rode all the way to the shore. Martha sat north of the pack and picked off the set waves for some decent rides. Hans had the misfortune of people dropping in on him. First I dropped in on him, it was a mistake. I thought he was going right but he didn’t. I took off late, fell and my board hit Hans’ board. Later a good set wave came through. Hans was in position and paddled for it and so did another surfer. They both caught the wave as I paddled over it. “Bonk!” their boards collided and apologies followed. Later Hans admitted that it was a good wave and what a shame the other guy took off even after he saw that Hans, who was deeper in the peak and had right-of-way, was going for it.

After an hour I caught a decent wave that took me near the shore. That’s it. I was ready to call it a day. For exercise I started paddling from the Groin to the ramp. Half way there I noticed that Martha had decided to do the same, she was about fifty yards in front of me. When I reached the ramp my arms were tired and Martha was still paddling on. Thirty minutes later, I had changed and Martha dripping wet came back to her car. She had paddled from the Groin to the Patch, which is a long, long paddle, caught a couple of waves there and paddled back to the ramp. She claimed she had a good session. Just paddling was fun, and boy she did a lot of it this morning.

“So Hans, how was it?” I asked when he got out of the water. “Was it worth it?”

“Of course it was,” he responded. “I caught a couple of good waves and it was fun out there.”

Spoken like a true surfer who would never admit that the waves sucked.