| Bolinas | Groin |
| 9:00 am to 11:00 am | 3' to 5', sets overhead |
| Low tide (3.4 ft at 9:00 am) | Slight offshore breeze |
| Sunny, warm and hazy | Good session |
Today the waves were not huge but they were powerful with lots of push in each one of them. This swell was part of the Stormsurf’s Winter Storm #1, meaning a big north swell from the Gulf of Alaska. Mark Sponsler, the guy who runs Stormsurf.com, is the weatherman for the Maverick’s big wave contest. So when he gives a Gulf swell a “storm number” that means Maverick’s size waves are coming. Storm #1 arrived late Wednesday, peaked on Thursday and was still running today: 10 ft NW swells at 15 seconds. At Bolinas this translated to 4’ to 5’ waves with sets overhead.
Sizeable crowds were at both the Patch and the Groin. Mary, Russ, Hans, Hank and Robert the Oakland fireman were at the Patch. The Patch was smaller than last Wednesday because the three-foot south swell was gone. From the overlook I watched head high waves come through the Groin that nobody could make. Guys would drop down the face and plow into white water as the waves broke in front of them. Only at the very north edge of the peak and on the inside was there a nice rideable shoulder. I decided to go for that.
I paddled from the ramp to the inside peak at the Groin. Martha and Claude were there. So was the mid-fifties guy I surfed with last Wednesday at the Patch. He was the skilled longboarder with no booties, gloves, hood or leash, and yes he was the one who emphatically told the stand-up surfer where he could stick that paddle of his. Later on Professor Steve and David the Bolinas local joined us.
My first wave was a good one. As the wave approached I could see that it had some force. I stroked into it, turned left and looked down a beautiful wall that was feathering at the top of the wave for several feet ahead of me. I dropped down the face, slid under some white water, climbed back to mid-swell and cruised for a long ways. Paddling out I watch Martha drop down a head high wall that collapsed in front of her.
An outside set approached, the mid-fifties guy and I paddled out to meet it. The first wave of the set was beginning to break and I dug hard to get over it. My companion turned and went for it. In the instant before I pushed my head and board through the top of the wave I caught a glimpse of him taking off on this five-foot wall. As he dropped down the face, he was in a deep crouch on the inside rail of the tail-block with one hand stretched out gripping the outside rail. Once through the wave I looked back to see him crouched down in the middle of his board with just his head above the breaking part of a fast peeling wave. Later I complimented him on his ride. He told me that he got barreled on that one. Knowing how good he was, I believed him.
Twenty surfers were out at the Groin and the quality of the riders was good forcing me to be selective. The waves often sectioned in front of us and as the morning progressed they became steeper. A few of them crashed top to bottom. I dropped into a head high wall, stepped to the middle of the board, positioned myself mid-swell, crouched down and hung on. For a brief two seconds I screamed down a steep perfect curl until it buried me in a sheet of white water.
To beat the crowd I kept moving north and inside thinking about connecting with the steeper and faster inside curls. David was doing the same thing. But the crowd drifted along with us. About 10:15 am I hit a lull, fewer waves and more people. I finally connected on a good three-footer that I worked into the shore break. As I turned around to paddle back out I saw a three-foot shore break wave peel left along the contour of the shore. I decided to end my session in the shore break. I paddle out a short distance, turned and caught one that was reforming. I turned left, locked the rail under the lip of the wave, shot across a fast section and dove into the wave as it broke on the sand. I repeated this two more times and decided to call it quits.
When I first got up on the seawall this morning to take some pictures, I ran into Robert the Oakland fireman as he was coming back from his session at the Patch. I hadn’t seen him for months. Just last week Doug asked about him and none of us had seen him. He said hello, mumbled something about a good session and then proudly announced that he just had a baby. Well that helped explain his absence. This past year he fell in love, got married and they had a baby girl. He introduced me to his wife and four month old daughter, who is a big girl for just four months. Robert is still a fireman, he wasn’t called to fight the big fire in Los Angeles, but others in his company did go and Robert had to cover for them. They now live in Vacaville, which is 90 minutes from Bolinas and another reason why we don’t see him any more. He and his wife were having a fun time introducing their daughter to the beach.
Sunny and warm heat-wave day, with no wind, glassy conditions and a Gulf storm swell hitting Bolinas made for a perfect Marin fall day.
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