October 7, 2009 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid upcoming tide	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Sunny and clear	Fun session

For one hour it was perfect, all the elements came together: 2.5 ft south swell at 14 seconds, no wind, table-top smooth surface, mid-upcoming tide and a bottom at the Groin that forced all the ground swells to continuously peel to the left. A mellow crew of Bolinas regulars was there to take advantage of the good waves:

Martha on her 9’ 6” Dewey Weber,
Mark the archaeologist sitting way outside for the big one,
Matt going for the inside curls,
Hans who entered the water at 7:30 am,
Jeff from Dillon Beach giving his fiancée a surf lesson,
Scott who only surfs on Wednesdays,
Dan who was rehabilitating his knee after a recent operation,
Professor Steve on his turquoise-green short board, and
Yoshi was recovering from a cold that kept him out of the water for a week.

Jim the Stinson carpenter was on the Seadrift side of the Channel going for the rights. From I distance I could tell it was Jim from his distinctive, machine-like, knee paddling style.

All of us scored some great rides. From a distance I watched Martha trim down a head-high well-formed wall. As I was paddling out, Matt was locked into a fast inside curl and almost ran me over. Yoshi connected on three set waves near shore. With his unique style he crouched down in the middle of the board and cruised through the inside line-ups. Scott and Mark sat on the outside at the apex of the peak and picked off the biggest ones.

Everyone was surprised by the good conditions. Nobody expected this. The south swell arrived Saturday and all the Internet sites had predicted that it would be gone by today. To the contrary, the swell picked up. It was bigger today than yesterday. The north swell had dropped to one foot. The NOAA buoys reported four feet at 14 seconds. Three of the four feet were from the south. I asked Jeff how were the waves at Dillon Beach where he lives. Dillon faces north. Jeff stated than with only south swell and no north, the waves at Dillon were non-existent, merely six-inch ripples lapping on the shore. We all knew that these conditions would not last. The weather service predicted that a cold front with possible rain would arrive next Tuesday. Bay Area rain storms bring south winds and rough, choppy seas. Thus we had to take advantage of today’s good waves before they disappear.

At one point I was outside at the apex of the peak thinking that I might take a couple of rights. A four-foot set wave came through. I was positioned to take off late, but another surfer to my left was paddling for it also. At the last second I decided to go right, good choice, I dropped down a fast shoulder-high wall and traveled several yards before it closed out in front of me. Now it was not a good choice because it put me in the middle of the impact zone and that wave was the first one of a ten-wave set. I had to paddle through wave after wave until all the waves had passed. Only then could I make it back out to the peak. “I’ll not do that again,” I vowed. “No more rights.”

After an hour a south breeze began putting a texture on the surface and the incoming tide caused the waves to become mushy. Our perfect conditions deteriorated. I did manage to catch a couple of sizeable mushy walls. But I knew it was time. A set wave approached, I took off late and it broke in front of me. “This is it,” I thought. “Take it all the way in.” The wave had enough force to push me to within five feet of dry sand and I called it a day.

After changing, walking into town for a coffee and as I was about to take off, Claude arrived and asked how was it. “Great! Good south swell, but you’re too late,” I replied. Claude flew in from Detroit late last night and had slept in. He and his girl friend were on a weeklong trip delivering a car from Florida to a relative in Detroit. He got in one surf session in Florida and enjoyed seeing the country. He was ready to get wet. In an email later, he told me that after the high tide backed off the waves started firing, consistent three to four feet with an occasional five-footer. The sun came out, the wind died, the good waves marched in and only five guys were out. The next day he did it again, a repeat performance. As he put it, “god, I love Bolinas!”

So do I.