May 5, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 10:30 am	1.5' to 2.5'
Low dropping tide	Stiff north cross wind
Sunny and clear	Exercise session

Professor Steve drove by in his ancient, dirt crushed Volvo as I was suiting up to go out. He saw me, stopped, backed up, rolled down his window and yelled,

“Are you crazy! It’s flat out there.”

“Exercise, pure exercise. I haven’t been out in a week and a half and I’m going to get some exercise. I’m following your example. I will enter the water at the base of the ramp and paddle to the Groin and back.”

“At lease you will feel much better after the exercise,” he grinned, waved and drove off.

Conditions were not good: 7 ft NW swell at 9 seconds, 25 knot NW wind, gusts to 29 knots and 48.7 degree water temperature with a wind chill factor of 42 degrees. Everyone talked about the south swell that all the Internet sites were predicting, but we hadn’t seen it.

“Why did I go out?” I was sitting in the water freezing. “Why am I here?” It’s Wednesday, the day Marty and I collect water samples for the Surfrider Foundation water testing program that brought me to the beach. I had not been in the water for ten days, since a week ago Monday. Last Wednesday conditions were terrible and I didn’t bother going out. Friday the waves were barely breaking and a cold NW wind ripped through my sweatshirt. Again I didn’t bother going out. Monday I came here with high hopes, the big winds had stopped and the sun had returned. But the waves were non-existent, completely flat with an extreme low tide. I went for a jog at Stinson instead. So today I was determined to go out.

Besides my friends were already in the water and it was another beautiful Marin morning. Mary, Marty and David who rides the Becker board were at the Groin scratching for small two-foot walls. Frank and Andy the standup guys were barely visible. They were halfway to Stinson Beach just paddling and not going for any waves. A half-hour later they paddled back to join us at the Groin.

“Mary, why did you come out today?” I asked as she paddled by. She thought about it a second,

“Because I didn’t go out on Monday. I went for a walk at Stinson instead of going out. I wasn’t going to drive out here a second time without going out.”

After our session I queried Marty about why he had gone out. “I hoped conditions would get better. Maybe the south swell would arrive. Last week I had three good sessions before it went flat. I hoped that it would have picked up for today.”

The big winds of last week had stirred up the ocean and had brought the freezing water to the surface. This happens every spring when the NW winds of arrive. The coldest water is always in April and May. 48 to 49 degrees is cold, instant ice cream headaches every time you put your head underwater. Walking out into the cold water reminded me that it’s time to purchase a new wetsuit. The cold seeps in through every little pinhole in my suit and booties. With my third step into the surf, a stream of ice water grasped my ankle, time for new booties also. Three steps further, ice water wrapped around my right knee. I didn’t realize I had a hole in the knee. There was only one thing to do and that was to climb onto my board and stay as much as possible out of the water.

We didn’t last long with the cold water, strong winds and no waves. After an hour we exited the water, even David who always stays out longer than the rest of us.

“It’s too cold. I had to get out.”

Despite all of this we were glad we went out and were hopeful conditions would improve when the predicted south swell hits its full strength on Friday.