June 16, 2011 Thursday

Bolinas	Channel & Groin
8:40 am to 10:40 am	2' to 3', sets to 4', occasional 5'
Low upcoming tide	Offshore east breeze to no wind to stiff NW breeze
Sunny, bright and warm	Great session

Paper-thin curls, lots of them, and I locked my inside rail under the lip, crouched down mid-board and shot through perfect left peeling curls. Today was Bolinas at its best: bright sun, warm weather, offshore breeze to no wind, upcoming tide, glassy smooth, consistent beautiful little waves and only three of us on it: David who rides the Becker board, a young guy on a Dewey Weber longboard and myself.

Per Stormsurf south swell #4S (meaning the fourth major south swell of the season) was going to peak today (3.6 ft at 17 seconds) and then taper off Friday and Saturday. The weather guys forecasted today as the warmest day of the week. Despite the good predictions I was concerned about the wind. I came out here last Tuesday expecting a clean south swell and warm weather only to be greeted by on-the-deck fog, a stiff onshore wind, chop, white caps and lousy waves. This morning the San Francisco buoy read NW winds (305 degrees) at 15 knots. That was a lot of wind but the direction was right, meaning offshore at Bolinas, thus I had to check it out.

David and DB the Safeway checker were suited up as I arrived and were heading to the Patch. A few minutes later, Matt finished suiting up and went to the Patch also. From the base of the ramp I could see five more surfers at the Patch. With the minus tide and the south swell the crowd sat several yards beyond the exposed outside rock. I watched Jaime the starving artist cartoonist and Dexter the Bolinas local connect on a couple of decent waves.

So the Bolinas regulars were at the Patch, but to me the waves looked better at the Groin. From the ramp I saw several nice peeling left curls come through. I walked down to the Groin with my camera in hand and ventured out on a finger of sand that extended ten yards out into the Channel. What a photographer’s dream, that put me within a few yards of the break. I didn’t recognize the three surfers out there, but all three connected on some beautiful curls in the ten minutes that I was standing there. That was one of the better rides in the above photo. Look closely and note that this guy was riding a soft-top board. He caught one fast curl after another. The other two also locked themselves into the curls of these perfectly peeling left waves. After seeing these guys connect, my decision on where to go was settled. I chose the Channel.

By the time and suited up and entered the water, these three guys had left. Only the young longboarder on the Weber board was out there. A few minutes later, David paddled over from the Patch to join us. For nearly two hours, the three of us had the break to ourselves, we shared the waves and each of us caught countless fast, well-formed, paper-thin curls. We couldn’t believe that others did not come out and join us. On wave after wave I would jump up, cut left, climb high in the curl, step to the middle of the board, lock the inside rail under the lip, crouch down and trim down a beautiful curl until the wave finally closed out in shallow water. And as the tide came up, the waves improved. After two hours I was exhausted and went in.

Walking down the beach, I looked back to see David with his back to the wave, crouched down with the lip of the wave slapping his right shoulder. I mentally fixed the images of David’s ride and these perfect waves permanently in my mind for it was truly Bolinas at its best.