July 29, 2011 Friday

Pacifica	Linda Mar - out front
8:30 am to 10:00 am	3' to 4', sets overhead
Low upcoming tide	Offshore breeze to west cross breeze
High fog to bright sunshine	Good session

"You really had a good session. I saw you. You caught one great wave after another. I got photos of your last ride. Here, take a look." I turned on my camera and stepped through the last four shots that I had taken. I was talking to Hinde (hee-day) a Japanese surfer who I shared waves with this morning at Linda Mar. "You are good. You managed to hang five on at least twenty waves."

"I started learning to walk the nose a couple of years ago and now I'm practicing it for the contest."

"Contest? Are you signed up for next week's Kahuna Kupuna contest?"

"Yes, I'm in one of the youngest groups, the fifty year old group." This contest was for forty and older surfers.

"I'm in the contest too, but in an older group. I'm sixty-six years old."

"OOOOOOh," Hinde said putting his hands together and bowing out of respect for his elder. I knew I like this guy. That's Hinde on his last ride in the above photo.

A new NW swell had come in this morning and the waves were bigger and more powerful than Wednesday (July 27) when I was here last. Again south winds and my determination to practice for next week's contest compelled me to return to Linda Mar. A pronounced channel had formed just north of the main bathrooms causing all the waves at the peak out front to break to the left. Most of the waves were slow and mushy due to the depth of the channel. While paddling out through the channel after a slow flat wave, I looked down the line to see Hinde streaking down a fast breaking left with his left foot firmly planted on the nose of his board. "That's what I want," I said to myself. "How does he do it?" From then I paid attention to what he was doing and mimicked him. Hinde sat inside of the main crowd and waited for the sets, the ones that looked walled or looked like they would break to the right. Hinde knew that the deep channel caused all the waves to break to the left. Thus by taking off on the walls or the ones that were peaking north of us, he would drop into steep, left peeling curls. I did the same and managed to connect on several good waves. All this happened in the last forty-five minutes of my session. The quality of these rides turned a so-so session into a good one.

Sam, a Bolinas regular, was out there this morning riding that classic longboard that he made. He had a good session also. Sam likes to sit outside and go for the big ones. Every twenty minutes or so, a set of big overhead walls would come through. Sam would be on them, making classic elevator type drops and then hanging on, as a ton of white water would engulf him. Sam told me that Bolinas had not been good for several days. He lives in Oakland and thus has to make that critical decision as the leaves the house of which break to go to. After a long drive there's no correcting a bad decision. He told me he studies the Internet the night before and decides where to go before he goes to bed. That way, he just jumps up in the morning and heads out without any hesitation or second guessing his decision. We both agreed that he made the correct decision this morning.

After an hour and a half, my arms were feeling it, the wind had picked up, the crowd had swelled and surf camps were in session, time to call it a day. Sam and Hinde were still out there. I hurried changing, grabbed my camera and managed to snap some good shots of both of them. Again as I turned onto the Great Highway near Sloat Ave on my way home, overcast, wind and chop greeted me. I gloated with the satisfaction of having made the right decision that resulted in a good surf session at sunny Linda Mar.