December 30, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:40 am	3' to 4', sets to 5', occasional overhead
Low tide	Slight onshore breeze
Fog, drizzle and cold	Good session

The waves at the Channel were good - clean fast peeling lefts. One hour into my session I connected on my best wave of the morning. The crowd was a consideration today - 30 people were in the water when I began my session and 30 people were in the water when I left. The surfers around me went for the first two waves of the set, leaving me alone and in position for a well-formed five-foot wall. I paddled hard and felt myself almost in the wave. I hung at the top looking over the edge of a vertical drop. It instantly reminded me of the videos I saw of the recent Rip Curl Pro surf contest held at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I was amazed how the pro-surfers would hang at the tops of the waves with the noses of their boards sticking out of the water and then they would quickly jump up, drop down the steep faces and lock themselves under the lips of the curls. For an instant I felt this was happening to me. I jumped up, shifted my weight forward to push over the edge and dropped vertically down the face. I thought I was going to lose it. The nose of my board dipped into the water and bounced back up. I hung on and cut left at the bottom of the wave. From the momentum the board shot back up to the top of the curl, I leaned forward and again vertically dropped down the face and shot back up the top. I quickly regained control of the board, set the rail under the peeling lip and cruised through another steep and fast section. The wave continued building on the inside. I cut back, let the swell build up, leaned into the curl, climbed back to the top, cut back down, climbed back up - and up and down I went until the wave closed out inside the Groin wall. What a great ride! I had several other fast curl rides as well as several close outs this morning. The waves were right on the edge between incredible locked in the curl rides and blasting walls.

Everyone this morning stated that the waves have been consistently good all week. A series of west swells were driving right into Bolinas. Kevin and I came out here Monday, the day after Christmas, when waves were bigger and the crowd was thicker. We caught some incredible fast curls and got blasted on several hard breaking walls.

Several of the Bolinas regulars were here this morning. Mary was at the Patch and Francine went to join her. Hank was thinking Patch; he walked all the way down there, turned around and walked all the way back to the Groin to join us. Marty and David who rides the Becker board were already out at the Channel. Martha and I arrived at the same time and walked down to the Groin to check out the waves. She saw two good rides, decided that was all she needed to see and headed back to the car to suit up. Professor Steve and his four-year-old son Johnny were suited up and about to enter the water. Johnny had received a new little kid's soft-top board for Christmas and Steve was taking him to try it out. Yes, Johnny was excited.

Paddling out I said hello to Martha, David and Hank at the north edge of the Channel and continued out to the far peak to join Paul and Dexter. Dexter was on a classic longboard - I mean a real, made in the sixties, glassed on single fin, '9 6", sun-yellowed, beat to shit longboard. He claimed it was his first time ever on a heavy old classic. Well, he did fine. The board paddled fast and allowed him to catch all the waves. He could stroke into flat waves, jump up, position himself in the waves, drop down the faces and then cruise across the middle of the swells. When exiting the water, I looked out at the waves and watched Dexter, with his back to the wave, drop down an overhead wall, cut left, climb to the middle of the swell and glide across the face for several yards before the wave exploded around him.

After half an hour, Barry the management trainer and excellent surfer paddled out. I had not seen him in months. Following his normal pattern, he stroked out to the furthest peak at the Channel and patiently sat there waiting for the good set waves. His patience paid off, he caught at least one wave of every set. I asked him if he had been getting any waves lately. He said that he made it out for every big swell this season and that he was currently on a roll of surfing ten days in a row. To him the waves had been fantastic and he was capitalizing on the good consistent surf.

Today the water was cold. After and hour and an half, I was freezing, my hands were turning numb and my leg muscles were beginning to cramp up. Time to go in. I paddled around for another ten minutes before connecting with that elusive last wave, but it was a good one - a three-foot curl that went on and on, all the way inside the Groin wall. I looked back in time to watch David come down a spectacular wave. He dropped down the face of a head-high wall and with his back to the wave David stepped to the middle of his board, climbed to mid-swell and hung-on. He passed through one steep section, shifted his weight to let the inside curl build up, crouched down again and shot through another steep section. As the wave was collapsing near shore, David grabbed the outside rail and pulled himself out over the top of the wave. What a great ride - typical of today.

As I left the water, the waves were still good, the crowd was still pegged at thirty and I was freezing. Despite the cold and the crowd, it was a great morning.