March 19, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Channel
9:45 am to 11:15 am	2' to 3', sets to 4', occasional 5'
High dropping tide	Offshore breeze to onshore wind
High patchy clouds and cold	Cold frustrating session

Last night predictions on the Internet indicated that there could be decent waves in the morning - 7 ft north swell at 11 seconds with a north wind at 5 knots, water temperature at 48 degrees and a 5.5 ft high tide at 10 am. I hadn't surfed since March 9th - 10 days of no waves - due to weather. Last week Marin received seven days of much needed rain, and with the rain came fierce south winds and storm surf (16 ft swells at 10 seconds). The weather guys were predicting a short period of calm (today) and the arrival of a new trough of cold air, chance of rain and more strong south winds through the weekend. Thus today was my only opportunity this week for waves.

Conditions looked good at the Channel when I arrived. Check out the above picture. One decent peak peeled in both directions, though the sets were infrequent. Nine surfers scratched for the few waves that were coming through. Just after I took this picture, three longboarders paddled out from Seadrift bringing the crowd to twelve. Someone mentioned that it was spring break for the local high schools. Bolinas regulars in the above photo are: David who rides the Becker board, Ray the Petaluma fireman, Doug, and stand up guys Frank and Russ. Mary, Francine and DB the Safeway checker were out at the Patch going for some infrequent long slow rollers. With the high tide, the Channel was the call.

Professor Steve drove up, stopped and said hello. Per Steve the swell had really dropped; it was much bigger yesterday. Doug later told me that yesterday it was "thrilling", meaning big. Frank from Tiburon, who I had not seen in months, was changing after his session and confirmed that yesterday was much bigger. Frank works during the week and surfs on weekends as I did five years ago. Since retiring I no longer surf on weekends and thus I rarely see Frank. He took today off to catch some waves and said it was ok and that yesterday was definitely better. All three of them confirmed that it was cold. The water temperature had dropped.

"Francine, I'd heard that it is cold out there." She had pulled up while I was suiting up to say hello.

"Cold, yes. After an hour and a half you freeze. But you have to go out. Have a good time." With that she waved and drove off.

The waves were frustrating. I only caught five waves in 90 minutes. My first and last waves were good long left curl rides. The rest of the time I was floundering around trying to find the right position and dealing with the crowd. Two young guys dominated the break. They were good, knew what they were doing and were always in position when the sets came through. I had to always keep an eye out for where they were and what they were doing. One had a long, no rocker paddling machine board that enable him to wait to the last moment before turning around quickly and with two to three hard strokes to glide into the waves. The other one had a strange, thick (at least four inches) super soft longboard that also paddled fast and allowed him to stroke into flat swells. This combo always caught two waves of every set and most sets only had three waves; meaning there was only one left for the rest of us.

All of this - the cold, the two dominating the waves, and the crowd - didn't faze David. He maneuvered around, inside, outside, towards the Channel and then toward the Groin to position himself for good inside waves. He caught wave after wave. Three times I looked back after he had taken off on a good steep left curl to see him way on the inside going right. He managed to work the waves until they reformed near the Groin pole into decent right curls. "Malibo rights" is what we call them. On a good high tide, a peak forms near the pole and peels right along the contour of the lagoon channel, and today David connected on several of them.

After an hour the wind shifted to the south and was blowing straight into our faces. The current began pouring out of the lagoon cutting a swath of rippling little bumps through the middle of the Channel peak. The waves began to curl over and dump in shallow water, and I was losing feeling in the toes and fingers - time to go in.

Something that occurs to all of us who surf in this cold water, at some point our fingers and toes turn numb. Besides losing feeling, the fingers lose their strength. After much effort pulled my glove off my left hand. My hand was so numb, I could not move my little finger, and I couldn't grip the key to open the car door. I had to wrap both hands around the key and rotate my upper body to the left to turn it. Then because I had no strength in my thumbs, I had to insert both thumbs into the top of my booty and push down with my arms to stretch the booty over my heel. Fortunately, the sun was shinning by now. Several times I paused and stood in the sunshine to warm up my hands. I finally did get out of my wetsuit and booties. Dry clothes and socks certainly felt good after the cold water and the struggle taking off my wetsuit.

I bet all Northern California surfers have at least one good tale about the cold, numb hands and the fight to get out of their wetsuits.