March 2, 2012 Friday - Part 1

Bolinas	Channel
9:40 am to 10:40 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Mid dropping tide	Offshore breeze to West cross breeze
Sunny and clear	Frustrating session

Today was another cold day. The report from the San Francisco buoy at 6 am had a 10 ft swell at 13 seconds and water temperature at 48 degrees. Last Monday a cold front had moved in and rain swept over Marin from Tuesday through Thursday. Today the sun was out, thus I had to go even though the waves looked weak. I went out for an hour and only caught three waves and I froze. The first two were good ones - long, locked in the curl rides. My last wave I rode prone to avoid the surf camp beginners who took off in front of me. Apparently Marin Academy (a local private high school) had fifteen seniors in the water taking a surf lesson. The rest of the time I paddled around fighting the strong current coming out of the lagoon, jockeying for position due to the crowd of twelve surfers bunched together on the north edge of the Channel peak and going for waves and missing them.

With a break in the weather, several of the Bolinas regulars were out there - Mary, Marty, Jim the jazz guitarist, Doug, David who rides the Becker board, Jaime the starving artist cartoonist, Walt the photographer, Ray the Petaluma fireman, Mark the archaeologist, Steve the Bolinas local, Nick the former owner of the 2-Mile Surf Shop and stand-up guys Russ and Frank.

"Ray how was it out there?" Ray had just exited the water as I was going out.

"Two many idiots and not enough waves." Earlier when I took pictures at the Groin wall, Ray caught three waves in the ten minutes that I stood there. He was inside were the waves were more forgiving. "Stand up out there, the current is really strong," Ray advised me. To avoid being pushed around he stood in waist-high water patiently waiting for rideable waves.

"Ray, what was it you said?" I asked Ray after my one-hour session. Ray was sitting on the seawall at the base of the ramp sunning himself. "Too many idiots and not enough waves? You were right." The crowd of twelve had just swelled to twenty-seven when the Marin Academy surf lesson crew entered the water. That was when I left.