May 18, 2012 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
9:40 am to 11:10 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Mid upcoming tide	NW cross breeze
Sunny and warm	Fun session

"Well so are you going out?" Frank the stand-up guy asked as I came back from taking photos at the Groin.

"Yes. It looks like fun -- nice clean knee-high, old man curls. Yes I'm going."

Check out the above photo. This guy had the Groin wired. He sat way inside, away from the crowd and within ten minutes he caught five knee-high curls and walked the nose on every one of them. The forecast had predicted 7 ft NW wind swell at 9 seconds combined with a background 1.2 ft south swell at 17 seconds. Nice small curls on a sunny and warm day.

"Hank, it looks like fun out there." Hank and his wife Gail had just finished their session.

"Yes it was. A little texture on the water, but clean, nice waves."

"How was the water temperature?"

"Not bad. I would say 50 to 51 degrees." That doesn't sound real warm, but considering how cold it was Wednesday, it had warmed up a tad.

"Jeff the economy must be turning around because I haven't seen you in months." Jeff the contractor had just walked up the ramp after his session. Last year when the construction industry had tanked, Jeff was often in the water on weekdays.

"Yes, work has picked up, the waves were small and I got some good exercise." He quickly changed and headed off to a job site.

While I was suiting up, Hans drove by, saw me and pulled a U-turn to park next to me.

"What happened to your boy?"

"You mean Scott Thompson? He just flamed out."

For a brief period I was in Scott Thompson's organization at Visa before he left to join Paypal. He worked his way up the ladder to become Paypal's CEO. This past January he was hired as Yahoo's CEO to save the company. Yahoo had been slowly sinking the last few years due to the growth of Google and Facebook. Hans stages management presentations and had conducted a couple for Scott Thompson and Paypal. Last week some irate Yahoo stockholders forced Scott to resign because he had falsified a college degree on his resume.

"Hans, what an idiot he was. He didn't need that degree reference on his resume. Yahoo had hired him based on his work experience. But this whole incidence is a reflection on his character. If he lied on his resume, he could lie about other things."

"The guy was a zero. He didn't do anything and he never spoke to the troops. How does a guy like that get to the top?"

"Hans, they lie, cheat and steal."

"I think you are right." And off he drove -- You just heard the opinions of a couple of disgruntled corporate warriors, who now surf to maintain their sanity.

Marty, David who rides the Becker board and Susan who always wears sunglasses in the water were at the Channel peak when I paddled out. A few minutes later Mark the archaeologist joined us. A good set wave came through, I looked around, and no one was going for it. I quickly turned around and stroked into it as the white water was sliding down from top of the wave. I jumped up, leaned into it, drove left and climbed into the middle of the swell. The wave stood up and a well-formed wall lined up in front of me. I stepped to the middle of the board, crouched down, glided down the line, cut back into the white water and forced myself over the edge of the reforming inside curl, cut left again and cruised through another section. The wave broke ten yards in front of me, and the inside curl was coming towards me. I dropped down the face and had some speed. My mind flashed on executing a classic big kick-out to end my ride, just like I used to do as a kid. I cut sharply left, stomped on the tail-block and swung into the wave. My board popped up and came flying right at my face rail first. I quickly blocked it with my arm. Afterwards while paddling back out, I realized I was lucky; had I not blocked the board, the rail would have gone right into my nose. That was the last time I tried that maneuver.

"Where in Mexico did you go?" I asked. Susan had mentioned that she had just returned from a surf trip to Mexico.

"The East Cape and it was great. Four to seven foot waves -- a size I could handle -- warm water, glassy smooth and offshore winds. We also went to the Pacific side where there were no waves."

I knew exactly what she was talking about. The East Cape is the Sea of Cortez side of the tip of the Baja Peninsula at Los Cabos. I have been there. When a south swell is running the East Cape can be ideal. The prevailing westerly winds are offshore, the water is always warm and the south swells flow right into the Sea of Cortez forming beautiful peeling rights at several point breaks. I have no doubt that Susan had a great time.

All of us caught several good waves, and after an hour and a half a crowd of beginners on soft-top boards entered the water, the wind had picked up and a chop began to impact the shape of the waves. Time to call it a day. I moved inside, north of the beginners and connected on three good shore break curls before exiting the water.

To finish a great morning, Marty and I had a good discussion of current events over coffee and muffins sitting in the sunny patio of the Coast Café.