June 25, 2012 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets 4'
Low tide (0.3 ft at 9:30 am)	NW cross breeze
Patchy sun, clouds on the ridge	Fun session

"You got some good rides. I saw them." As I came down the ramp with my board in hand, I met the girl in the above photo. She was at the peak north of the Groin. I watched her wait for a three-foot wall, stroke into it at the last second, jump up quickly and trim across the peak just ahead of the breaking curl. She cutback, coasted into the reforming wave and hummed across the shore break curl. That was enough to convince me to head for the Groin.

"Yes the waves were fun, but you have to wait for the sets. Be patient," she advised.

"I'm patient."

You know, she was wrong. For an hour and a half of my session, the waves were consistent; three to four-foot waves rolled in every three minutes. Catch a wave, work it all the way to the shore break, paddled back out (a long paddle), and another set would be coming in. The Internet sites reported mediocre predictions -- 4 ft combined swell at 9 seconds, low tide at 9:30 am and WNW light winds. Stormsurf.com had the swell at 2 ft NW at 9 seconds combined with a 2 ft south swell at 14 seconds.

When I arrived, the parking area was empty. Russ the stand-up guy, who exited the water while I was checking out the waves, said it was better at the Channel two hours ago. Jaime the starving artist cartoonist was in the water at 5:30 am when Russ arrived. Jaime connected on several exceptional lefts. Mary was at the Patch going for the good inside rights.

The good conditions that Jacek the tattoo artist and I hit on last Wednesday were still there, but today the waves were bigger. The current coming out of the lagoon still made a 90-degree turn at the Groin pole and had cut deep trough parallel to the shore with the waves still setting up on the other side. Long south swell lines peaked at the Groin pole and peeled north for a hundred yards ending up collapsing on the shore in front of the retaining wall of the house on the south side of the ramp.

When I paddled out, two other surfers were in the water, one fifty yards south at the Channel and the other at the peak north of the Groin. After a few minutes, they both exited the water. For an hour I had the waves to myself. What ideal conditions -- three to four-foot sets coming in every three minutes, good waves that broke rapidly and then reformed into fast shore break curls, sunshine breaking through the clouds, light winds and warm water.

After a couple of waves I got the hang of it. Being the only one out there, I had my pick of the waves of every set. I learned quickly to be patient because the biggest waves were usually the third or fourth ones in the set. I had to grit my teeth and fight temptation to let the first two waves of go by knowing that the third one would be better, and I was right. As I did last Wednesday I applied Jacek's tactic to wait for the peak to crest, paddle slowly to get the board moving and then dig hard with two to three power strokes to get into the wave early. On my best wave, I was up early, trimming across the top of the curl, stalling and then dropping over the ledge of the next section of a reforming wave. I cruised along on this one all the way to the shore when the wave finally sucked out in six inches of water.

At the hour mark, Jacek paddled out on a longboard, he waved and then stroked into a wave.

"One hundred percent A-OK," he shouted to me giving the thumbs up when he paddled back out. Jacek was in constant motion - catch a wave, ride it all the way to shore, paddle back out, turn around and do it again. I too was constantly moving, except I had to rest a couple of minutes between waves. It was a fun session.

Earlier Russ had raved about how good last Friday (June 22nd) was. On Friday, Kate and I went on an outing taking a long drive through Samuel P. Taylor Park, took in Surfrider's Photo exhibition at the Stinson Beach Library and then had lunch at the Pelican Inn in Muir Beach. The day was filled with fog, drizzle, light rain and wind. What timing, our outing was on a lousy surf day. But apparently I was wrong. Russ went on and on about how good the surf was Friday. Mary too raved about Friday. She had just returned from three weeks in Bali and was determined to surf. Thus despite the fog and rain she headed out to Bolinas and was surprised that the conditions were ideal -- the high Bolinas ridge blocked the wind resulting in a surface of glass, and new south swell had arrived producing long rides in both directions at the Patch.