May 31, 2013 Friday

Bolinas	North of Groin
9:30 am to 10:40 am	1’ to 2’, sets to 2.5’
Mid dropping tide	No wind
Bright sunny heat wave day	Exercise session

That’s Rob, Mr. Malibu, walking the nose on a thigh high set wave in the above photo. Yes, it was flat today. Mark the archaeologist greeted me at the base of the ramp. He was checking out the waves from the seawall. He was still there ten minutes later after I took a few pictures of Rob at the small, fast peeling left peak north of the Groin. Mark decided against going out and drove off while I was suiting up. So why did I go out? It was a beautiful beach day – warm bright sun, blue sky and no wind. Jacek was already out at the Channel and Rob was entering the water when I arrived. Two of the best of the Bolinas crew were out there, so there must be some waves, plus I hadn’t surfed since last Friday. Monday was Memorial Day (being retired, I avoid holidays) and Wednesday was smaller than today, and I was anxious for some waves.

“Loren, Drew was just checking out the waves and I wonder what he is going to put in his morning surf report. It’s tiny.” Frank the stand-up guy greeted me as I got out of the car. Drew is the owner of the 2-Mile Surf Shop and he or whoever opens the shop writes up a brief description of conditions and posts them on the shop’s blog. Their report always encourages people to come out and enjoy the beach. Here’s what he did report -

Sunny skies with light valley fog on the drive out and a morning temp of 54F.  No wind and a high-pressure system is over the area through the weekend.  Inland temps expected into the 90s.  Come out to the beach to cool off and take a dip.  

Lefts working in the knee high size both at the Groin and in the Channel.  Not too much going on here but just enough to get a longboard moving.  Possibly something going on over at Seadrift where the rights may be working in the knee high range as well. 

I joined Rob and tried for the small lefts. As you can see in the above photo, Rob has the ability to hang five on small waves. For me, by the time I stood up the ride was over. I rode most of them lying down so I would not waste any previous moments by standing up. Once in the wave I would sharply turn my board with my hands, push my body forward to put some weigh on the nose and hang on until the wave collapsed over me. After a few minutes Rob decided to go for exercise and took off paddling towards the Patch. So I had the peak to myself. For an hour I bellied down numerous small ones and then called it a day.

We surfers would never admit that we wasted our time. It was of course another beautiful Marin morning.