January 4, 2014 Saturday

Stinson Beach	South of the Lifeguard Tower
12 noon to 1:30 pm	3' to 4', sets to 6'
High tide (6.2 ft at 1 pm)	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Warm and sunny	Fun session

After our good session on Thursday, Kevin and I were hoping for the same today, so we returned to Stinson again at high tide and again we were not disappointed. The waves had doubled in size — a constant 3 to 4 feet with sets to 6 feet. The big ones were classic Stinson end-to-end walls, lines that stretch across the entire beach and folded over from top to bottom in one big explosion.

The big ones intimated me, but Kevin convinced me that the channel just south of the lifeguard tower was still working and that by waiting for the sets to pass we would have no problems paddling out, and he was right. By the time I suited up Kevin had been in the water for fifteen minutes (I'm slow). I stood in chest high water with my arm wrapped around the nose of my board and ducked under five waves of white water before the set let up. Then I jumped on the board and sprinted outside. I had to do this maneuver a few times today, but quickly got used to it.

"Dad, go for the in-between waves, the big ones close out," Kevin greeted me when I finally got out there.

While standing in waist high water, I watched Kevin come down a classic wave. He glided into a head-high wall, calmly set his rail in the middle of the swell, stood firm in the middle of his board and shot down a blue-green glassy wall all the way to the shore.

Seeing that and with the strategy of going for the in-between waves, I connected on a few memorable and powerful curls. My last wave was my best ride. I took off late on a clean left breaking wall, dropped down the face, climbed back up to the top of the wave, stepped to the middle of the board, hummed across an ever-forming left curl that finally collapsed on the sand and I stepped off in knee-deep water.

Again we agreed that today was another great start to the New Year.