January 9, 2008 Wednesday

Bolinas	Ramp
8:00 am	2’ to 3’
Incoming high tide	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny with high overcast and cold	Again, tide too high, didn’t go out

It was another disappointing morning. As I pulled up on Brighton Ave in Bolinas there were only two cars and I didn’t recognize either one. The surf must be non-existent because of the lack of surf vehicles and none of my surf buddies are here. Again the tide is too high; the Patch is not even breaking, small one-foot waves are breaking on the sand in front of the Groin pole and there is a huge backwash from the waves bouncing off the seawall.

As I went to look, I met professor Steve coming up the ramp. He had just completed his early morning paddle from the ramp to the Groin wall and back. I inquired about waves. He said he saw some waves on the far side of the channel at Seadrift. But at the Groin the incoming current was strong, there were no waves, the backwash was fierce and the water is extremely cold. He mentioned that from the water he could see that there was a lot of damage to the house at the base of the ramp. The wind from last week’s storm had blown off several shingles from the front of the house (all exterior walls are covered with shingles); tarpaper and bare drywall were exposed. Also portions of the railings to the decks and the fence to the backyard had blown over.

I took this opportunity to formally introduce myself. We knew each other first names but nothing more. He is a professor of English at Mills College, lives on the Mesa in Bolinas and drives a ratty, old blue-green Volvo station wagon. In our brief conversation he mentioned that he has a daughter who is 32, college graduate and now in the middle of the artist scene in New York. Steve is about my age (early 60s), thin, wirery, blond hair and in great shape. I mentioned that yesterday’s Chronicle had an article stating that Bolinas, except the downtown area, was still without power. Steve was on his sixth day without power, no heat and no hot water. He has an electric water heater and survives due to a good wood burning stove set in his fireplace. He lamented that no heat or hot water was getting old. I wished him luck and we moved on. (Note –the power returned that afternoon).

I gathered water samples from Bolinas and Stinson, drove to Branson to drop them off and then headed home.

A week later I searched for Steve on Google, which got me to the faculty directory at Mills College. Here’s what I found:

Professor of English

BA, MA and PhD from UC Berkeley. Been at Mills since
1984.

Currently teaching: English Romantic Poetry, Modern
American Poetry and Thesis for MFA Degree.

Professional interests: Creative writing, modern
American poetry, Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, English romantic poetry,
contemporary poetry and poetics.

And he is a dedicated surfer!