July 9, 2009 Thursday

Bolinas	Channel
8:40 am to 10:20 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low upcoming tide (-0.5 ft at 7:30 am)	North cross wind
Sunny, blue skies, fog on the horizon	Fun session

I almost didn’t go out this morning. Internet data was “iffy” at best: 2 ft north swell at nine seconds combined with a 1.5 ft south swell and a minus low tide. When I arrived at Bolinas no surf vehicles were parked on Brighton Ave. Where was everyone? I starting thinking that I have other things to do, I could go for a run on the beach, join Kate for lunch, etc. I didn’t even bother to take my camera to check out the waves. Three guys were out at the Channel, the wind was offshore, the sky was blue and the sun was warm. A set of good right peeling three-foot waves came through. Same great shape we had Tuesday, that did it I was going. I hustled back to the car, got my camera, returned to the overlook, took a couple of quick photos, went back to the car, suited up, waxed up my board and entered the water at the Groin. Like Tuesday, I paddled to the sand island on the other side of the current coming out of the lagoon and walked my board out to the break.

The waves were smaller but the good shape was still there. After two fair right waves it was clear that today’s strategy was to wait of the larger set waves. The small waves didn’t have any punch. I sat way outside and waited patiently through the long lulls until the three to four-footers would appear. Long lulls followed by a set of six to ten good waves. Be patient son. With only three of us out there, crowd was not a problem. After an hour, the tide came up and the lefts began to break. I got one good left, waited a couple of minutes and connected on another one. Thus I moved over to the left side of the peak to catch the next good one. A sizable set approached, I let the first one go (never take the first wave of a set), the second one looked good but I saw a larger wave behind it. I went for that one, a perfectly formed four-foot left. With two stokes I was into it, dropped to the bottom, leaned into the wave, climbed to mid-swell and saw a beautiful curl forming in front of me. I stepped to the middle of the board, locked the inside rail under the lip of the wave, stepped closer to the nose and stood there frozen for what seemed a long time and just cruised across the top of a fast breaking curl. I cut back, turned into another section and again just stood there. It was a great ride.

During one of those long lulls, sitting way outside, I met Dan. I remembered him from Tuesday. He was a big athletic guy, in his forties, rode a 10-foot Jeff Devine longboard and was a good surfer. Earlier when paddling out I got a good view of him coming down a beautiful blue-green four-foot wall of water. He was relaxed and confident as he maneuvered around the white water sliding down from the top of the wave, climbed back to mid-swell and cruised for fifty yards. Dan lives in Mill Valley but this week the family had rented a house at Seadrift. For fun he plays in a band, “The Close Enoughs”. For the last few Fourths his band has played at Stinson Beach. Dan’s vacation was performing on the Fourth and renting a house on the beach for the week. He was having a great time. His nine year old was loving jumping in the water with his boogie board. Dan learned to surf in North Carolina, surfed Cape Hatteras and several other beaches I never heard of.

“Dan, I know North Carolina,” I said. “My son graduated from Duke.”

“Oh no,” he replied. “I can’t talk to you. I’m a Tar Heel.”

Dan went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He talked about surfing in Nantucket. When growing up his family would vacation on Nantucket Island, where due to how far the east the island was situated, nothing obstructed the south swells, resulting in some great waves. He also talked about surfing once a month in the winter in Massachusetts. They had to leave cars running, crunch across the snow to the water, catch a couple of waves and run back to their cars where the heaters were on high. Dan and I had a great time telling stories and sharing these fun waves at the Channel.