August 28, 2009 Friday

Bolinas	Channel & Groin
9:00 am to 11:00 am	Consistent 3', sets to 5'
High dropping tide (4.1 ft to 3.3 ft)	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny and warm - heat wave	Fun session

Ray the Petaluma fireman was right. On Wednesday he told me things were going to heat up and the northeast winds were coming. Today was a heat wave. Fall weather has arrived. This past month up until last Monday has been overcast, dreary and misting with onshore south winds creating lousy surf conditions. Today all of that had changed: sunshine, clear skies, heat, warm water, slight offshore breeze, a decent swell and great waves. It was a mixed northwest swell, 4 ft at 12 seconds and a south swell, 3 ft at 14 seconds.

“You know last night at 11 o’clock it was 61 degrees,” said David a Bolinas local who lives in a house above the Patch. “This morning at sunrise it was 56.” For Bolinas, that was warm.

In the ten minutes that I stood taking photos on the beach at the Groin wall I saw four fast in the tube rides. Jack the Dave Sweet team rider from the sixties was high in the curl, locked under the lip of a wave for twenty yards. Josh the Bolinas fisherman came screaming down a fast curl in his unique on his knees style leaning into it as far as possible before it exploded around him. In the above photo this skilled surfer ducks under the lip with his back to the wave and one hand on the rail. A few minutes later, Doug executed a similar maneuver going a long ways down a steep curl before the wave collapsed on him. After seeing these great rides I knew I was in for a good session.

Warm weather and good waves on a Friday resulted in a crowd. Twelve surfers were packed together at the far peak in the Channel when I paddled out. The crowd was an issued. It impacted wave selection. Hard-breaking, quality waves attracted highly skilled surfers, which also impacted wave selection. I moved around, trying for the second and third wave of the sets, keeping an eye on who was taking off and waited for my turn. I managed to catch a couple fast ones that closed out in front of me. Then it happened. A third wave of a set was the biggest one, I was in position, and the others had gone for the two previous ones. I took off late, turned left and looked down a perfect unfolding continuous wall of water. I leaned into it, climbed high in the wave, tucked under the lip of the curl and stood there while the wave went on and on until it finally closed out ten feet from the Groin pole. What a great ride.

Barry the music producer from Stinson Beach was out there. “Mr. Throwback” only wore swim trunks and a leash: no wetsuit, no gloves, no rash guard and no booties. Paddling out I watched him take off at the apex of the peak of a set wave. I went over the wave and turned to watch the back of the wall of water with Barry’s head streaking in front of the breaking part of the wave with spray arching high above the curl. He cut back, paused a second and then turned back into the curl shooting down another fast section. We hadn’t seen each other for a long time. We have the common experience of both growing up in the South Bay of Los Angels, Barry in Hermosa Beach, myself in Palos Verdes. While in high school, he moved to 22nd Street, the center of the surfing scene in Hermosa, the hangout for Dewey Weber and David Nuuhiwa. I know the place well; its landmarks, the Little Green Store and the Bottle Inn Italian Restaurant, are still there after forty years.

After an hour and a half I was tiring and decided to work my way in. For the last thirty minutes I rode the shore break. No one else was there. The surf camps were over for the summer. The set waves would line up along the entire inside, but the shape of bottom and the angle of the south swell caused them to peel continuously to the left. I stood in chest deep water until a set approached. I would jump on my board, turn and as the waves were breaking I would stroke into them, turn left, cruise under the white water into the swell, walk to the front of the board and drive the nose into the white water as the wave broke on shore. I did that ten times before giving up for the day.

The only bummer of this session was I broke a side fin when due to tired arms I dropped the tail of my board as I was wrapping the leash around the fins. I heard a sharp “crack” as it hit the sand and knew that was not good. The fall snapped the fin in two. After such a fun session this annoyance didn’t bother me. I’ll get a new one and be ready go to on Monday, this good swell might still be running then.