November 16, 2009 Monday

Stinson Beach	In front of the central restrooms
9:30 am to 11:00 am	3' to 4', occasional 5'
High tide (6.2 ft at 10:00 am)	No wind
Bright sunny day	OK session

“Bolinas must be flat,” I greeted Marty this morning at Stinson Beach. I had just collected a water sample at Bay Front Park in Mill Valley and had pulled up to a parking place near the Parkside Café. On Mondays, Marty and I gather water samples for Surfrider Foundation’s water quality testing program. I take samples at Bay Front Park and Stinson Beach and then connect with Marty at Bolinas, where he takes a sample there and then drives them to the Branson School for testing. Marty is filling in this semester for a science teacher on maternity leave. On Mondays his classes are in the afternoon, thus he goes surfing at Bolinas in the morning. This morning he was waiting for me at Stinson when I arrived.

“Yes, Bolinas is flat,” he said. “The tide is too high. Mary, Hans and Doug came here. That’s them out at the Calles.” I could see three surfers out in front of the first group of houses north of the park. “I just don’t have enough time,” he continued, “or I would be out there with them.”

“Work is getting in your way,” I said rubbing it in. He is enjoying teaching again. I gathered a water sample and handed it to Marty. We sat on the concrete ledge of the sidewalk in front of the showers. It was a beautiful morning: bright sun, no wind, glassy smooth and consistent three to four-foot peaks coming through. I decided wait until they open the gate at 9:00 am to surf here. Out front looked better than the waves at the Calles and no one was out. At 9:00 am Marty took off and I moved my car into the parking lot. Other surf vehicles were already there. The young longboarder who I have seen several times at Bolinas was suiting up next to me. He often surfed with Barry, “Mr. Throwback”, the music producer from Stinson Beach. Like Barry this guy is a good surfer.

From the beach the waves looked beautiful, but in the water they were bigger and more walled than what I had thought. I entered the water north of the showers thinking there was a channel there. Once outside I saw a beautiful left wave peeling in front of the central bathrooms. I moved over there and stopped in the middle of the foam left by this classic wave. My first wave was my best ride. The waves were difficult to catch. I had paddled for and missed two in a row. This put me several yards closer to shore. I turned around to paddle back out and was greeted by a glassy four-foot wall. I stroked into it and jumped up to see a head-high emerald green line forming in front of me. I quickly swung left, positioned mid-swell, shifted my weight to my front foot, crouched down and hummed through a long, fast section. I straightened out as the wave broke on shore. It was a great ride.

And that was it. I caught several more waves but no more good ones. Due to the high tide, the waves pushed up close to shore before breaking. I had to paddle like mad to get into them, go straight for a second or two to push myself over the edge. Once into the wave, I had to turn quickly to prevent dropping to the bottom. If I dropped to the bottom the ride was over. The fast drop would push me out in front of the swell, momentum would die and the wall of water would collapse in front of me. If I could remain in the curl and not drop all of the way, I would have a great ride. But as noted above that only happened on my first wave.

At one point I was outside with Barry’s young companion. A set wave came through. “Go right,” I yelled to him, “go right.” He glided into a five-foot peak. Being goofy-foot he looked left, then swung around to the right, crouched down in the middle of his board and flew down a steep curl. He had the ability to catch the waves early while they were still flat and then position himself perfectly in the wave when the face jumped up. He caught several good ones.

After an hour and a half I gave it up and rode white water all the way to the beach. It was a beautiful morning: blue water, no clouds on the horizon, no fog on the ridge, bright sun and dazzling colors. My riding was frustrating but the conditions were glorious. I wrote this sitting at a window table of the Surfer’s Grill snack bar under the lifeguard tower. The snack bar was closed so I purchased my favorite grilled chicken sandwich from the Parkside snack bar and brought it to this protected table. The view was wonderful. At 1:00 pm there was no wind and blue-green lines continuously marched in. It was just another great Marin fall day. “Enjoy it Lorenzo,” I thought to myself, “because a storm front is coming in bringing rain, big swells and strong south winds.”