November 2, 2009 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:15 am to 11:15 am	4' to 5', sets 6' to overhead
High tide (6.2 ft at 9:45 am)	Slight onshore breeze to no wind
Bright sunny day	Good session

Last night the NOAA weather radio reported 9 ft at 20 second swells and this morning it was 8 ft and 17 seconds. A big swell had moved in yesterday afternoon. Stormsurf stated the swell was remnants from Typhoon Lupit:

"On Monday evening (10/26) the extra tropical remnants of Typhoon Lupit were tracking north-northeast off Japan with a tiny fetch of confirmed 60 kts west winds building in the storms aimed west. It was a fairly intense system, with confirmed winds of 60 kts for nearly 48 hours and a few barbs to 70 kts. That is impressive. Well rideable surf is possible for the Hawaiian Islands for the weekend with decent but inconsistent size for the US West Coast late in the weekend into the week beyond."

From the overlook I saw consistent four to five foot waves at the Channel and Groin, big powerful, rideable lefts with sets over six feet. Warm weather and a well publicized swell on the Internet drew all the Bolinas regulars: Marty, Mary, Doug, Matt, Dan, Russ, Claude, Professor Steve, David who rides a Becker board, Barry the motivational trainer and Yoshi.

I pulled into the parking area at 8:30 am. Mary, Doug, Marty, Dan and Russ had finished their sessions and were at their cars getting out of their wetsuits. Why were they getting out so early? Was the surf lousy? No way, each one of them claimed they caught several great waves and ordered me to get out into the water. So why are they leaving? It was the time change. These dedicated surfers schedule their days by the sun. They entered the water at sunrise, 6:38 am which was 7:30 am on Saturday, and surfed for two hours. I was on clock time arriving at my usual 8:30 am, which was 9:30 am two days ago.

A strong surge from the powerful swell, sand gone from in front of the ramp and the seawalls and a 6 ft high tide had the waves shooting white water up to the top of the ramp. Every wave crashed over the top of the north seawall. The only way to enter the water was to launch oneself between waves at the base of the ramp. I waited for a lull, jumped in and paddled like mad. My timing was good and I didn’t have any problems getting beyond the shore break. Two-foot waves were bouncing off the south seawall send a foot of white water out into the surf.

Even though the peak was a good five hundred yards offshore, the waves were bumpy due to the cross-swell backwash coming from the south seawall. They were also a combination of wind and ground swells. The best waves occurred when the two swells came together. I would catch the wind swell at the top and glide into the larger and more powerful ground swell. My second wave was a good one. The swells had combined, I stroked into the wave, swung left, look down a head high line up, climbed to mid-swell, stepped to the middle of the board and cruised through the first section. The wave was growing in size in front of me. A cross-bump from the backwash caused the wave to leap up into a sharp point and curl over. I had plenty of speed to drive under the white water and to climb back into the swell. On and on I went until I pulled out in the shore break.

Claude was out there having his best session ever at the Channel. He sat way outside waiting for “the big one.” He endured several long waits but he always connected. I sat further north and more inside waiting for the walls that peeled across the inside of the Groin. I got a great view of Claude on a good one. He stroked into a sizeable wave right at the apex of the peak. He dropped down an overhead face, disappeared behind the wall of water for a few seconds and then popped out on the shoulder. He stalled for an instant to let the wave build up and then turned sharply left again into a fast section. All I saw was his back as he sailed along a feathering curl. It was a great ride.

After a while, Barry the motivational trainer paddled out to join Claude at the outside peak. A big set approached. I contemplated taking the first one, but I saw Barry was paddling for it. Even though he was a good twenty yards away from me, I backed off. With waves this powerful one could easily travel twenty yards in an instant. I turned to paddle over the wave. Just before I pushed the nose of my board through the wave, I caught a glimpse of Barry at the base of the wave, standing straight up as a green wall feathered two feet over his head. Barry straightened out and rode out the white water of one of the largest waves of the morning.

As I wrote this I was sitting on a sand dune at Stinson Beach watching a couple of short boarders challenging this big swell. They would scream down these overhead glassy green walls and dive into the waves as curtains of white water would cover them up. It was just another incredible, sunny, warm, beautiful Marin fall day.