December 7, 2009 Monday

Bolinas	Groin
9:30 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', sets to 4'
Low tide (2.6 ft)	Slight offshore breeze
Sunny, high clouds and cold	Fun session

As I drove by the post office on Brighton Ave this morning, I passed Jeff the Bolinas local walking down the road. He waved and gave me the thumbs up. I saw Mary, Russ and Hans’ cars parked by the tennis court with their boards gone. They were out at the Patch. Professor Steve was suiting up. All good signs that there were waves. I had serious doubts about getting any waves today. Surfrider Foundation’s water testing program got me here this morning. I had to collect water samples and drive them to the Branson School. The San Francisco buoy reported four-foot swells at 16 seconds with a slight breeze, nothing spectacular. The weather had just changed, a cold front moved in yesterday bringing light rains. All the weather guys reported more rain and south winds for today with a bigger storm to arrive Wednesday and to last through Friday. NOAA weather radio predicted a big swell with this storm. The Chronicle had a brief article last Friday stating that they might call the Mavericks contest for Tuesday. The contestants were going to vote on it Sunday.

But when I drove over the ridge at Pan Toll, I broke out of the clouds into this beautiful panoramic view of the Stinson-Bolinas bay and the ocean: the sun was shinning, the sky was clear and blue and the sea surface was smooth. The Farallon Islands stuck out on the horizon and Point Reyes could be seen from the ridge. From the seawall at Bolinas I watched two surfers connect on some long decent left curls at the Groin. In the above photo, this guy caught the wave out where the other wave was breaking and rode a continuous clean shoulder all the way to the inside where I snapped this shot. Four were out at the Patch getting some decent rides. Conditions looked good. Knee-high curls, my kind of waves, plus I figured I had to go out this morning because the big storm was coming.

I paddled out to join Professor Steve and two others. The ebb tide current was pushing us out and to the north, thus we had to keep correcting our positions. The waves were ground swells that stretch across the impact zone, but the sand build up on the bottom forced all the waves to break to the left. They were difficult to catch. After missing two in a row, I connected on a three-foot wall as it was breaking. I thought it was going to close out in front of me, but it didn’t, it held up. I shot down a fast section, cut back to let the wave build up and turned into a fast shore break. It was a good ride. Paddling out I got a glimpse of one of the others on a good one. This guy was riding a thick soft-top sponge board, the type all the surf schools use for beginners. But he was no beginner. He stroked into a good looking three-foot curl, pushed himself over the edge, turned left, crouched down in the middle of the board and hummed through a clean section. The wave continued to build. He stepped closer to the nose, crouched down again and with spray flying from the thick nose plowing through the water he cruised through another beautiful section.

For an hour I managed to catch several good small curls. The morning was incredibly beautiful. Yesterday’s rains had cleared the air, big fluffy clouds hovered over the mountain and the air was crisp. Despite the beauty it was cold. After an hour my toes were numb. A basic surfer formula kicked in:

Cold water + Cold air = Really cold.

The NOAA buoy reported water temperature of 52 degrees, cold but normal. Per Pete the coffee stand guy Bolinas was 37 degrees this morning. Professor Steve had seen a dusting of snow on the ridge from his house this morning. He said this while showing me a hole in the seam of his wetsuit, time for a new one. But the sunshine, clouds and the beautiful little waves made the pain of the cold all worthwhile.