March 4, 2010 Thursday

Bolinas	Mid-way between the Ramp and the Patch
9:00 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4', sets to 5'
Low upcoming tide	Cross breeze to no wind to cross wind
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

Today was a break in the weather; one sunny beautiful day between rain storms. From reading weather predictions, I guessed that today would be my only chance for waves for several days. Tomorrow a big front would arrive that would last through Sunday. Surf indicators looked OK: 10 ft north swell at 12 seconds, low upcoming tide and wind out of the north at 15 knots. From the top of the Panoramic Highway I saw white caps far out to sea, but Bolinas was calm due to being in the wind shadow of the Bolinas Ridge.

Thinking the same as me, several of the regulars were there: Doug, Jim the jazz guitarist, Marty, David who rides the Becker board, Matt, Robert the Larkspur now Terra Linda carpenter (he moved), Creighton and later in the morning Captain Kip.

I ran into Creighton as I was heading to go out. Talk about dawn patrol. I was beginning my session and his was over. He told me he entered the water at 6:20 am (sunrise was 6:37 am) and was the only one out. Four others joined him as the sun rose over the ridge.

It was a cold Marin in the forties morning. Robert talked about frost on the houses in Terra Linda, Matt mentioned ice on the roofs in Santa Rose, and Marty kept an eye out for black ice on Sir Frances Drake through Samuel P Taylor Park. Fortunately the sun broke through the clouds and quickly warmed things up.

The crowd was at a new peak this morning mid-way between the Ramp and the Patch in front of the north seawall, the one with all the graffiti on it. The water was rough and the waves consisted of wind swells on top of small ground swells. The wind swells were close together and frequent, making it difficult to distinguish between the wind swell – ground swell combinations and plain wind swells. The combined swell waves could turn into decent rides, but the plain wind swell waves resulted in brief suck-out walls. The above photo is David on one of the better combination swell waves of the morning. The peak moved with the incoming tide; first it drifted to the north, then to the south and after another hour back to the north. The wind also shifted. The morning started with a stiff north cross-breeze, then it died creating a brief period of glassy conditions and finally shifted back to a strong north wind when we exited the water.

We surfers would never admit that we wasted our time, but this morning was close to it. All of us claimed we had good sessions. We got wet, got in some good exercise, enjoyed another beautiful Marin morning and connected with others who also enjoy the waves and the natural beauty of the California coast.