May 12, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
10:00 am to 11:15 am	1' to 3', no sets
Mid upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Partially sunny with a high fog	Exercise session

Exercise only session, I knew that when I was suiting up. In little over an hour, I enter the water at the Ramp, paddled over to the Channel, caught a few small waves and paddled back, end of story.

This morning’s buoy readings predicted the same surf conditions as a week ago Wednesday, the last time I was in the water: small 6 ft NW swell at eight seconds, no south swell, 10 knot NW wind, 50 degree water and low tide. Even though the tide was coming up, it would still be low and I anticipated a wide flat beach with small walls for waves and I was right.

“Marty, why are you getting out so soon?” He exited the water while I was taking pictures of the conditions.

“I committed to help a friend who is recovering from an operation today at noon.” Good for him, that’s an example of doing something positive with one’s retirement time. Marty claimed he got a couple of decent rides. I helped him gather a water sample for the Surfrider water-testing program and off he went.

Why did I go out? I hadn’t been out in a week and I needed some exercise, besides surfers need to keep their arms in shape for when the waves do get good. But mainly I went out because it was a beautiful sunny morning and the water looked inviting. The weather was changing. Strong NW winds, cold air and rains were in control the past two weeks. Monday I didn’t leave the house due to rain. Today, a high pressure was finally pushing the low pressure out and we were in for a few days of sunshine and no wind. I had to go out to enjoy the return of the sun and warm air.

Marty was right, the waves were better than they looked. The upcoming tide had improved the shape of the waves. I managed to connect on one good left, one good right wave and couple of so-so lefts. Between sets Jeff the Dillon Beach boat mechanic who was also out at the Channel told me that the waves were bigger yesterday. He went out at Dillon and was out there for 45 minutes when the waves began to pick up. Soon he was duck diving under huge eight-foot crunchers that were coming in one after another. He wasn’t comfortable being out there alone in those big waves. He finally took off on a huge wall, went straight off, laid down on his board, rode the white water to shore and called it a day. He had gone out with a kayaker who quickly disappeared. Jeff had no idea where he went; he could be at the bottom of the sea for all he knew.

After my session, Dexter told me about the great waves he got yesterday at Palomarin. For over an hour he was the only one out and had these beautiful head-high barrels coming through mid-break, between the point and the rock. He had his hopes up for a repeat session this morning. He got up before daylight, hiked down the cliff in the dark (believe me, this is a goat trail), and was sitting on the beach (which is nothing but piles of small pebbles) at first light. When dawn broke the waves were tiny, a NW wind roared and white caps were everywhere. So he hiked back up the cliff, returned to Bolinas, and after the great session he had yesterday he could not bring himself to go out into the lousy Bolinas waves.

So why was I entering the water at 10 am? This morning I gathered water samples for Surfrider’s water testing program, took pictures of surf conditions and shot the breeze with friends before finally going out. The low tide makes taking water samples at the Southern Marin Sewage Agency plant at Bay Front Park in Mill Valley a challenge. The canals were nearly empty with only a trickle of water in the middle and quicksand like mud on the sides. I had to scout around for an accessible pool of water left over from the high tide and I only found one. To get my second sample (we always take two at Bay Front Park), I crawled over moss and mud covered boulders next to a water gate. I was lucky I didn’t break a leg slipping on one of those rocks. At Stinson Beach, I waded out up to my knees to take a sample. I ran into Scott, the chairman of Surfrider Marin, and we chatted about Surfrider events for ten to fifteen minutes. At Bolinas I took some photos and shot the breeze with Marty and Frank the standup guy before finally suiting up to go out. So you see how easy it was to shoot a couple of hours before getting into the water. But it was fun.