June 30, 2010 Wednesday

Bolinas	Channel
9:00 am to 10:30 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Low upcoming tide	Offshore breeze to fierce NW wind
Bright sunny day	So - so session

Frank the standup guy came paddling by as I sat between sets at the peak half way between the Groin and the Channel. When I first came down to the beach to take pictures Frank was all by himself beyond the outside rock at the Patch. When I returned after suiting up to go out, he was all by himself at the furthest peak at the Channel, right where the outflow from the lagoon collided with the incoming swells.

“Frank how is it over there?” I had been watching the Channel and seeing what looked like nice small rideable waves.

“Not so good. Have you ever had your skeg hit the sand?”

“Frank, then it’s too shallow right?” I arrived at Bolinas just at the turn of a minus low tide.

Frank took up standup surfing a few months ago and this morning was the first time he had experienced surfing in shallow water. He was sailing along on a small wave when his skeg hit the sand and sent him flying. We both agreed that it was not a good idea to be on a large standup board in one foot of water.

I had no expectations of waves this morning. Per the Internet conditions were: 5 ft NW swell at 10 seconds, 1 ft south swell at 14 seconds, 21 knot NW winds and 53 degree water. From shore I noticed a new finger of sand extending out some twenty yards on the north edge of the out-flowing water of the channel. This feature created small “classic” fast peeling one-foot high left waves. With the tide coming in and a little deeper water these ripples could become rideable two to three-foot curls.

From mid-peak I watched another set of good-looking waves come through the Channel. I had to check this out. I rode a small right wave in and walked in waist high water to the Channel. I could see the finger of sand up on the shore and I followed it out to the break. My strategy was to find the edge of the peak that would give me an instant to jump up and position in the wave. I never found it. On my first wave I stood in chest high water, saw a swell coming, turned and jumped onto my board. I stroked into it, remained laying down, turned nearly parallel to the wave and shot down a two-foot curl on my belly until the wave broke over me. I walked out to the start of the white water to try it again. I jumped on my board and paddled out a little further, not far, and jumped off to test the depth of the water; it was over-head. The finger of sand ended and a cliff under the water began. I moved in ten feet and tested the depth again; it was chest-high this time. I was getting the picture: ocean swells came in, combined with small wind swells, and would slam into a wall of shallow sand, jump up and come over hard.

These waves reminded me of the Sandspit in Santa Barbara. The opening of the Santa Barbara Harbor has a sand bank on the north side of the main channel where small waves peel perfectly to the right. Ocean swells travel through a deep channel, hit the shallow sand bank, jump up and peel right along the contour of the bank. This place was best in big swells. When Rincon was ten feet, the Sandspit was a perfect three feet. I surfed there once when I was a student at UCSB, forty-five years ago. I remembered the waves were difficult to catch and position, but once locked in I rode for a long ways on perfect two-foot curls.

Noting all of this I paddled further out determined to only go for the bigger waves. One came; I took off, jumped up, turned, cut down the face as it collapsed in front of me. It was a head-high boomer that bounced me good. Later I connected on a decent wall. I stroked into a four-footer, got into it early and was up when I dropped down the face. I managed to climb high in the curl and hum across a steep face. After the initial break these waves diminished in size. I was cruising along a now two-foot face when the bottom dropped out and the sand appeared. Today the water was crystal clear. While locked in this fast curl, the wave jumped up, water sucked up into the curl and big grain sand appeared in three inches of water. I panicked and fell off the front side of my board, something you should never do. One should always fall into the wave. I flopped into three-inches of water and landed on my back. I was lucky that my board didn’t hit me.

I caught a couple more and then the surf died. I paddle back over to the Groin and caught one good one that took me near the Groin wall, a perfect wave to go in on.

“Big south swell coming this Sunday.” Russ greeted me as he was putting his standup board in his truck. “Seven feet at seventeen seconds. But Sunday is the Fourth of July. You coming out this Sunday?”

“No! They close the road on the Fourth. It’s the town’s big party. That’s when they have the Bolinas – Stinson Beach tug-of-war.”

“But if you come early, like at six-thirty.” Russ was trying to convince himself that it would be ok to surf on Sunday.

“Russ, every beach in Northern California will be crowded on Sunday. Everybody heads to the beach on the Fourth to set off those over-priced Red Devil fireworks.”

“Monday then. The swell will still be strong on Monday. But come early.” Russ jumped into his truck and started the engine.

“Good I’ll see you on Monday.”