September 24, 2010 Friday

Bolinas	Channel
8:40 am to 11:00 am	1' to 3', occasional 4'
Low upcoming tide	No wind, zero, zip, nada!
Bright sunny day, heat wave	Fun session due to the weather

Here it was the third day of fall and summer had finally arrived; bright sunshine, warm water and glassy conditions, I loved it. The beautiful day and crystal clear water were the story for today. The waves were small and weak but due to the sunny weather and an ocean surface of glass we had to go out. The buoys reported 3’ to 4’ NW swell at 14 seconds. Stormsurf was predicting that the first Gulf of Alaska swell of the season would arrive this afternoon. The swell would build over the weekend and peak on Monday at 10 ft at 14 seconds. I had hoped that the swell might arrive a little earlier, but it didn’t happen.

I paddled out at the Groin peak to join David who rides the Becker board, Marty, Martha and Mark the archaeologist. The lefts were small, difficult to catch and had no force. I started eyeing the rights on the Seadrift side of the Channel. Two surfers were there and one of them aggressively paddled on his knees. That must be Jimmy the Stinson carpenter turned artist. I drifted towards the Channel and so did Mark and David. Soon the three of us were at the apex of the Channel peak where we could go right or left. It didn’t make any difference because it was slow in both directions. We drifted further south and mingled with the other two. Yes it was Jimmy and he managed to catch all the decent right waves.

At first I was frustrated with the rights. I had to wait until the waves were breaking to catch them. I would drop to the bottom, lose all my momentum, turn right and the waves had already broken several feet in front of me. To get a decent ride I had to paddle at an angle, get into the wave early, jump up quick and cut to the right before dropping to the bottom. I finally connected when I decided to sit way outside and wait for the sets. The smaller waves were too slow and no fun. A set approached, knowing that the sets usually had four to five waves, I let the first wave go and paddled further out. The second wave looked good but I could see a bigger one beyond it. I went for that one. Good move. A perfectly shaped four-foot right wave formed in front of me. I was on the edge between the initial peak and a long shoulder. I stroked into it, cut right, dropped mid-way down the face, cruised through the first section, cut-back to push into a reforming wave, turned right again and trimmed across a fast inside face. It was my best ride of the day.

The water was crystal clear on the inside curl; so clear that I could not see the swell. All I saw was the ripples of sand across the bottom. It was an eerie sensation to be moving along and not see the wave. I had not had this sensation since surfing at Tavarua in Fiji ten years ago. At Cloudbreak the waves break over an open ocean coral reef that have no sand and thus nothing is suspended in the water and it’s crystal clear. I remember riding four-foot waves there where I could not see the faces of the waves; all I saw was coral and small tropical fish darting ahead of me. Here I was this morning again cruising along and only seeing the rippled sand pattern on the bottom. Everyone this morning marveled at the clarity of the water. Sitting outside we could look down five to six feet and clearly see crushed seashells, empty crab shells and starfish sitting on the sand bottom. The ripple pattern on the bottom was the same pattern one sees on the beach after a big wind, the Lawrence of Arabia effect.

Martha pointed out that the topography of the beach had changed. The sand had moved. The Groin wall was buried from the base of the cliff to the water’s edge. Across the entire beach was an embankment, a five-foot slope from the top to the bottom. The ocean currents had moved around an incredible amount of sand. The lower third of the ramp was covered. Last January all the concrete and the steel rebar that supports it were exposed. And two years ago so much sand had washed out to sea that water from the lagoon flowed under the Groin wall. But today, everything was buried.

The waves were so-so, but the bright sunshine, glassy surface, crystal clear water and sand patterns made for another interesting morning at the beach.