December 9, 2010 Thursday

Bolinas	Groin
9:40 am to 10:50 am	Consistent 4' to 5', sets overhead
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
High patchy clouds and high fog	Good session

Selectivity was the theme for today. Selectivity as in –

“How was it?”

“I got some great waves but I was highly selective.”

The waves were big, powerful, rough and raw. A big swell arrived yesterday, peaked this morning and would be gone by tomorrow. Per the San Francisco buoy the swell was 11 ft at 14 seconds, out of the NW. Stormsurf called it “raw,” meaning bumpy and not clean, and they were right. The ocean was rough, and there were peaks every few feet with steep wind swells on top of the NW ground swells. The weather system that bought in the swells also bought the rain.

“Are you going to the beach this morning? You know that it is raining.” Kate pointed out the raindrops on the skylight in our bedroom at 6:30 am.

“The weather forecast predicted no rain for today, and besides the weather can be entirely different on the other side of the mountain.”

“You’re an optimist.” Yes I am and fortunately I was correct. The rain cleared up as soon as I drove over the ridge at Pantoll and descended down the mountain to Stinson Beach.

Marty was suited up as I pulled into the parking area on Brighton Ave. With camera in hand I accompanied him down to the beach. Marty had decided to go out at the Patch. Twenty surfers were spread across the Channel and the Groin. The waves were big and walled. Six surfers were out at the Patch. The waves broke all over the place, the surface was rough, and the sets were infrequent with no consistent peak. But the inside rights did look good. Marty continued onto the Patch and I went up to the overlook for a better view of the Groin. The waves were cleaner there, definitely peeling left with the north edge of the peak looking like the best spot. Half the crowd was there while all the aggressive short boarders were at the apex of the Channel peak. They screamed down these overhead bombs that always closed out in front of them. The Groin was the call today.

Walking back to the car I met Jeff from Mill Valley who was changing out of his wetsuit. He had gone out at the Patch and caught several good waves. After awhile it became “funky” so he moved inside and over to the peak just north of the ramp. Waves have not broken there in months. To his surprise Jeff got some good fast curls.

I stood in waist high water at the Groin waiting for a set to pass before paddling out. The waves were intimidating. But once through the shore break I could paddle around the peak to the line-up. I did not recognize anyone in the water, which was more proof that this was a big swell. Ocean Beach, Salmon Creek and Dillon Beach must be closed out and thus everyone has come here.

The incoming swells had a ton of water in them. I paddled for one and barely missed it, but I was able to look over the edge and down the line, it was steep. I caught the next one. I had moved closer to the nose when paddling to get more weight forward to push into the wave. It worked. I hung at the top of the wave for a second and then dropped down a head-high face. The wave was fast and had considerable force behind it. I screamed down the line, the wave folded over in front of me, I plowed into the white water and then straightened out. On my second wave, I again dropped down a steep face, turned at the bottom, froze to cruise along the bottom of a fast breaking wave, stalled an instant and dropped into a four-foot shore break. I stepped to the nose and pushed it under water as the wave collapsed on the sand. What a trilling ride. I paddled back out and managed to connect on three more.

With these powerful waves and the tons of white water they produced, paddling out had it challenges. The strategy for getting back outside was to paddle north and out to go around the peak. Easier said than done. After one ride I was near the Groin pole as a big set of waves was coming in. I quickly started paddling north but a sizeable shore break wall was feathering in front of me. It was breaking at the top as I was beginning to paddle up the face. I attempted one of my half-ass longboard duck dives. I moved my body to the front of the board, put my head down over the nose, pushed it under the white water sliding down from the top of the wave and hung on. The wave picked me up and threw me over. I felt and heard a “creak” in my neck as the wave whipped my head out of its tucked position to a straight up vertical position. It lifted up my board, tumbled me completely over and pushed towards the shore. Later on I was paddling out when another big set came through. A close to shore four-foot wall broke in front of me. This time I did a turtle roll. I rolled over, hung on tightly to the nose of the board and waited for the impact of the wave. It picked up the board and flipped it over pulling me out of the water as I hung on. I felt something pull in my left shoulder. Later while driving home, I was nursing a stiff neck and a sore shoulder.

Near the end of my session I went through a twenty-minute lull, not due to the waves, they were still coming through, but due to the crowd and the size of the waves. Several large sets came through that did not look makeable. I couldn’t believe the amount of water in these walls. Nobody else went for them either. Everyone, including me, paddled around for position thinking about going for one but in the end made the rational decision to let them go. Finally a smaller well-formed wall came through. I stroked into it and dropped down an overhead face. It was fast. I climbed to mid-swell and hung on. A short boarder took off ten yards in front of me. With the speed of this wave I easily caught up to him. He was about to cutback, I whistled at him to let him know I was there and he didn’t do it. We both sped down this steep curl until the wave started to come over with force. The short boarder kicked out and I straightened out. The wave was still head-high when I turned. In that instance I decided to go in. With the force of this wave I rode the soup all the way to shore.

As I told everyone after my session, I got some great rides, but I was selective.