May 20, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Channel and Groin
10:00 am to noon	3' to 4', sets overhead
Low upcoming tide	Slight onshore breeze
Overcast with high fog	Great session

I had high expectations for surf this morning. Stormsurf.com had tracked swell #1S (meaning first major south swell of the season) for over a week and predicted it would arrive Wednesday (5/18) at 2 ft at 20 seconds, build to 4.5 ft at 20 seconds Thursday and drop slightly to 3 ft at 20 seconds for today. The San Francisco buoy confirmed Stormsurf’s prediction: 7 ft at 15 seconds, a combination of a 4 ft west wind swell mixed with a 3 ft south swell (180 degrees) at 20 seconds and a 10 knot wind. Only negative was the minus tide at 8:30 am. My strategy was to wait an hour to let the tide turn. The surf would be better with an incoming tide.

All the parking places along Brighton Ave were taken when I arrived at Bolinas. The Internet at work again, the swell data was out and the crowd was in. Russ and Frank, the standup guys, had just completed their sessions. They reported that the surf was better earlier and with the tide going out the waves had died. Doug and Creighton had just exited the water and gave me the same report. There was a strong under lying swell but the waves were bumpy and mushy. The crowd was out at the Patch, including Marty, David who rides the Becker board, Robert the Terra Linda carpenter and Mark the archaeologist. The minus tide had exposed all the rocks of the Patch reef, and the waves were slow and infrequent.

I walked down to the Groin with my camera in hand. I had attached the big 400 mm lens that Jacek had loaned to me a couple of weeks ago. Hank, Cazardero Cathy and Laura were just finishing their sessions. Hank had the same report as the others. He had high expectations for today but was disappointed. The set waves were sizeable but were slow and crumbly. Martha was at the peak just south of the Groin wall while three others were out at the Channel. The waves at the Channel were hard breaking peeling lefts that were breaking a little too fast. These guys flew down these walls and were then buried in white water. I noted that they struggled to get back outside due to the force of the incoming waves. Martha on the other hand had it figured out. She was selective, patiently waiting for waves with an edge. I watched her drop down three fast breaking lefts and make all three of them. After each one, she quickly paddled north to get around the impact zone and thus had no problems getting back outside. That’s her in the above photo on the last of her good waves.

I paddled out at the Groin peak to join Martha and followed her pattern of going around the impact zone after each wave. Just as I predicted the waves improved as the tide came in, and the peak half way between the Channel and the Groin filled in forming these ideal fast high in the curl lefts. I connected on one long fast ride after another. After awhile, Martha left and David had paddled over from the Patch to join me. For an hour, David and I dominated this peak. Soon I was feeling it in my arms, thus to conserve energy I paddled outside, waited for the sets and only went for the biggest waves of each set. This strategy worked, the shape of the bottom and the deeper water from the upcoming tide forced all waves to peel to the left. I would paddle at angle, jump up early, sharply cut left before dropping down the face, stay high in the curl, step to the middle of the board, lock the inside rail just below the lip of the curl, lean into the wave, crouch down and sail down the line.

After two hours the sun finally broke through the clouds, the onshore wind picked up and my arms were spent. Time to give it up, I rode one to the shore and went on in. After that great session I took a long, well deserved nap later that afternoon.