June 10, 2011 Friday

Bolinas	Channel & Groin
9:30 am to 10:50 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
Mid dropping tide	Onshore west wind
Sunny with high clouds and fog on the horizon	Frustrating - exercise session

The weather guys had forecasted that Thursday (yesterday) would be the warmest day of the week and Stormsurf had predicted that the good south swell that I rode Wednesday would peak on Thursday. Thus with the warmest day and the peak of the swell, Thursday was the day to go surfing. My son Kevin and I agreed to meet early at Kelly Cove, the north end of Ocean Beach. Based on conditions we would decide to surf there or push on south to Linda Mar. Ocean Beach is not my favorite spot, in fact I hate it. But with the right conditions it can get good for longboards. Well the weather didn’t cooperate, our June gloom of overcast, fog, wind, chop and white caps had returned. Kevin and I made a quick executive decision to have breakfast at Java Beach (located at the end of Judah Street) and not waste our time chasing waves at Linda Mar, Montara, Kelly Avenue or points further south. Kevin had to go to work and didn’t have much time. What a good decision. Kevin had just attended a three-day conference on Computer Architecture, a conference he attends every year. Thus he gave me an interesting update on the current trends in computer design.

This morning I had high hopes of catching the end of the south swell. What a disappointment. The swell was gone and the west wind and NW wind swells had returned. Since the weather was warm and sunny, I decided to go out anyway. When I arrived at Bolinas and before I could suit up, all my friends had exited the water and were leaving. Jeff the contractor was toweling off. He had surfed the Channel and said it was ok, earlier. Doug and Jim the jazz guitarist were loading up Doug’s truck to leave. They went out at Seadrift, two houses in, and caught some good ones, earlier. Creighton had just put his board into the back of his truck and reported that Seadrift had some decent waves, earlier. When I returned from taking some photos Mary was putting away her board to go home. She had surfed the Patch and said it was better earlier and that now the waves had died.

Five surfers, who I did not recognize, were out at the Groin and the Channel when I walked down there to take some pictures. The waves looked like they had some potential. A few small fast, peeling lefts came through when I arrived at the Groin wall. One young longboarder was extremely good. He would run to the nose on every wave. Perfectly flat, mushy little crumblers and he would be hanging five as the wave broke in one foot of water. That’s him in the above photo.

I had a frustrating one-hour and twenty-minute session. The waves were difficult to catch and by the time I stood up they had collapsed in front of me. With the tide going out, I had to paddle against the current pouring out of the lagoon. It was like running on a thread mill. I would paddle hard and remain stationary. I didn’t move forward until the wave would pick me up. It was almost impossible to drop into them. My best ride I took lying down; I didn’t want to waste any time trying to stand up. I caught the wave, remained laying down, cut left, shifted my weight forward, ducked under the lip of the curl and flew out onto the shoulder. There I jumped to my knees and cruised until the wave closed out. I tried lying down on a larger wave and got clobbered. I cut left and leaned into the curl to gain speed. The wave jumped up, my inside rail dug into the curl, I hung on tight to my board and was sucked up the face and dumped into a ton of churning white water. I was lucky that my board didn’t hit me.

Just for exercise I paddled from the Groin to the ramp and called it a day. Despite the small waves and frustrating rides, it was worth it. What a beautiful morning: bright sunshine, warm air and water, seals swimming into the lagoon, pelicans diving for fish beyond the breakers and me with the satisfaction of another vigorous workout.